Play-by-Play: Radio, Television, and Big-Time College Sport

Author:   Ronald A. Smith (Professor Emeritus, Pennsylvania State University)
Publisher:   Johns Hopkins University Press
ISBN:  

9780801866869


Pages:   320
Publication Date:   12 March 2001
Recommended Age:   From 17
Format:   Hardback
Availability:   Out of stock   Availability explained
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Play-by-Play: Radio, Television, and Big-Time College Sport


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Overview

"The phenomenal popularity of college athletics owes as much to media coverage of games as it does to drum-beating alumni and frantic undergraduates. Play-by-play broadcasts of big college games began in the 1920s via radio, a medium that left much to the listener's imagination and stoked interest in college football. After World War II, the rise of television brought with it network-NCAA deals that reeked of money and fostered bitter jealousies between have and have-not institutions. In this volume author and sports insider Ronald A. Smith examines the troubled relationship between higher education and the broadcasting industry, the effects of TV revenue on college athletics (notably football), and the odds of achieving meaningful reform. Beginning with the early days of radio, Smith describes the first bowl game broadcasts, the media image of Notre Dame and coach Knute Rockne, and the threat broadcasting seemed to pose to college football attendance. He explores the beginnings of television, the growth of networks, the NCAA decision to control football telecasts, the place of advertising, the role of TV announcers, and the threat of NCAA ""Robin Hoods"" and the College Football Association to NCAA television control. Taking readers behind the scenes, he explains the culture of the college athletic department and reveals the many ways in which broadcasting dollars make friends in the right places. The work is an eye-opening look at the political infighting invariably produced by the deadly combination of university administrators, athletic czars, and huge revenue."

Full Product Details

Author:   Ronald A. Smith (Professor Emeritus, Pennsylvania State University)
Publisher:   Johns Hopkins University Press
Imprint:   Johns Hopkins University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.60cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.635kg
ISBN:  

9780801866869


ISBN 10:   0801866863
Pages:   320
Publication Date:   12 March 2001
Recommended Age:   From 17
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Out of stock   Availability explained
The supplier is temporarily out of stock of this item. It will be ordered for you on backorder and shipped when it becomes available.

Table of Contents

"Contents: Acknowledgments Introduction 1 The Media and Early College Sport 2 Marconi, the Wireless, and Early Sports Broadcasting 3 The Broadcasters 4 Graham McNamee and Ted Husing Dominate the Airwaves 5 The Radio Threat to College 6 In the Image of Rockne: Notre Dame and Radio Policy 7 Radio Goes ""Bowling"": The Rose Bowl Leads the Way 8 Sport and the New Medium of Television 9 Networks, Coaxial Cable, Commercialism, and Concern 10 Notre Dame Chooses Commercial TV 11 Penn Challenges the NCAA and the Ivy League 12 The NCAA Experimental Year and Reactions 13 Networks: The Du Mont Challenge 14 Regional Conferences Challenge a National Policy 15 TV and the Threat of Professional Football 16 Roone Arledge and the Influence of ABC-TV 17 Advertising, Image versus Money, and the Beer Hall Incident 18 The Television Announcer's Role in Football Promotion 19 The Cable Television Dilemma: More May Be Less 20 TV Money, Robin Hood, and the Birth of the NCAA 21 TV Property Rights and a CFA Challenge to the NCAA 22 Oklahoma and Georgia Carry the TV Ball for the CFA Team 23 TV, Home Rule Anarchy, and Conference Realignments 24 Basketball: From Madison Square Garden to a Televised Final Four 25 TV's Unfinished Business: The Division I-A Football Championship Appendix: Radio, TV, and Big-Time College Sport: A Timeline Notes Bibliographical Essay Index"

Reviews

<p>Based on a nearly exhaustive investigation into the primary sources, including some fifty archives, ... Smith's research makes abundantly clear that the presidents and athletic departments of America's leading education institutions have consistently tried to use the media -- newspaper, radio, and television -- for their own gain.--Randy Roberts Journal of American History


<p>No one knows more than Ronald A. Smith about the history of intercollegiate sports in the United States... [ Play-by-Play ] offers an extraordinarily detailed historical examination of the relationship among top-flight college sports (principally football), the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), and television.--Warren Goldstein American Historical Review


<p> A well-researched, historical analysis... Provides an often troubling account of the corruptive power of money, broken promises, misguided priorities, crushed dreams and academic compromises. Not exactly uplifting stuff, but required reading for anyone who wants to gain a greater understanding of why it's too often true that concerns about the records of a university's football and basketball teams seem more important than the quality of a school's faculty or the educating of its students. -- K. Tim Wulfemeyer, Journalism and Mass Communication Educator


Author Information

Ronald A. Smith is a professor emeritus at Penn State University and has held the position of Secretary-Treasurer of the North American Society for Sport History since 1972. His many books include Big-Time Football at Harvard, 1905; Sports and Freedom: The Rise of Big-Time College Athletics; and Saga of American Sport.

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