[ARETE] Sport and Society - A Constant in Sport (corrected verstion

[richard crepeau]

Sport and Society for Arete

July 23, 2023



The mid-summer glamor events are now history. Wimbledon offered two record-setting championship runs. The All-Star Game was one of the more exciting in recent history, as it opened with two excellent catches by the corner outfielders, both Cubans, who had once roomed together. It ended with a tight finish and the winning home run was hit by a player, not a household name, who blossomed relatively late in his career. The Open also provided some golf excellence as it always does, even though it was without a dramatic finish.

In the last few weeks, College sports, as it often does, provided its usual array of scandals and excesses. The University of Tennessee has been fined $8M by the NCAA for making excessive payments to those previously known as student athletes who they were recruiting to bring fame and glory to the mountains of eastern Tennessee. “Impermissible meals and hotel rooms,” cash payments to recruits, cash payments to parents of recruits, all were listed among the violations.

The fine of $8M was arrived at by calculating the expected payouts to Tennessee from bowl appearances they might get from the success resulting from the illegal recruiting process. Such wonderful logic. The fine will serve to avoid punishing current student athletes not implicated in the illegal activities that occurred several years ago. That seems fair and underlines the fact that current athletes can collect NIL money rather than under-the-table-payments. This might be considered a case of eliminating the middleman.

One of the more interesting “scandals” currently playing out involves Bob Huggins, who at this point may or may not be the Head Basketball Coach at West Virginia University. In May, Huggins was suspended for homophobic and anti-Catholic comments in a radio interview, had his pay docked, and was required to undergo sensitivity training. In June, he was charged with DUI. This led to his “resignation” that may or may not have happened. To complicate matters, an interim coach was hired.

West Virginia University might have avoided all this by not hiring Huggins in the first place. Huggins had alcohol issues over the years, including a 2004 DUI that contributed to his departure from the University of Cincinnati. His vocabulary was among the most “colorful” on the sidelines during games, and no one should have been surprised that this too would lead to trouble. Now it has.

Another old issue in college and high school sports has resurfaced. Several years ago, a wave of incidents of “hazing” made headlines across high school and college athletic programs. At least one case involved a death. After considerable pressure and punishment, it seemed as though this practice had been eliminated, or at least toned down considerably.

This past week the issue has resurfaced at one of the nation’s leading academic institutions, Northwestern University, noted more for its academic than athletic prowess. The football coach was initially suspended following an investigation of charges that hazing had occurred in the football program. The university initially reported that there was insufficient evidence to concluded that the football coaching staff was aware of the hazing. After the student newspaper published the testimony of the football player who brought the charges, the head coach was fired.

The university president said that he may have erred in weighing the evidence by focusing on what the coach didn’t know, rather than what he should have known. The ex-coach promises legal action. Two more players have now sued the university charging the football coaches with condoning hazing and indifference to their complaints. One of the defendants in the suits is the current Commissioner of the ACC. Subsequent charges have indicated that hazing was not confined to the football program.

All of this should serve as a reminder that regardless of the uplifting character of sport, it involves humans not saints.

On Sport and Society this is Dick Crepeau reminding you that you don’t have to be a good sport to be a bad loser.



Copyright 2023 by Richard C. Crepeau





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