Stagg's University: The Rise, Decline, and Fall of Big-Time Football at ChicagoUniversity of Illinois Press, 1999 - 344 pages For this first case study of college football by a social historian, Lester has brought life to the story of a university football program that had an unusual beginning, a glorious middle, and a unique and inglorious conclusion. The nation's first tenured coach and the most creative and entrepreneurial of all college coaches from the 1890s to the 1920s, Amos Alonzo Stagg headed a program marked by creation of the lettermans club and by the dominant use of the forward pass, of jersey numbers, and of the collegiate modern T formation. Stagg, who had been an all-American football player at Yale University, joined the company of nine former college or seminary presidents and academic notables including John Dewey, Thorstein Veblen, and Albert Michelson when he was named associate professor of physical culture and coach of the football team at the University of Chicago in 1892. Within fifteen years the charismatic Stagg had developed a program so powerful that more Americans knew of it than of the physics experiments of Michelson, who in 1907 became the first U.S. citizen to win the Nobel Prize. The logical commercial trail established by Stagg and University President William Rainey Harper helped change football into a mass entertainment industry on American campuses. This fascinating look at the birth of bigtime college sport shows how today s gridiron glory and scandal were prefigured in Chicago s football industry of the early twentieth century, presided over by the brilliant, combative, saintly, but very human Amos Alonzo Stagg. |
Contents
William Rainey Harper | 1 |
The Rise of the Spectator the Coach and | 32 |
Footballs Year of Trial and Triumph 19056 | 67 |
Intercollegiate Football as | 92 |
The Decline 192538 | 125 |
The Fall 1939 | 164 |
Other editions - View all
Stagg's University: The Rise, Decline, and Fall of Big-time Football at Chicago Robin Lester No preview available - 1995 |
Stagg's University: The Rise, Decline, and Fall of Big-Time Football at Chicago Robin Lester No preview available - 1999 |
Common terms and phrases
academic action activity administration Alonzo alumni American appeared Association athletic attended ball became Board campus Chicago Tribune claimed coach College committee continued course criticism Daily Dame Dean Director early eastern Eckersall Examiner faculty field folder followed four graduate Harold Harper Harvard high school History Hutchins Illinois important included institution Intercollegiate Conference intercollegiate football interest interviews James John Judson July June later letter major March Maroon meeting Michigan Midway Minutes Northwestern noted Nuveen pass period Physical Culture play players position present President Press Princeton Professor proved quarter record recruitment reform regarding representative response Robert rules season Senate Sept Stagg Papers student success Swift Swift Papers trustees University of Chicago University University Walter West western Wisconsin wrote Yale York young
References to this book
Bibliographic information
| Title | Stagg's University: The Rise, Decline, and Fall of Big-Time Football at Chicago Sport and Society Series |
| Author | Robin Lester |
| Edition | illustrated |
| Publisher | University of Illinois Press, 1999 |
| ISBN | 0252067916, 9780252067914 |
| Length | 344 pages |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |