The Origins of School Sports: Capitalism, Racism, and Patriarchy

• In Event: Cultural and Contextual Influences at the Intersection of Education and Sport: Obstacles or Opportunities?

Abstract

College sports remain in flux as possible player unionization and multiple court cases threaten the governing principle amateurism. The research informing this movement assumes capitalism drives intercollegiate athletics (Clotfelter, 2011; Smith, 2011; Sperber, 2000). Yet framing college sports’ problems as capitalist leads to a narrow set of solutions like paying athletes or eliminating sports (Bowen, 2014; Wilbon, 2011). To better understand current student-athlete educational issues, I employ an intersectional framework (Crenshaw 1991) to examine intercollegiate athletics’ origins and reveal why materialistic explanations alone are inadequate. Instead, I illuminate the raced/gendered nature college sports and consider their connections to capitalism. Finally, I assess Title IX’s limitations as a model for why future change must address the multiple forms of disenfranchisement simultaneously.

Author

• Kirsten Michelle Hextrum, University of California - Berkeley