| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 90.1

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to JAH online. About 221 words from this article are provided below; about 389 words remain.

If you are a individual member of the Organization of American Historians, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time.
If you are not a member of the Organization of American Historians, you can:: • Join the OAH and receive many member benefits including print and electronic issues of the Journal of American History.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two-hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of the Journal of American History (86.1-present). Note: the Research Pass does not provide access to JSTOR's holdings of the Journal of American History.
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to this journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 90.1 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Play-by-Play: Radio, Television, and Big-Time College Sport. By Ronald A. Smith. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001. x, 304 pp. $45.00, ISBN 0-8018-6686-3.)

In 1929, after more than a generation of scandals and in the wake of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching report on intercollegiate athletics, the Harvard University historian Albert Bushnell Hart passed his verdict on sport: "The Greeks made it a cult; the English a spectacle; the Americans have made it a business." The sweeping grandeur and simple profundity of Hart's statement forms the spine of Ronald A. Smith's Play-by-Play. Today, of course, we know that college sport played at virtually every level is about business, the dollars and cents of the bottom line. From negotiations between college and television executives about the next national football or basketball contract to arguments over Title IX, it is all about "show me the money." Smith and Hart remind us that, in one form or another since the beginning of intercollegiate athletics in the late 1860s and the 1870s, it has always been about the money. Technology and the sources of the money have changed over the years, but the nature of the college athletic business has not. At the end of the day, the winners and losers are determined by the tally sheet.

. . .

There are about 389 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.