Week 1, January 22: Were things better in the past?
Readings: The College Athlete, by Henry Beech Needham. McClure's Magazine. Part I: June 1905.
Week 2, January 29: American sports before football
Readings: Smith, Chapters I-IV. The College Athlete, by Henry Beech Needham. McClure's Magazine. Part II: July 1905. Kenneth C.Davis,Schools of Hard Knocks, NYT.
Review of sources: Crimson, other newspapers, Presidents' Reports, Sibley's Private Journal
Week 3, February 5: MEET AT HARVARD ARCHIVES, PUSEY LIBRARY. How to do archival research.
Harvard and sports history. Readings: Smith, Chapters V-VII. Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Saints and Their Bodies, Atlantic Monthly, March 1858, 582-595 (skim); Henry Lee Higginson, Remarks at the dedication of Soldiers Field (1890).
Week 4, February 12: Guest: Former Sports Illustrated sporswriter Richard "Dick" Friedman '73. Details to follow.
Readings: Smith, Chapters VII-XI.
(February 19 is Presidents Day. No class.)
Week 5, February 26: Smith, Chapters XII-XV and Epilogue.
Week 6, March 5: Discussion of project ideas.
Reading: Smith, XIII-Epilogue; Young, Part I.
Friday, March 9: Project proposals due
(March 12 is during spring break. No class.)
Week 7, March 19: Special guest: John Powers of the Boston Globe. Interview, recent story.
Readings: The NCAA and the Ivy League. Readings: 1954 Ivy Group Agreement; Ivy League Manual (out of date); Abridged NCAA Manuals.
Week 8, March 26: Money and college sports today. Readings: The Economics of College Sports, Lawrence M. Kahn
Week 9, April 2: Guest: Jim Miller, former director of financial aid at Harvard and former dean of Admissions at Brown, and current member of Harvard admissions staff
Readings: Young, Part II.
Project outline/draft due
Week 10, April 9: Project Reports I
Readings: George Santayana, Philosophy on the Bleachers, Harvard Monthly, vol. 18, no. 5, 1894.
Week 11, April 16: Marathon day!
Week 12, April 23: Project Reports II
Tuesday, May 1, 5:00pm: Projects due