Walter Byers and the NCAA : Power, Amateurism, and Growing Controversy in Big‐Time College Sport. By Smith, Ronald A., Knoxville, TN : University of Tennessee Press, 2025. 320 pp. $24.95 (hardcover). ISBN: 978‐1‐62‐190949‐1
Year: 2025
Type: book-review
Abstract: Ronald A. Smith demonstrates why he is the leading expert on the history of US intercollegiate sport.Like Smith's previous 10 books, Walter Byers and the NCAA is distinguished by extensive archival research, incisive critiques of institutions, and timely connections between the storied past of intercollegiate athletics and its turbulent present.The contribution of this book to Smith's oeuvre is the portrait of Byers, who as executive director from 1951 to 1987 was the NCAA's biggest advocate, but in his retirement became one of college sport's biggest critics.By untangling that contradiction, Smith provides valuable scholarship for researchers and teachers of college sports history and administration alike.
Source: The Journal of Popular Culture
DOI: 10.1111/jpcu.70051
Author: Cam Mallett
Institution: Pennsylvania State University
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4417423402
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