Out of Bounds: How the American Sport Establishment Is Being Driven by Greed Hypocrisy-And What Need to Be Done About It

Out of Bounds: How the American Sport Establishment Is Being Driven by Greed Hypocrisy-And What Need to Be Done About It

A veteran of the NBA makes a plea for reform of a corrupt sports establishment that promotes profitable sports at the expense of general fitness for millions of ordinary young Americans, neglects women's sports, and cheats Olympic athletes. 25,000 first printing. Tour. McMillen, a U.S. Congressman from Maryland and former all-American basketball player, has written a book that is sad to read--not just because of the degeneration and decay of college athletics it describes, but because the circumstances it portrays have made the book necessary. It offers a litany of the abuse endemic in big-time college athletics today. Football and men's basketball are the primary culprits, but the process of recruitment, academic eligibility, and big-money television are also responsible for the contradictory term "student-athlete." Who is responsible for the burlesque McMillen describes? There are plenty of targets: television, the NCAA, colleges, coaches, and the athletes themselves. The list of abuses is long and sickening, and McMillen's recommendations may not be enough. This important book should be in most libraries. - William O. Scheeren, Hempfield Area H.S. Lib., Greensburg, Pa. Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. An informed and evenhanded critique of the ``creeping professionalism'' that imperils American sport; by an activist observer with impeccable credentials. Congressman McMillen (Dem., Md.) draws on his own experiences as an all-American basketball player, Rhodes Scholar, Olympian (at the 1972 Games), and 11-year journeyman in the NBA to make a persuasive case against the status quo in domestic athletics. An equal-opportunity faultfinder, he rails against zealous parents who push their kids into Little Leagues as well as against universities more concerned with gate receipts than with academic excellence. Also targeted are importunate recruiters who lure high-school talent with dreams of college glory and pro careers, and the NCAA, which, McMillen says, all too often casts a blind eye on open scandals and tolerates ``shamateurism'' in the interests of megabuck TV deals. The author also examines the national preoccupation with a handful of spectator sports (which levies a toll on physical-fitness programs that could benefit millions of less competitive youngsters); the general neglect of women's sports; and the less-than-generous funding of America's Olympic athletes. Many of McMillen's proposals for curbing the commercially exploitative excesses of a demonstrably corrupt sports establishment are incorporated in a bill he introduced in Congress last July. Here, he suggests grass-roots reforms--from encouraging families to exercise together through integrating student-athletes into the educational as well as social milieus of their universities and creating pathways other than college for young athletes to turn pro. An insider's stinging yet engaging indictment of the entertainment/sport complex, leavened by a sense of perspective-- and optimism. (Twelve b&w photographs--not seen.) -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.