SPRING 2008 Community College Magazine - Northampton ...

five generations, and groups like the 94-0 Lady Spartans softball
team, to create new archetypes about women, sport and society.
Nonetheless, embedded in the character building paradigm is
an elemental truth that children learn about life through playing
games. They learn the essence of the catch phrase made famous
by ABC Sports, the memorable “thrill of victory and the agony
of defeat.” They learn the value of discipline, diligence in
preparation, coordination of effort, and persistence toward
a goal. I hope that some of them still learn to be gracious
in victory.
Another important life lesson of sport is the darkest secret of
all athletic competition — how to lose. The novelist Joyce Carol
Oates, an unlikely chronicler of Mike Tyson and boxing, once told
me that sport was all about losing. While I had a hard time digesting
that at the time, in retrospect she may have been right. Ending on
a winning note is very rare. Of the 64 teams that enter the NCAA
men’s basketball tournament each year, 63 will end their season
with a loss. Most professional golfers never win a tournament
in their careers. Most prizefighters end their careers unconscious
(or worse) in defeat. Ideally, children and other young athletes
learn much more from losing than from winning. Summed up by
the aphorism, “sometimes the best team doesn’t win,” they
learn that success is not a given, and that preparation and
superior talent are no guarantee of victory. They learn that
they are dependent on others, and that all share equally in
every success or defeat.
At the opposite end of the philosophical spectrum is the
familiar American view that sport is big business. It’s tough to
quibble with that utilitarian perspective when one considers the
economic impact of professional and big-time college athletics.
Major League Baseball touts itself as a $6 billion industry.* The
NBA in 2005 reported $3.2 billion in revenues, and the same year
(’05 – ’06) college sports (the revenue-producing kind) generated
$4.2 billion.** That’s pretty serious money in any industry, and if
we were measuring the economic impact on cities, colleges and
universities, it’s possible to make a strong case that sport is very
healthy indeed for some segments of society.
Somewhere between the romantic notions of Wellington and
the crass commercialism of modern professional sport are more
authentic linkages between sport and society. Sport has always
allowed individuals and groups to elevate themselves
beyond the opportunities otherwise afforded them at the
time. Sport in the United States opened doors, instilled
pride, made something foreign seem more familiar, and
created a sense of belonging. In a few cases, sport proved to be
Emma Lazarus’s “Golden Door” to the American Dream.
It was through his legendary grace and skills on the baseball
diamond that Joe DiMaggio, the son of Italian immigrants, became
Footnotes: * As reported online in CBS Sports MLB, “Selig: Baseball Revenues Climbed to $6.075 Billion this year,” November 15, 2007. ** Chris Isadore, “College Sports’ Fuzzy Math,” in CNN
Money.com, November 10, 2006. ***Jonathan Eig, in his new account of Jackie Robinson’s first year in the majors, reported that Chapman made the comment under his breath but loud enough
for Robinson to hear him. ****George Will, a lifelong baseball fan, made the comment in Ken Burns’s epic video documentary, Baseball, in 1994.
20 NCC ● SPRING 2008