Fellows Report on Fellowship
Where Have All the Sportsmen Gone?
By Vahé Gregorian
Vahé Gregorian
I read the sports pages first because they record man’s accomplishments,” former U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren once said. “The front pages record his failures.”
That distinction, alas, now is negligible. Today’s athletes routinely can be seen on trial for murder or rape or in the spotlight for allegations of drug abuse. Supposed beacons of integrity such as college campuses and the Olympic movement frequently have been incubators of athletic scandals.
Moreover, the chivalrous traits once associated with athletes have been replaced by boorishness. Showmanship and gamesmanship —if not outright cheating—are the prevailing trends and are greeted with approval in many quarters. “In hockey, if you’re not cheating, you’re not trying,” Joel Quenneville, the former St. Louis Blues coach once said, but he needn’t have limited his comment to hockey.
As a sportswriter at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, I have long been interested in the apparent demise of sportsmanship. But the topic didn’t become a fascination until after it was called to my attention a few years ago by Harry James Cargas, a University of Michigan graduate and a remarkable scholar in St. Louis.
One day Dr. Cargas called to discuss a project he had in mind. When we met, he handed me some notes he had collected on sportsmanship. He told me he was tired and not well and asked if I’d be interested in working with him on a book about it. When I got home, I knew at a glance that this was a promising idea.
Some days later, I opened the Post-Dispatch and was stunned to see Dr. Cargas’ obituary. That was 1998. It felt as though I’d been passed a torch, but I felt paralyzed and was unable to look at the notes again.
Until last fall, when I was given the chance to come to Michigan and explore this vast, complicated topic. The pursuit has been exhilarating in ways I couldn’t have anticipated.
For instance, my adviser on campus is Bill Martin, the University’s athletic director and acting president of the U.S. Olympic Committee. Bill has been generous with his time and wisdom, and I’ve enjoyed getting to know him. One of our seminar speakers at Wallace House was Richard Pound, a member of the International Olympic Committee and president of the World Anti-Doping Agency. In addition to a dinner with these two influential men, I had time to speak with and interview Mr. Pound when I drove him to and from the airport.
The University’s library system has provided resources that would take years to exhaust. And I was amazed to find courses that addressed key matters, including Sports and Life in Ancient Rome; Sports and Society; and Sport and Empire (U.S. and British). In addition to Bruce Madej, the University’s Sports Information Director, several faculty members—including Andy Markovits, Bruce Watkins, Vince Diaz and Damon Salesa—took interest in my project.
As for that project’s ultimate direction, I’m still trying to sort it out. If this project is ever to become a book, many decisions loom about its scope. But I’ve learned that my view of the overarching theme is different than what I had expected.
Since time immemorial, sports have been tainted by cheating and unseemly behavior. Sports historically have mirrored the times, meaning they typically have been corrupted in the context of that time and place. Mythology about athletes nonetheless prevailed, but it has been exposed now, for numerous reasons. And consider that this society is increasingly shameless, often sees the ends—money and winning—as more important than the means, and is saturated with shrill, voyeuristic entertainment media.
The combination has meant more raw coverage of less virtuous characters, blurring front-page news and sports news—which arguably has gone from merely reflecting society to contributing to its erosion.
Vahé Gregorian is a reporter with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Photo by Vince Patton
