Last modified: Thursday, June 23, 2011
June issue of Indiana Magazine of History looks at college sports scandals
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 23, 2011
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- The recent downfall of the storied Ohio State University Buckeyes' football program is only the latest in a long series of episodes involving college athletics programs that have run afoul of the regulations. As David Pierce and Galen Clavio write in the June 2011 issue of the Indiana Magazine of History, violations of NCAA and Big Ten conference rules are as old as the rules themselves.
Coach Phil Dickens and his staff pose in 1957, his first year at Indiana. Recruiting violations during Dickens' tenure led to NCAA penalties that kept IU athletic teams out of post-season competition for four years.
In their article "From Dickens to Sampson: An Examination of NCAA Rules Violations at Indiana University," Pierce and Clavio compare the scandals that enveloped IU's football program in the 1950s with the problems of the Kelvin Sampson-era basketball program. In a cautionary tale that still resonates in the wake of today's Ohio State scandal, the authors consider the consequences of partnering eager boosters and a successful coach against a backdrop of evolving -- and complex -- NCAA and Big Ten recruiting rules.
Pierce is an assistant professor of sport administration at Ball State University. Clavio is an assistant professor of sport management in the School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation at IU Bloomington.
Elsewhere in the IMH's current issue, historian Patrick Bottiger takes a fresh look at the conflict between territorial governor William Henry Harrison and his anti-slavery opponents in the early 1800s. Bottiger's "Stabbed in the Back: Vincennes, Slavery, and the Indian 'Threat'" offers the possibility that disputes over slavery -- an issue that was far from settled in territorial Indiana -- helped to precipitate the events that led up to the battle at Prophetstown.
The issue also features an interview with Indiana Historical Society CEO John Herbst, who reflects on a career in public history that has included the top positions at both the Connor Prairie outdoor history museum and the Indiana State Museum.
The Indiana Magazine of History is published quarterly by the Department of History of Indiana University Bloomington, in cooperation with the Indiana Historical Society. The magazine's website can be found at www.indiana.edu/~imaghist. For general information on the articles, contact the editorial office at 812-855-4139.
