EDUC 212: The History of College Athletics, Fall '22
mgofriends, I’m excited to share that in the U-M fall 2022 semester I’ll be leading EDUC 212: The History of College Athletics. The course was created and originally taught by John U. Bacon, followed by a series of distinguished lecturers including former SID Bruce Madej, Dr. Scott Westfall, and most recently Michael Spath. I'm still re-working the syllabus but it will most closely follow the roots of the course as taught by Bacs.
Know a U-M student? Please share especially if they are looking to round out their schedule this fall. Note that this falls within the School of Education (not LSA) but it is open as an elective to all students:
EDUC 212-001 [23331], 3 Credits
**Note: This course is within the School of Education (not LSA)
Mondays & Wednesdays, 11:30 AM – 1:00PM
more here: https://mvictors.com/the-history-of-college-athletics/
- Greg, MVictors.com
if i lived in AA i would audit ... sounds like a cool class
Any Zoom links?
Hey, it's only for undergrads but I do plan on sharing insight on the course as we go along on MVictors.com and Twitter (@MVictors). That said, down the road maybe there's an opp to bring the class to like-minded folks - your not the first to ask.
Man - you non-Engineering people and your silly classes. Wish I coulda dropped EECS 280 for History of Athletics!! :)
(i'm sorta kidding)
As an engineer, I took Statistics and Economics - both classes were specifically for non-Business majors. Two of the best classes I had! I gained knowledge, the instructors were engaging, and I sat next to the same pretty girl in both classes! Trifecta
If you married her it would have been a grand slam. Did you?
I never saw her again… 😕
Took the class winter semester of senior year back in 2012. Really good wind-down elective for ending my college career. Didn't learn anything earth-shattering but still a fun class to take. We got to choose our own topic for our semester paper as long as it was not about the Fab Five because as Bacon put it, there was nothing we could possibly write about the Fab Five at that time that wasn't already out there or known to him. Anywho, the paper I wrote for that class was one of the only papers I ever wrote that I actually enjoyed writing.
Curious how/if you will weave NIL into class discussions.
Good luck and have fun with it! Baked potato!!
(For anyone who also took Bacon's class, you'll know what that means!)
Don't be a tease. Tell us what you wrote your paper on.
Say pretty please with sugar on top....
But in all seriousness, I wrote about the decline and de-emphasis the Ivy League put on its sporting programs. How they seemed to understand what was coming with collegiate athletics, decided what was most important to them and their image, and backed away before it could potentially tarnish their academic reputation.
Wanted to write about something non-Michigan related, and I remember just really enjoying sitting down in the stacks in the Grad Library and doing that research.
I was in the same class and absolutely loved the course. I never felt genuinely excited to attend a lecture my entire time at UofM until that course with Bacon.
I wrote my final paper on Willie Heston and had to cut out paragraphs because it was too long (only time I ever had to do that with a research paper). I too truly enjoyed writing the paper. Humble brag - I received a high mark and remember Bacon writing a comment asking to speak to him after class. I was worried about it, but he just wanted to ask for my permission to potentially use the paper on any future book he may write.
Congratulations, on the effort, on the result (grade), and on Bacon's further endorsement of your work.
I'd love to see that paper if you still have it!
Very cool
That’s a class I would not fall asleep in!
Would love to sit in on the NIL discussion.
This topic is underappreciated by the university, I'm glad to see it taught by you, Mr. Dooley, as you are well qualified to expound on it. However, when you consider the outsized impact (economically and socially) that college athletics has had and how many niche histories topics are covered by specific classes here, you would think our alma mater would consider other topics worth focusing on, i.e. not just a single class with an overarching view. Consider the unique aspects of college athletics as candidates for unique classes:
Economics of college athletics, inc. impact on small towns, intersection with media, etc.
Societal impact of college athletics vis-a-vis racial relations
Political History of College Athletics vis-a-vis anti-trust law, segregation, major conferences, the NCAA, and NIL rights
Medical advances driven by college athletics and the associated research insistutions
History of OSU: Tepid Cesspool or RICO?
you get the picture, because it's only 'sports', it isn't worthy of a deeper understanding in the academic world. To that, I say, the hell it ain't!
I've always enjoyed the historical and rivalry aspects, such as the University of Chicago's football program and the university's decision to leave the Big Ten after being one of its founding members and big time rivalries of smaller programs such as Army/Navy, Harvard/Yale, Lafayette/Lehigh etc.
This class would easily surpass one of my favorites at Michigan - Sports and Daily Life in Ancient Rome. Those Romans sure did like to decorate a lot of places with phalluses.
Glad to hear this is still going. Managed to get in as a junior in 2011 because it was the first time it was under the School of Education and not everyone figured that out in time. Wouldn't trade my time in that class for anything, Bacon is a vault of knowledge and an excellent teacher. Knew a class of hundreds by name, to a man within a week.
Like others were saying too, most fun I ever had writing a paper. I did a research piece on the impact of football/basketball on application numbers. I had so much for it I had to make cuts, but to this day I regret not at least trying to hit Duderstadt up for an interview just to try to understand the guys perspective a little better. To this day I wonder who the "special grader" was that he had do our papers... there was so much red on my paper it could have been a Christmas decoration and yet at the end... "Pretty good. A-." I was an engineer, so I'll take it.
Baked Potato!
Congratulations - my son took the Spath version virtually senior year and loved it.