| Resources
on Sports Reform: Books and Links
Essential Books in the Area of Sports Reform
and Sports Parenting
The books listed below provide the foundation for the field of
sports reform. Many of them can be purchased through our official
bookstore, BPI-The
Sports Reform Press.
Anderson, C. 2000. Will You Still Love Me If I Don’t Win.
Dallas: Taylor Publishing.
Benedict, J. 1997. Public Heroes, Private Felons: Athletes and
Crimes Against Women, Boston, MA: Northeastern University Press.
Benedict, J. 1999. Public Heroes, Private Felons: Athletes and
Crimes Against Women. Boston: Northeastern University Press.
Bigelow, B., Moroney, T., and Hall, L. 2001. Just Let the Kids
Play: How to Stop Other Adults from Ruining Your Child’s Fun
and Success in Youth Sports. Health Communications, Inc., Deerfield
Beach, Florida.
Bissinger, H.G. 1990. Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team, A Dream.
Da Capo Press: Cambridge.
Bradley, B. 1998. Values of the Game. New York: Workman Publishing.
Byers, W. 1995. Unsportsmanlike Conduct: Exploiting College Athletes.
Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.
Doyle, D., and Wolfe, R. (in press) The Encylcopedia of Sports Parenting.
New York: Time Warner.
Duderstadt, J. I 2000. Intercollegiate Athletics and the American
University: A University President’s Perspective. Ann Arbor:
The University of Michigan Press
Engh, F. 1999. Why Johnny Hates Sports: Why Organized Youth Sports
are Failing our Children and What We Can Do About it. Garden City,
NY: Avery Publishing.
Feinstein, J. The Last Amateurs. Playing for Glory and Honor in
Division I Basketball. Boston: Little Brown and Company.
Fine, A., and M.L. Sachs. 1997. The Total Sports Experinece for
Kids: A Parents Guide to Success in Youth Sports. South Bend: Diamond
Communications, Inc.
Frey, D. 1996. The Last Shot: City Streets, Basketball Dreams.
New York: Touchstone.
Furchtgott-Roth, D., and C. Stolba. 2001. The Feminist Dilemma:
When Success is not Enough. Washington: AEI Press.
Gavora, Jessica. 2002. Tilting the Playing Field: Schools, Sports,
Sex and Title IX. San Francisco: Encounter Books.
Gerdy, J.R. 2000. Sports in School: The Future of an Institution.
New York: Teachers College Press.
Gerdy, J.R. 2002. Sports: The All-American Addiction. Mississippi:
University of Mississippi Press.
Goldman, B. P.J. Bush, and R. Klatz. 1987. Death in the Locker Room:
Steroids, Cocaine, and Sports. Scottsdale: H.P. Books.
Hawkins, B. 2000. The New Plantation: The Internal Colonization
of Black Student Athletes. Winterville: Sadiki Publishing.
Heywood, L. 1998. Pretty Good for a Girl: A Memoir. New York: The
Free Press.
Isenberg, M. and R. Rhoads. 2001. The Student Athlete Survival Guide.
Camden: Ragged Mountain Press.
Isenberg, M. and R. Rhoads. 1999. The Real Athletes Guide: How to
Succeed in Sports, School, and Life. Los Angeles: Athlete Network
Press.
Janda, D.H. 2001. The Awakening of a Surgeon: One Doctor’s
Journey to Fight the System and Empower Your Community. Chelsea:
Sleeping Bear Press.
Joravsky, B. 1996. Hoop Dreams: A True Story of Hardship and Triumph.
New York: HarperTrade.
The Knight Commission. 2001. A Call to Action: Reconnecting College
Sports and Higher Education. Florida: Knight Foundation.
Kralovec, E. 2003. Schools That Do Too Much: Wasting Time and Money
in Schools and What We Can All Do About It. Boston: Beacon.
Kuchenbecker, S. 2000. Raising Winners: A Parents Guide to Helping
Kids Succeed On and Off the Playing Field. New York: Random House.
Lancaster, S. 2002. Fair Play: Making Organized Sports a Great Experience
for Your Kids. New York: Prentice Hall Press.
Lefkowitz, B. 1997. Our Guys: The Glen Ridge Rape and the Secret
Life of the Perfect Suburb. New York: Vintage Books.
Llewellyn, Jack. 2001. Let’ em Play: What Parents, Coaches
and Kids Need to Know about Youth Baseball. Marietta: Longstreet
Press.
Michener, J. 1976. Sports in America. New York: Random House
Miracle, W.W., and C.R. Rees. 1994. Lessons of the Locker Room:
The Myth of School Sports. Amherst: Prometheus.
Murphy, S. 1999. The Cheers and the Tears: A Healthy Alternative
to the Dark Side of Youth Sports Today. San Francisco: Jossy-Bass.
Porter, D. 2000. Fixed: How Goodfellas Bought Boston College Basketball.
Dallas: Taylor Trade Publishing.
Ryan, J. 1996. Little Girls in Pretty Boxes: The Making and Breaking
of Elite Gymnasts and Figure Skaters. New York: Warner Books.
Sack, A.L., and E.J. Staurowsky. 1998. College Athletes for Hire:
The Evolution and Legacy of the NCAA’s Amateur Myth. Westport,
CT: Praeger Publishing.
Sheehy, H. 2002. Raising a Team Player. North Adams: Storey Books.
Sheehan, R. 1997. Keeping Score: The Economics of Big-Time Sports.
South Bend: Diamond.
Shulman, J.L., and W.G. Bowen. 2001. The Game of Life: College
Sports and Educational Values. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Sperber, M. 1990. College Sports, Inc.: The Athletic Department
vs The University. New York: Holt.
Sperber, M. 2000. Beer and Circus: How Big-Time Sports is Crippling
Undergraduate Education. New York: Holt.
Svare, B. 2003. Crisis on Our Playing Fields: What Everyone Should
Know About Our Out of Control Sports Culture and What We Can Do
to Change it. Delmar: Sports Reform Press.
Telander, R. 1989. The One Hundred Yard Lie: The Corruption of
College Football and What We Can Do to Stop it. NY: Simon and Schuster.
Thelin, J.R. 1996. Games Colleges Play: Scandal and Reform in Intercollegiate
Athletics. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press.
Thompson, J. 1995. Positive Coaching: Building Character and Self-Esteem
Through Sports. Portola Valley: Warde Publishers.
Thompson, J. 2003. The Double-Goal Coach: Positive Coaching Tools
for Parents and Coaches to Honor the Game and Develop Winners in
Sports and Life. New York: Harpers Resource.
Tofler, I., and T.F DiGeronimo. Keeping Your Kids Out Front Without
Kicking Them from Behind: How to Nurture High Achieving Athletes,
Scholars, and Performing Artists. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Toma, D. J. 2003. Football U: Spectator Sports in the Life of the
American University. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Ungerleider, S. 2001. Faust’s Gold: Inside the East German
Doping Machine. New York: St. Martin.
Wetzel, D., and D. Yaeger. 1999. Sole Influence: Basketball, Corporate
Greed, and the Corruption of America’s Youth. New York: Warner.
Yesalis, C.E., and V.S. Cowart. 1998. The Steroids Game: An Expert’s
Inside Look at Anabolic Steroid Use in Sports. Champaign: Human
Kinetics.
Zimbalist, A. 1999. Unpaid Professionals: Commercialism and Conflict
in Big-Time College Sports. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
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Websites in the Area
of Sports Reform
All of these web sites will open up in a new browser
window.
The
Drake Group—National Alliance for College Athletic Reform
(NAFCAR)
The Drake Group is working to restore and defend academic integrity
in college sports. The members of this national organization believe
that it is their ethical obligation to confront the sports corruption
that occurs on their respective campuses and clean up college sports
by taking back their classrooms.
College
Sports Council (CSC)
A national coalition of sports associations that are devoted to
the promotion of the student athlete experience, the CSC is serving
as the voice of underrepresented college sports programs. The council
works with coaches, associations, and alumni groups to preserve,
promote and expand opportunities for both male and female college
athletes.
National Alliance
for Youth Sports (NAYS)
The alliance believes that youth sports can help to develop character
traits and values but only if the adults that are in charge (parents,
coaches, administrators) have proper training and information. NAYS
has become the nation’s leading youth sports educator and
advocate with nine national programs that educate volunteer coaches,
parents, youth sport program administrators, and officials about
their roles and responsibilities in the context of youth sports.
Institute
for International Sport (IIS)
The goals of IIS are to promote and improve relationships among
nations, particularly those experiencing internal conflict, encourage
individual growth and the development of human potential in young
scholars throughout the world, develop global awareness in future
world leaders, promote ethical behavior and good sportsmanship on
an international basis, and facilitate among institute alumni a
humanitarian approach in their actions as they develop as world
leaders. The primary vehicle for the IIS to accomplish its mission
is through the World Scholar-Athlete games and National Sportsmanship
Day.
Sports
Ethics Institute (SEI)
The mission of the SEI is to foster good conduct in sports and to
elevate sports so as to endure a legacy of goodness for future generations.
The objectives of SEI are to raise and explore ethical issues in
sport, to provide opportunities for people to discover and examine
the ethical dimensions of sport, to develop programs and activities
that educate others on ethics in sports, and to create forums for
the open expression and discussion of diverse sports ethics.
Institute for Preventative
Sports Medicine (IPSM)
The Institute is a research organization dedicated to finding effective
and practical ways to reduce sports injuries and speed rehabilitation
of injured athletes. The institute has sought to achieve this goal
by way of research and development of protective equipment, rules
modifications in sports, changes in conditioning practices and injury
treatment techniques, and instructional methodology.
Collegiate Athletes
Association (CAC)
The goals of CAC are to achieve greater commitment to the education
of college athletes so as to improve graduation rates, obtain year-round
health coverage for sports related injuries, obtain increased life
insurance policies for student athletes, obtain increased monthly
stipends for student-athletes, and obtain an elimination of off-season
salary caps.
National
Student-Athletes Rights Movement
This organization is seeking to improve the welfare of collegiate
student-athletes by advocating a bill of rights. The most important
goal of this organization is to restore the welfare of student athletes
to their rightful place as the first priority of the NCAA.
National Coalition
Against Violent Athletes
The mission of the NCAVA is to promote positive character development
in athletes, to educate coaches, management, and the public on violence
prevention and assessment, to be a voice for victims when they are
reluctant to talk to the media, to pressure the governing bodies
of sports to take action against violent athletes, to track and
release athlete charges and convictions, to educate victims on prevention
and the process of forcing accountability, to give support to victims,
and to endure the rights of victims.
Rutgers
1000
This organization is focused on seeking changes in the intercollegiate
sports environment at Rutgers University. Because members of the
organization believe that athletics has eroded the intellectual
standards at the University, they believe that Rutgers would be
a better fit both academically and athletically in the Patriot League
as opposed to the Big East.
Knight Commission
on Intercollegiate Athletics
The Knight Foundation has funded two separate commissions, one in
1991 and the most recent in 2001, to examine the athletic abuses
that threaten the integrity of higher education. The recommendations
in both reports are noteworthy since they advocate better institutional
and presidential control, reduced commercialism, and greater academic
integrity.
The New England
Small College Athletic Conference
A model for the way in which collegiate athletics and academics
can be blended to form a positive partnership, NESCAC schools play
in the NCAA Division III and are some of the most prestigious academic
colleges in the country. There are no athletic scholarships and
financial aid is need based. Athletics are kept in proper perspective
and are subordinate to academic achievement.
The Patriot
League
This northeast collegiate athletic league consists of prestigious
Division I colleges and universities that place academics before
athletics. Schools in this conference regularly compete successfully
at the highest levels of competition even though many do not give
athletic scholarships. The Patriot League is a good example of how
rigorous academic training can successively co-exist with intercollegiate
athletics.
The
Ivy League
The most prestigious academic institutions in the US belong to the
Ivy League and their athletic teams regularly compete at a very
high level in the NCAA Division I. The League is another excellent
model for how sports can succeed without compromising academic quality.
The Center
for the Study of Sport in Society
Housed at Northeastern University, the Center aims to increase awareness
of sports and its relation to society and to develop programs that
identify problems, offer solutions, and promote the benefits of
sport.
The Institute
for Diversity and Ethics in Sport
Established at the University of Central Florida, the Institute
focuses upon publishing the racial and gender report card which
is an annual assessment of racial and gender hiring practices of
major professional sports, Olympic and collegiate sports. The Institute
also monitors some of the critical ethical issues in collegiate
and professional sports.
The
Institute for Study of Youth Sports
Formed at Michigan State University, the mission of the institute
is to research the benefits and detriments of participation in youth
athletics. The institute produces educational materials and educational
programs for parents, coaches, officials and administrators.
The
Paul Robeson Research Center for Academic and Athletic Prowess
Established at the University of Michigan, the goals of the center
are to provide research and analysis of issues that affect African
American student athletes. The center also strives to promote the
ideal that an athlete’s lifetime career success can best be
achieved by way of educational attainment.
The
Woman’s Sports Foundation
The principle goals of the foundation are to be recognized as the
foremost worldwide resource and advocate for girls and woman in
sports, to educate the public about female participation and gender
equality in sports, and to increase leadership and sports and fitness
participation among women.
The Citizenship
Through Sports Alliance
The alliance was created out of a concern for the decline of sportsmanship
and ethical conduct and a rise in a win at all cost attitude in
athletics. The organization seeks to promote a sports culture that
values learning respect for self, other, and the game itself.
The Mendelson
Center for Sports, Character and Community
Established at the University of Notre Dame, the primary goal of
the center is to bring social scientists and sports practitioners
together in order to build character and promote civic responsibility
through sports.
The Positive
Coaching Alliance
Housed at Stanford University, the principle mission of the alliance
is to create a positive culture in which kids love to play a particular
sport. This is done by creating an environment in which players,
coaches, and parents respect each other and honor the games they
play.
The Student Athlete
Survival Guide
The guide and A-Game are designed to help high school and college
athletes and parents navigate through scholastic and collegiate
athletics. This is done by giving evidence of both good and bad
decisions that athletes have made in the past.
P.E. 4 Life
This organization is an advocacy group that serves as a collective
voice for promoting the renewal of physical education programs in
the US. The mission of the organization is to establish daily physical
education classes in all schools and to focus specifically on fitness
activities that can be used throughout one’s life.
Sports
Leadership Instititute
The mission of this institute is to implement leadership programs
in high schools and elementary schools. In particular the institute
seeks to stimulate student leadership primarily in the areas of
substance abuse prevention, bullying, teasing and sportsmanship.
Bob Bigelow
Youth Sports Speaker. Former NBA standout Bob Bigelow is on a mission
to reform youth sports. Speaking to communities, coaches, administrators
and parents about putting the youth back into youth sports, Bob
advocates reforms for youth sports that are both realistic and critically
needed to allow kids to enjoy athletics.
NISR in the News
"Being a Good Sports Parent: Let the Kids Enjoy the Game,
Experts Say" by Jane Weaver, MSNBC.com, 4/14/2004.
"Points Other Than Baskets: Amid Final Four Hoopla, Conderns
About Education" by Liz Clarke, Washington Post, 4/5/2004
"Coaches as 'teachers'" Indianapolis Star, 3/26/2004
"'Student-athlete' is myth created by NCAA" by Bruce
Svare, Schenectady Gazette, 3/14/2004.
"Taking College Out of Football" by Todd Neff, Boulder
Daily Camera, 3/7/2004
“Ruling in Favor of Clarett Could Open a Huge Hole Into
the NFL Draft” by Jere Longman, New York Times, 2/6/2004.
“Sports Reform in the Air” by Bob Gilbert,
Nashville City News, 12/26/2003.
“BCS Teams Fail Academically” by Bob Gilbert,
Nashville City News, 12/17/2003.
“Cheating Wends Way from Youth Sports to Business”
by Robert Lipsyte, USA Today, 12/9/2003.
“From Discordant Notes, Reformers Hear One Song”
by Robert Lipsyte, New York Times, 11/29/2003.
“High Schools are Hot Markets” by Jay Weiner,
Minneapolis Star Tribune, 11/24/2003.
“Foul Play” by Mat Herron, Snitch, 3/26/2003.
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