5.3.07 Glory then and now
This entry was posted on 5/2/2007 2:17 PM and is filed under uncategorized.
Some weeks ago, as part of our research for the book, Matt Jack and I interviewed Mike Cody, a student leader and track star of the 1950s who has gone on to build a distinguished career in law and politics. We were interested in learning what varsity athletics were like at Rhodes, er, Southwestern at Memphis, when he was a student.
One thing that astonished us was how big a deal Southwestern sports used to be. Consider the times: University of Memphis (Memphis State) athletics were still small bore, the city had no professional teams, and even big-time national and regional contests were hardly ever televised. As a result, both daily newspapers, the Commercial Appeal and the now-defunct Press-Scimitar, typically would print a story on the day of a game, and then another story the day after. Most students were from Memphis and many lived at home, which meant that they would read these stories. So did their professors, their parents, and their neighbors. Because the college had fewer teams, there was usually only one game going on at a time on campus, attracting whatever crowd of spectators there might be from campus and community.
In sum, if you played for the Lynx fifty years ago, there was glory to be gained. Your classmates knew what you were doing, and so did your professors and a fair share of your neighbors. Your parents memorialized your efforts with a scrapbook of clippings from the local newspapers.
Glory is no small thing. When Achilles was offered the choice of a long, peaceful, prosperous life or a short, glorious life it was a no brainer. He chose glory (and got it--we still celebrate his exploits) but he never dandled grandchildren on his knee.
Lynx sports are different now from what they were a half-century ago. The local sports scene is much more crowded--big-time football and basketball at the U of M, the NBA Grizzlies, and the Triple-A Memphis Redbirds. Major athletic contests are available on television 24/7, and on campus a baseball game is likely to coincide with a softball game, a tennis match, a track meet, or all three. The Commercial Appeal barely acknowledges the existence of Rhodes sports, which is more than the local television and sports radio stations do. Rhodes students come from all over, and they arrive on campus with long-established loyalties to college and professional teams at home. Even the Sou'wester is capable of ignoring Rhodes baseball for most of the season and then, when it does run a story, of overshadowing it with a photo of the students who play pick-up Ultimate Frisbee on Friday afternoons.
As a consequence, most professors don't know how the baseball team is doing, and neither do most students. Last year one player told me, "We could go to San Antonio for the weekend, sweep Trinity, come back to class on Monday, and nobody would even know we'd been gone, much less what we accomplished!"
Why do I mention all this? Not, as it might seem, out of nostalgia for the good old days. Just the opposite, in fact. I find something much more admirable, much nobler, about students who compete in a sport for the intrinsic satisfaction of playing and being part of a team rather than for any glory they might receive from others.
A couple other things Mike Cody told me and Matt that only underscore my admiration for today's team. One is that the demands on the players are much greater today than back in the day. According to Mike, when he played there was no conditioning or fall practice, and the season itself was much shorter with many fewer games.
The other is that the tangible rewards for being a player are much fewer. Rhodes has never given athletic scholarships, but it used to give "leadership" scholarships to certain students as an incentive to play on a team. Those days are no more too.
One thing that astonished us was how big a deal Southwestern sports used to be. Consider the times: University of Memphis (Memphis State) athletics were still small bore, the city had no professional teams, and even big-time national and regional contests were hardly ever televised. As a result, both daily newspapers, the Commercial Appeal and the now-defunct Press-Scimitar, typically would print a story on the day of a game, and then another story the day after. Most students were from Memphis and many lived at home, which meant that they would read these stories. So did their professors, their parents, and their neighbors. Because the college had fewer teams, there was usually only one game going on at a time on campus, attracting whatever crowd of spectators there might be from campus and community.
In sum, if you played for the Lynx fifty years ago, there was glory to be gained. Your classmates knew what you were doing, and so did your professors and a fair share of your neighbors. Your parents memorialized your efforts with a scrapbook of clippings from the local newspapers.
Glory is no small thing. When Achilles was offered the choice of a long, peaceful, prosperous life or a short, glorious life it was a no brainer. He chose glory (and got it--we still celebrate his exploits) but he never dandled grandchildren on his knee.
Lynx sports are different now from what they were a half-century ago. The local sports scene is much more crowded--big-time football and basketball at the U of M, the NBA Grizzlies, and the Triple-A Memphis Redbirds. Major athletic contests are available on television 24/7, and on campus a baseball game is likely to coincide with a softball game, a tennis match, a track meet, or all three. The Commercial Appeal barely acknowledges the existence of Rhodes sports, which is more than the local television and sports radio stations do. Rhodes students come from all over, and they arrive on campus with long-established loyalties to college and professional teams at home. Even the Sou'wester is capable of ignoring Rhodes baseball for most of the season and then, when it does run a story, of overshadowing it with a photo of the students who play pick-up Ultimate Frisbee on Friday afternoons.
As a consequence, most professors don't know how the baseball team is doing, and neither do most students. Last year one player told me, "We could go to San Antonio for the weekend, sweep Trinity, come back to class on Monday, and nobody would even know we'd been gone, much less what we accomplished!"
Why do I mention all this? Not, as it might seem, out of nostalgia for the good old days. Just the opposite, in fact. I find something much more admirable, much nobler, about students who compete in a sport for the intrinsic satisfaction of playing and being part of a team rather than for any glory they might receive from others.
A couple other things Mike Cody told me and Matt that only underscore my admiration for today's team. One is that the demands on the players are much greater today than back in the day. According to Mike, when he played there was no conditioning or fall practice, and the season itself was much shorter with many fewer games.
The other is that the tangible rewards for being a player are much fewer. Rhodes has never given athletic scholarships, but it used to give "leadership" scholarships to certain students as an incentive to play on a team. Those days are no more too.