Gridiron University brings to question the relationship between collegiate athletics and academia. In the 1800s schools were looking for a way to promote discipline, a positive physical culture, and manliness. The progressive era brought on the biggest changes to college football in its short history. Even with the game being violent and degrading to the academic side of many institutions, there was a widely held belief that with reform and regulation the game could be fixed. The question now posed to progressive era universities was to decide if football was simply a dangerous activity that threatened higher learning, or if it was a “manly” pedagogical tool. One argument used on the side of getting rid of football was that the attention and prestige that had historically been given to the academically gifted were now being bestowed on great athletes. The largest problem facing those who were in support of football were the injuries. In October of 1897, a Georgia player sustained a concussion while playing in Atlanta, and subsequently died the next day. In response, Georgia and a few of their rivals immediately cancelled the remainder of their season and the Georgia state legislature passed a bill banning the sport. The player’s mother immediately asked that her son’s death not be used as an excuse to get rid of the sport he loved. The governor, after widespread outcry, vetoed this bill on the grounds that the sport was “the highest and noblest type of our race”. This statement by the governor is hinted at earlier in the book. In chapter 2 the author stated that many Black colleges also offered football, and that those who went expecting to see “a game where there was an exhibition of brute strength…..having none of the elements of modern and scientific football, were rudely disappointed, for the qualities of football displayed by the two negro teams compared favorably with those displayed” by Clemson and Georgia. There were many different revisions made to football throughout this time period. An insane 18 deaths in 1905 sparked the implementation of an early form of the NCAA as an advisory body. A few of the major reforms to come out of this committee were an increase in yards required for a first down, an increase in the number of downs allowed, an addition of a “neutral zone”, and the legalization of the forward pass.
