Initial Reaction: The Rise of Grid Iron University

From reading the first two chapters, The Rise of Grid Iron University gives a lot of information about the early days of not just college football but also the American culture of the time. The introduction of this book lays out the main arguments the author is trying to prove, his main being that football survived its controversial infancy purely because of its label as a cultural ritual, its advertising effect for schools, and its ability to adapt to changes in American culture. In my opinion, you can tell this book is an academic publishing because it does tend to repeat itself and can be dry at times. With that said I think the author’s tendency to reiterate certain ideas does ultimately serve his purpose. This reiteration of themes through the use of copious examples, while making the reading more laborious, does actually make the key points more digestible. For example, one theme that Ingrassia really tries to orient the first chapter on is the purpose of sport in 19th-century American colleges. In this section specifically, it seemed as though he talked in circles, especially about gymnastics and how American colleges saw it as a tool for honing discipline, and how they were distrustful of team sports as well as spectacle. However, I think that what Ingrassia does a great job of is painting a complete picture of the American college system during the 19th century and its values. I really liked that he drew a comparison between the American college and the American university and the changes and struggles that followed. For example, I had no idea that prior to the civil war, the main purpose of the colleges in America was basically just to promote what they deemed ethical and pious traits. This, when compared to the establishment of the American public university system for the more practical education students for the market, makes sense as to why they saw football as such a valuable marketing tool. All in all my takeaways from these first few chapters I think are definitely worth the lack of style and repetition in Ingrassia’s writing.