Athletic commodities: The African-American male student-athlete in higher education

Abstract

Most of the focus and support given to student-athletes is during the time of eligibility. After the eligibility expires, some of these athletes disconnect themselves from the athletic department and become a mere memory of the past. The myriad of unique challenges facing former student-athletes who have not graduated or retired from sports are well documented. Dexter Manley of the Washington Redskins tearfully told a U.S. Senate panel on illiteracy that despite his four years at Oklahoma State University, he had neither graduated nor learned to read. Kevin Ross, former basketball player who did not graduate, complained on national TV talk shows that he had never learned to read in four years at Creighton University (Byers, 1995). To alleviate some of the problems, I decided to focus my study on the college experiences of African-American student-athletes to better understand the complexities that they encounter during and after their athletic scholarship. The long-term objective is to establish a service oriented, salubrious program for former student athletes once their eligibility expires along with their retirement from sport. After perusing a myriad of reports of the exploitation of student-athletes in the revenue producing sports, the research questions became: Are these accounts typical? Universal? Do most athletes experience exploitation and abuse? African-Americans more than other racial groups? How representative are these commentaries of the actual sports experiences of college sport participants? In this investigation I will focus on African-American college athletes' attitudes, opinions, experiences, and perceptions surrounding exploitation.