https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YDYfByEPAY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YDYfByEPAY
One of my favorite archival artifacts that I discovered was an editorial post in the October 11, 1951 school newspaper titled “Boastful America”. In this article, the editor warns the students to act like good Christians, because if they don’t, then God will abandon them and the nation, allowing for Communism to take over.
This article had me thinking: would the students actually believe any of this? What environment did the students grow up in? What was it like for other schools at the time? What was the BIGGEST real threat to everyone in the nation? Linked above is a very interesting kid-friendly education video which was likely shown in schools across the nation. In short, this videos teaches children (and everyone else really) what protocols to follow to protect themselves against nuclear attacks. I know, its daunting.
This video, however, may answer some of my questions. Since this video is from the same year as the artifact, we can see how exactly tensions were. And well, knowing that they felt obligated to show children how to survive a nuclear bomb, I can see that nuclear war threat was inescapable. Likely, everyone lived day to day in fear of a surprise nuclear attack. If the students at Santa Clara were exposed to such threats from a very young age, it would be easy to see why those fears would remain very strong as they grew into being young adults.
Therefore, I do believe that, at least for some, students did buy into the “Boastful America” propaganda. It took advantage of their childhood fears and brought them into reality. So, if they wanted to avoid nuclear annihilation, they would have no issue with “being a better Christian” and making sure that the Reds do not win at any cost.
Now, with no real segue, I would like to comment of Leslie’s blog post “Coaches… they’re just like us!”. Your research topic on college sports scandals is very interesting. We had a unit on just that in one of my classes senior year of high school. It’s crazy just how much money these upper division sports actually make, despite them being “non-profit”. From decked out private gyms to decked out coaches’ cars, the people running this industry has it all. The same can’t be said for the athletes however…
While I haven’t heard of any of the coaches you talked about, I have heard of similar scandals. A major and ubiquitous one is where coaches manage to fit students into these “special” classes. In these classes, they “teach”things like Swahili to the students. The difference is, they don’t really make an effort to teach. Classes like these are getting exposed for serving as a GPA boost, as mostly athletes are enrolled in these and everyone comes out passing with flying colors.
It looks like the coaches learned how to save themselves the $50,000 fine and assure that they never need to ask a professor to change a grade. Granted, $50,000 might as well be pocket change for some of the bigger NCAA coaches.
I recommend you watch the Last Week Tonight episode where John Oliver talks about NCAA sports scandals, as well as the horrible environment big-school student athletes have to live in. In short, stuff really hasn’t changed. Well, it has, but it has only gotten worse. You said it best, because in the end of the day, everyone wants, “fame, success, money.”