Leveling the Playing Field: The Story of the Syracuse Eight
- ISBN-10
- 0815652550
- ISBN-13
- 9780815652557
- Series
- Leveling the Playing Field
- Category
- Sports & Recreation
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2015-07-22
- Publisher
- Syracuse University Press
- Author
- David Marc
Description
Leveling the Playing Field tells the story of the African American members of the 1969–70 Syracuse University football team who petitioned for racial equality on their team. The petition had four demands: access to the same academic tutoring made available to their white teammates; better medical care for all team members; starting assignments based on merit rather than race; and a discernible effort to racially integrate the coaching staff, which had been all white since 1898. The players’ charges of racial disparity were fiercely contested by many of the white players on the team, and the debate spilled into the newspapers and drew protests from around the country. Mistakenly called the "Syracuse 8" by media reports in the 1970s, the nine players who signed the petition did not receive a response allowing or even acknowledging their demands. They boycotted the spring 1970 practice, and Coach Ben Schwartzwalder, a deeply beloved figure on campus and a Hall of Fame football coach nearing retirement, banned seven of the players from the team. As tensions escalated, white players staged a day-long walkout in support of the coaching staff, and an enhanced police presence was required at home games. Extensive interviews with each player offer a firsthand account of their decision to stand their ground while knowing it would jeopardize their professional football career. They discuss with candor the ways in which the boycott profoundly changed the course of their lives. In Leveling the Playing Field, Marc chronicles this contentious moment in Syracuse University’s history and tells the story through the eyes of the players who demanded change for themselves and for those who would follow them.
Get the book
Other editions
-
- 2016-08-01
- 240 pages
- Ebook
- Rowman & Littlefield
-
- 2014-08-15
- 296 pages
- Ebook
- OUP Oxford
-
- 2014-08-14
- 365 pages
- Paperback
- Oxford University Press, USA
Similar books
-
Leveling the Playing Field: Advancing Women in Jewish Organizational Life
By Martin Linsky, Shifra Bronznick, Didi GoldenharLeveling the Playing Field: Advancing Women in Jewish Organizational Life
-
Leveling the Playing Field: Justice, Politics, and College Admissions
By Robert K. Fullinwider, Judith LichtenbergIn answering these questions, the book examines legacy preference, early admissions policies, financial aid, the test-prep industry, college counseling, and athletics, evaluating their effects on the distribution of higher education in the ...
-
Levelling the Playing Field: The Idea of Equal Opportunity and Its Place in Egalitarian Thought
By Andrew MasonThis book combines a meritocratic conception of equality of opportunity that governs access to advantaged social positions, withredistributive principles that seek to mitigate the effects of differences in people's circumstances.
-
A Level Playing Field
By Gerald Lyn EarlyThe noted cultural critic Gerald Early explores the intersection of race and sports, and our deeper, often contradictory attitudes toward the athletes we glorify.
-
Level the Playing Field: The Past, Present, and Future of Women's Pro Sports
By Kristina RutherfordThe book provides first-person insight through exciting interviews with professional female athletes, including Canadian hockey player Cassie Campbell, American MMA fighter Miesha Tate, and WNBA star Elena Delle Donne.
-
Raised a Warrior: A Memoir of Soccer, Grit, and Leveling the Playing Field
By Susie PetruccelliRaised a Warrior is the winner of the Vikki Orvice Prize and has been praised by a wide range of sports icons from Pelé to Billie Jean King.
-
Games, Sports, and Play: Philosophical Essays
By Thomas HurkaThis volume presents new philosophical essays on a topic that's been neglected in most recent philosophy: games, sports, and play.
-
Leveling the Paying Field: A Groundbreaking Approach to Achieving Fair Pay
By Rick GillisIn his latest book, author Rick Gillis has created a rich new metric for measuring the value of the work you produce he calls the QTNT® (pronounced: ‘quotient’).
-
Leveling the Playing Field
By Thomas Cortez SpannLeveling the Playing Field
-
Can College Level the Playing Field?: Higher Education in an Unequal Society
By Sandy Baum, Michael McPhersonThis book shows how we can address the root causes of social injustice and level the playing field for students and families before, during, and after college.