Score One More for the Good 'Ol Boys

There are many reasons to be suspicious of Auburn University's decision to hire Gene Chizik as their next head football coach. Chief among them is Chizik's stunningly poor 5-19 record during the past two seasons as head coach at Iowa State (his only head coaching job). Of course, one could simply say that Chizik was hired because of his previous ties to Auburn, having served as the Defensive Coordinator during the Tiger's 13-0 season in 2004.

If one did say that, however, that would be rather naive. Auburn is in Alabama, in case you've forgotten, and that means that the good 'ol boy network probably had more to do with this hire than anything else. What's that? Turner Gill, up at previously moribound Buffalo, seems like an ideal candidate? Well, sure, but Gill is African-American, something that Southern football culture still strruggles to accept. Black bodies are fine as sources of labor and victories on the field, mind you, but black minds running the sidelines is another matter altogether.

Lest you believe I'm just another raging liberal with a racial axe to grind, consider the fact that at this very moment, in a sport where nearly two-thirds of the players on the field are African-American (this number reflects major D-I college football; it is roughly 50% across all divisions), there are only four African-American coaches. And after Sylvester Crooms was ushered out of Mississipi State, exactly none of them coach in the Southeastern Conference.

During their search, Auburn officials interviewed no fewer than eight candidates for the position, including Gill. But as ESPN's Mark Schlabach notes, "Chizik was hired as Auburn's coach Saturday because he was an outstanding defensive coordinator during his three seasons there. Just as importantly, Chizik was well-liked by Auburn's influential boosters and former coach Pat Dye." Yes, it's the second part of that statement that is most important.

All of which brings us to Auburn alum, Charles Barkley. I don't always agree with Charles, but I do appreciate that he thinks beyond the surface and is willing to speak up when he thinks something is unfair. With respect to the new football coach, Barkley is in vintage form:

"I think race was the No. 1 factor. You can say it's not about race, but you can't compare the two resumes and say [Chizik] deserved the job. Out of all the coaches they interviewed, Chizik probably had the worst resume."

Chuck's probably right. The good 'ol boy network liked Chizik and didn't care to find out if it liked Gill. It's politics as usual in Southern football. Maybe Barkley's comments will at least spark some critical debate about what remains an embarrasing inequity.

Jan Kemp and the Lessons of Resistance

I consider myself a reasonably informed person, especially when it comes to sports. And, as someone invested in the relationships between communication and power, I like to think I know quite a bit about those moments in sports history when people stood up to undemocratic or unjust practices. But until today, I had never heard of Jan Kemp.

Kemp died last Thursday at the age of 59. She had been an English instructor at the University of Georgia in the 1980s, where she became (in)famous for blowing the whistle on the university's football program and its preferential treatment of academically deficient student-athletes. By speaking out, Kemp lost her job, became an object of scorn for Bulldogs football fans, and eventually one of the key figures in the reform of college athletics.

I'm a tenure-track facutly member, at a "mid-major" university, with an academic commitment to promoting justice and democracy. But if I'm being honest, I think it would be really difficult to speak out against the BGSU athletic department if they were being systematically unethical (which, to my knowledge, they are not). There's just so much power concentrated in university athletics and so much vitriol directed at those who resist that power. In Kemp's case, she was not in a tenure-track position and she was teaching at a university in the Southeastern Conference. As if Southern college football fans aren't devoted enough, keep in mind, too, that Georgia had just won the 1980 national championship. In other words, what Kemp did took serious courage.

Kemp later won a court settlement and was reinstated at the university. Perhaps more importantly, the improprieties she identified at Georgia sparked a series of reforms by the NCAA that modestly improved the ethical guidelines for intercollegiate athletics. She is, therefore, an important figure in the struggle for justice in sports.

I learned of Jan Kemp through ESPN's Pat Forde. His column is perhaps guilty of elevating one person's humble efforts to the realm of the "heroic." Nevertheless, he reminds us that we needn't accept the corruption of college sports as inevitable and that there are those who have helped teach us that lesson in the past. And, as I prepare my syllabus for next spring's graduate seminar "Sport and Resistance," Forde has provided me with an exemplary case to extend that lesson in the future.

Farewell, FJM

In the past month, I've struggled to find a little blog time in the midst of elections, holidays, conferences, deadlines, and meetings. I've missed a lot of stories along the way. One such oversight is the announcement that Fire Joe Morgan has closed up shop.

Say it ain't so, Joe.

If you've never noticed the link to the right, then you should take a look through the FJM archives. Since April 2005, Ken Tremendous (Michael Schur), Junior (Alan Yang), and dak (Dave King) have written consistently funny and consistently smart commentary about the world of sports journalism. I've spent many hours both laughing at and appreciating their insights. Perhaps most importantly, at least from my academic perspective, is that FJM was a case study in great online journalism, offering concrete evidence that sportswriting could adapt to new technologies while maintaining high standards for writing (and swearing). Indeed, the quality of thinking and writing found on the site easily exceeded the average drivel printed in the best newspapers.

So, please, take a look before they decide to take the site down. You'll be happier and smarter for it.