Football: The Ivy League Origins of an American Obsession [Hardcover]

Mark F. Bernstein (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 22, 2001

Every autumn American football fans pack large college stadiums or crowd around grassy fields to root for their favorite teams. Most are unaware that this most popular American sport was created by the teams that now make up the Ivy League. From the day Princeton played the first intercollegiate game in 1869, these major schools of the northeast—Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Pennsylvania, Princeton, and Yale—shaped football as we now know it. Almost every facet of the game still bears their imprint: they created the All-America team, produced the first coaches, devised the basic rules, invented many of the strategies, developed much of the equipment, and even named the positions. Both the Heisman and Outland trophies are named for Ivy League players.

Crowds of 80,000 no longer attend Ivy League games as they did seventy years ago, and Ivy teams are not the powerhouses they once were, but at times they can still be a step ahead of the rest of football, as in 1973 when Brown and Penn started the first black quarterbacks to face each other in major college history.

In this rich history, Bernstein shows that much of the culture that surrounds American football, both good and bad, has its roots in the Ivy League. The college fight song is an Ivy League creation (Yale's was written by Cole Porter), as are the marching bands that play them. With their long winning streaks and impressive victories, Ivy teams started a national obsession with football in the first decades of the twentieth century that remains alive today. But football was almost abolished early on because of violence in Ivy games, and it took President Theodore Roosevelt to mediate disagreements about rough play in order for football to remain a college sport. Gambling and ticket scalping were as commonplace then as now, as well as payoffs and recruiting abuses, fueled by the tremendous amount of money generated by the games, revenue that was oftentimes greater than that collected by the rest of the university. But the Ivy teams confronted those abuses, and in so doing helped develop our ideals about the role of athletics in college life. Although Ivy League football and its ancient rivalries have disappeared from big-time sports by their own accord, their legacy remains with every snap of the ball.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Bernstein, a journalist, cartoonist and lawyer who graduated from Princeton, reminds the world that the roots of American football are entrenched on the campus grounds of the Ivy League, even if its brand of football now inspires little interest. He writes that Ivy League schools "invented the All-America team and filled all the early ones, produced the first coaches, arranged the basic rules, conceived many of the strategies, devised much of the equipment, and even named the positions." And much like the schools he covers, Bernstein eschews the thrills of the college football experience in deference to a more scholastic pursuit. Though the book's tone recalls an academic paper, Bernstein does leaven his history with anecdotes bringing the subject to life. After a game-winning kick for Princeton against Yale in 1899, for instance, player Arthur Poe engaged a de facto PR agent to handle his fans. "Mr. Poe directs me to thank you for the lock of hair," a representative response began. "He prizes it highly and regrets that another engagement will prevent his presence at Cadwalader Park, Friday evening." While the book starts out as a history of college football as it related to the Ivy League, it develops into a history of Ivy League football. The latter may be of less interest to the general gridiron buff, but anyone looking here to find a detailed account of the sport's origin will scarcely be disappointed.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Review

"A treasure trove of facts and stories. . . . The author not only describes the history, from the first Ivy League game in 1869 to the present, but also includes interesting vignettes about he players after they left their colleges. . . . An excellent resource for football historians and those interested in the Ivy League."—Choice

"Anyone looking here to find a detailed account of the sport's origin will scarcely be disappointed."—Publishers Weekly

"Bernstein provides the most comprehensive treatment of his subject currently in existence. . . . He also deserves praise for . . . filling his book with interesting football stories."—H-Net Reviews

"Bernstein's book is first-rate football history for the richness of its details drawn from a wide range of primary and secondary materials. . . Highly readable and highly informed."—Register of the Kentucky Historical Society

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 344 pages
• Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press (August 22, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812236270
• ISBN-13: 978-0812236279
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #965,308 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Potentially Great history Ruined by Sloppy Editing, January 3, 2005

By 

Edward Garea "Edward Garea" (Branchville, New Jersey United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Football: The Ivy League Origins of an American Obsession (Hardcover)

This could well have been not only the definitive history of the Ivy League, but also one of the seminal works on the subject of football. The history of football by necessity goes through the Ivy League and the intrigues among Princeton, Harvard and Yale were to affect the college game for years and decades to come.

The Ivies have always been an enigma, an asterisk on the history of college football. Once boasting the most dominant teams in the country, the Ivies haven't boasted a national champion since Cornell in 1939. Finally, they were demoted by the NCAA to its Division I-AA in the late 70s. There would be no more national glory, and football became just another thing to do in the autumn, instead of being an obsession, which it is at Division 1-A colleges.

Bernstein does an excellent job of narrating the history of the Ivies. Every school is included, and there are loads of anecdotal sidelights that will delight the reader. The book is also thoroughly researched and is marked by a lively style not often found in university press publications.

Then why do I say that this could have been the definitive history of the Ivy League? One word: editing. One would naturally take for granted that a book from a university press would be well-edited, and a book from a press of the University of Pennsylvania being such should be a no-brainer. But the book is spoiled by numerous errors, errors that could have been caught by an editor's sharp eye. Other reviewers have pointed out some of the more outrageous errors as pertains to football, but I give you the most egregious of all:

"In many ways, the teens were a decade of Ivy prominence. Both presidential elections were all-Ivy affairs: Theodore Roosevelt defeated Woodrow Wilson and William Howard Taft in 1912, and Wilson beat Charles Evans Hughes in 1916." (p. 95)

HOW'S THAT AGAIN? ROOSEVELT DEFEATED WILSON IN 1912?? This will come as some news to American Historians. Obviously, history is not a core curriculum course of the University of Pennsylvania these days. I don't blame the author (though he should know better, being a graduate of Princeton), I blame the editors. They're the ones who are supposed to catch these mistakes. I admit that a mistake concerning football history can slip by, but this is a basic fact of American history that slipped right past. Shame on the editors.

Nonetheless, I do recommend the book for its strengths and its well-written narrative and lively style. Perhaps the mistakes can be corrected for the paperback edition.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, but needs a thorough editing; too many mistakes, July 18, 2002

By 

Engineering Jones (Eastern States, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Football: The Ivy League Origins of an American Obsession (Hardcover)

Mark F. Bernstein's history of Ivy League football is generally interesting, though it doesn't offer a lot of new material. The bibliography is fascinating. Most problematic however, is the proliferation of mistakes, sometimes self-corrected later. A good editor should have caught these. Consider the following:

1) On page 199, Mr. Bernstein implies that Princeton, Dartmouth, Columbia, and Cornell dropped Pennsylvania from their schedules in 1951 and 1952. In fact, Pennsylvania played all of these teams in both of those seasons and the author even refers to the 1951 Princeton-Penn contest on page 209.

2) On page 257, the author writes that "(Penn coach Jerry) Berndt continued to win, claiming a share of still another Ivy title in 1988, with Cornell....". However, this is not correct as Berndt left Pennsylvania after the 1985 season, which the author correctly indicates on page 258.

3) On page 242, and again on page 280, Penn receiving legend Don Clune, is referred to as Don McClune.

4) There is no mention of Frank Riepl's miracle kickoff return for Pennsylvania against Notre Dame in 1955, Coach Ron Rogerson of Princeton's untimely death in 1986, Brown is continually called the "Bears" when their nickname was the "Bruins" until recently, and I swear, somewhere in the book Bob Blackman is called Bob Blackmun.

All in all, it's a good book with a decent balance of coverage of each of the eight teams, though Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Penn get by far the most attention. The beginning takes a bit to get through as well and of course, please check the facts, ma'am.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Read About the Ivy League and Football, December 12, 2001

By 

CaribMike (Philadelphia, PA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Football: The Ivy League Origins of an American Obsession (Hardcover)

Even though I have not yet finished reading this excellent book on football and the Ivy League, I already have enough tidbits to keep up a lively conversation at holiday cocktail parties. Before the end of the first chapter, I found out that there really is no Ivy League. And who could resist dropping on their friends from Cornell the fact that one of their college presidents refused to let "thirty men travel 400 miles to agitate a bag of wind". The tales are intriguing, and Bernstein's writing is engaging. If you have an Ivy League graduate or any other football fan on your gift list, this would be a great choice.