In this conversation about college athletes being paid I hope none of you are holding on to the illusion that college athletes are amateurs. Even if they don’t receive cash money, they are organized around a schedule that demands professionalism. In-season training, off-season training that includes some type of summer training or competition or both is commonplace.

Their schedule during school is jammed with individual and team activities to enhance their performance. In most cases, they also need to maintain an academic schedule and progress toward a degree. I don’t pretend to know what they are doing with the “one-and-done” athletes that are only in school for a year. (Hard choice to make, but I think there is too much value in staying in school for a couple of years, at least.)

Amateur sports competition was primarily created in England. It was designed to give the elite (rich) a place to compete without the not-so-well-off stuffing their game. Avery Brundage led the charge for amateurism in this country and was probably as chagrined as Adolph Hitler when Jesse Owens kicked everyone’s butt in the ‘36 Olympics. You see, if the athlete didn’t have the income to train he usually had to stop and go to work. The exception in the USA was the athlete who was in the military and could let the military fund his training.

I played AAU basketball out of college in a league that was second only to the eight teams in the NBA. Corporations sponsored these teams and put the athletes in Executive Training programs.

Phillips Petroleum did this back in the ‘30’s and some of their top execs in the 50’s and 60’s were ex-basketball players. Other corporate examples were Akron Goodyear, Vickers Petroleum, Caterpillar Tractor Co., Denver-Chicago Trucking and Seattle Buchan Baking Co. From the first Olympics where basketball was played, through the 60’s, the U.S. was able to send its team courtesy of these companies.

The proposition was simple. The great athletes need more than room, board, books and tuition after they were out of school just to train and continue the sports they loved. I had the good fortune of playing on the Buchan’s team in the National AAU tournament in 1960 in which we finished 3rd. I was named to the AAU All-American team and received an opportunity to compete in the Olympic Trials to select our Olympic Team.

To show you the quality of the athletes and coaches that participated in the trials. Here is a list of a few:
Oscar Robertson, University of Cincinnati, maybe the best basketball player ever.
Jerry West, West Virginia University, in all the Halls of Fame
Jerry Lucas, Ohio State and the NY Knicks
John Havlicek, Ohio State and a legendary Boston Celtic
Chet Walker, Bradley University, Chicago Bulls Hall of Famer
Pete Newell, Head Olympic Coach (1960) and Hall of Fame Coach at Cal, Berkeley
Alex Hannum, Akron Goodyear Coach, only coach to derail the Celtics with the St.Louis Hawks.

Zelmo Beatty, Charley Hardnett, Porter Meriweather from schools you never heard of, The Kelly Bro’s from Kansas, Don Ohl, Piston great from the University of Illinois, Dick Boushka, Vickers and two time Olympian from St. Louis University (also became CEO of Vickers Petroleum), Charley Slack, Goodyear and Marshall University who led the NCAA in rebounding with 24.0 per game back in the day and I could go on and on.

The bottom line is they needed financial support of some kind to accomplish what they did. Still sorting things out for myself. What do you think? Even if it is a great idea the administration of it all scares me. Are we just creating another thing to police without a police force?

What really needs to happen is to throw out the current rulebook and create something from scratch, i.e. something that actually works.