“A smart, well-written study of football’s complex relationship with higher education and the general public during the Progressive era. . . . The best history of early college football.”—American Historical Review “Ingrassia has written an important book about the development of a symbiotic relationship between institutions of higher learning and big-time football in the United States. Ingrassia’s book ... Read moreis well researched and thoughtfully argued. It is a worthy contribution to scholarship on the urgent public policy issue of the proper role of big-time athletics in academic institutions.”—Journal of American History “Ingrassia offers a fresh perspective on the origins of big-time college football. Other scholars have produced works on the same subject . . . [but] Ingrassia’s book stands apart because of its focus on the role of faculty in the development of big-time college football. As he persuasively argues, faculty in the late-19th and early-20th centuries ‘institutionalized athletics’ and played a key role in giving athletics a ‘permanent place on college campuses.’ . . . Ingrassia’s intriguing, insightful book makes an important contribution to the literature on intercollegiate athletics. Highly recommended.”—Choice “An outstanding contribution to the scholarship on the history of college football. . . . Ingrassia’s deeply researched argument overturns many of the assumptions in this field of study""—Michigan Law Review. Show Less