That judge’s ruling last week ordering colleges and universities to pay heretofore “student-athletes” (over and above the NIL money they’re already getting) to compete for the schools that are supposedly educating them and preparing them for future employment started me thinking.
I’m sure I’ll hear from friends who remember when things were different and decry amateurism’s end.
But I’ve put together the following “good old days” quiz to make my point that we’ve been heading this way for some time
I’ve chosen 1955 as the baseline for my questions, mainly because that’s when I was old enough to remember how it used to be.
Q1: How many major college football bowl games were played after the ’55 season?
Q2: How many teams made up the National Hockey League that year, and which team won the Stanley Cup?
Q3: How many teams made up baseball’s major leagues in 1955?
Q4: Who was professional baseball’s first $100,000 bonus baby?
Q5: When was the last game between the College All-Stars and the National Football League defending champs played in Chicago? Which team won?
Q6: Can you name the eight teams in the National Basketball Association for the 1955-56 season and where they play today?
I chose these questions to illustrate the profound change sports in America has undergone in the past 70 years. In each instance, note when television entered the picture (so to speak).
A1: Following the 1955 college football season, the bowl lineup included the Rose, Orange, Cotton, Sugar, Gator and Sun bowls—Six! Five were shown on TV. After the 2024 season concluded, there were forty-six—46—including four in the eight-team College Football Playoff. All were televised.
A2: In 1955 the National Hockey League consisted of six teams, often referred to as the Original Six, though prior to 1942 the NHL had as many as 10 teams. The Original Six are Montreal, Toronto, Chicago, Boston, New York and the ’55 Stanley Cup champs, Detroit. The NHL’s 32nd team, the Seattle Kraken, began play in the 2021-22 season.
The Stanley Cup is the oldest trophy in major professional sports, but it wasn’t shown on national television until 1953 in Canada and 1966 in the U.S.
A3: The National and American Leagues each had eight teams. Now they each have 15.
The trick to this question, if there is one, is either the Baltimore Orioles, who had relocated from St. Louis (where they were the Browns) the season before; or the Dodgers and Giants, who later moved from New York City to Los Angeles and San Francisco, respectively. (The 1955 World Series, when Brooklyn beat the Yankees, was the first one televised in color, by NBC.)
A4: The Pittsburgh Pirates signed lefthanded pitcher Paul Pettit to a contract with their farm team in New Orleans with a $100,00 bonus in 1950. And that New Orleans part is important.
Between 1947 and the establishment of the amateur draft in 1965 (now televised nationally), any major league team that signed an amateur for a bonus of $4,000 or more was required to keep that player on its active roster for the next two seasons. By signing Pettit to a minor league contract, Pittsburgh circumvented that rule.
(In case your answer was Mickey Mantle, the Mick was a bargain. Scout Tom Greenwade signed him for a bonus of $1,500.)
A5: The Chicago Charities All-Star Classic, as it became known, came to an end in 1976, mainly the victim of NFL teams’ reluctance to risk their top draft choices being injured in the game. It was televised annually, beginning in 1950. The collegians won in 1955, beating Cleveland 30-27.
A6: The champs in ’54-55, the Philadelphia Warriors, are now the Golden State Warrior. The Fort Wayne Pistons are now in Detroit; the St. Louis Hawks in Atlanta; and the Minneapolis Lakers in Los Angeles. The Syracuse Nationals have become the Philadelphia 76ers, and the Rochester Royals are the Sacramento Kinds (by way of Cincinnati and Kansas City). Only the New York Knicks and Boston Celtics remain where they began.
I hope you’ve noticed a trend or two in all of this.
The radical change in college athletics in nothing more than the latest in a continuing evolution in sports in general, driven by the tremendous amount of money that television generates, and the seemingly limitless support of fans.
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Denny Dressman’s 17th book, a collaboration with Kansas City artist Anthony High titled Black Baseball’s Heyday – Capturing An Era in Art and Words, will be published in late summer. You can write to Denny atdennydressman@comcast.net.