Big 10, gender, race

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University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign *

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205

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History

Date

Dec 6, 2023

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docx

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Ewan Ro RST 205 9/10/2023 I believe the Big 10 did well with integrating race and sex into sports. At these respective times, there were issues whether race or sex that caused people to view these groups of people as “inferior” which caused segregation in sports. There were hits and misses for what the Big 10 did well with and what they could’ve done better, but at they were still issues that were mostly fixed and issue that they combat even today. For women in sports, Commissioner Jim Delany did well by being one of the first conferences that allowed for women to compete with each other at a collegiate level. That in itself was a huge accomplishment and with the goal of having the 50/50 ratio for sports was a major goal for the progression of women’s sports. Though that 50/50 ratio didn’t hit, there was still a 60/40 ratio in competing male and female athletes which was a big accomplishment. The momentum caused by the Big 10 was one that had many other schools follow which allowed for women’s sports. Allowing for Phyllis Howlett to become the assistant commissioner of the Big 10 allowed for even more ideas on how to let women compete at a collegiate level. Her being such a big influence for the Big 10 was a big way on why Big 10 female sports have gotten as big as it today. Race has been an issue with segregation throughout American history. When Michigan allowed for Moses Walker to compete on their baseball team in 1882, he showed that African Americans could compete at the collegiate level. The Big 10 was progressive in allowing for different races to compete on the same team. The preconception that African Americans were less likely able to compete at a collegiate level was apparent with even coach Amos Stagg saying that he believed that “African-Americans lacked the aggressiveness and determination to succeed in [football]”. These preconceptions were slowly shattered but athletes such as Jesse Owens and William Hubbard were able to break these concepts by getting gold medals in the Olympics. Somewhere the Big 10 fell short was the segregation of African Americans and Caucasians during Jesse Owen’s time at Ohio State. Jesse Owens wasn’t allowed to live on campus, received no money from scholarships, wasn’t allowed to stay at the same hotel as his teammates during his time in school. Though this issue wasn’t just a school problem but a national problem, the school should’ve done a lot better to accommodate one of the early icons of American Olympics. John Delany, being a previous Big 10 commissioner had a lot of important things to say when referencing the integration of race and sex in sports. As for integrating race into the Big 10, the conference was actually very early with allowing for African Americans to compete at the collegiate level, dating back to the 1880’s. He mentioned that there were some schools had didn’t even allow this until much later in the 1970’s. Despite the problems and issues the Big 10 faced with racial integration, John Delany seemed to take pride that the Big 10 was early with allowing for racial integration in this conference. Even though there were problems to fix even today, the

conference is doing what it can to treat all athletes with respect. For women, John Delany stated that even though they were fairly late with getting females to play at a collegiate level, he knew he had work to do when he first came in. He stated that the ratio for men to women athletes was 72/28 respectively. But with the amount of work he did to integrate more female athletes to his conference, he was able to boost that number up to 51/49. This was a huge accomplished that John Delany did which should be applauded. To be able to create this ratio in 7 years was incredible and with Phyllis Howlett as his assistant, he made huge strides to create equal opportunities for all athletes, whether different race or sex. The Big 10 was considered one of the more inclusive conferences that allowed for athletes to compete at their schools regardless of race or gender. By going against preconceptions that a certain race couldn’t compete at the collegiate level or the idea that females didn’t want to compete in college, the Big 10 set standards and broke preconceptions with integrative sports. Though there are going to be problems with both topics, the Big 10 will only try to be more inclusive and treat all athletes with equality moving forward. Sherman, E. (2019). The Greatest Athlete in the Big Ten History. In This is BIG: How the Big Ten set the standard in college sports (pp. 98-103). Place of publication not identified: Big Ten Conference. Dietz, D. (2019). Taking the Lead for Growing Women’s Sports. In This is the BIG: How the Big Ten set the standard in college sports (pp 62-69). Place of publican not identified: Big Ten Conference. Sherman, E. (2019). Race and the Big Ten: A Complex and Complicated History. In This is BIG: How the Big Ten set the standard in college sports (pp. 48-53). Place of publication not identified: Big Ten Conference.

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