Gridiron Loyalty
It is that time of the year again. Hope and excitement are alive, and possibilities seem endless. There is anticipation of what may be and a lot of hype about what is to come! No, I am not talking about a new project or a new career. I am talking about one of the biggest aspects of college that helped shape higher education into what it is today. I am talking about football! (Que your fight song here!)
It may surprise you that football is one of the foundations highlighted when studying the history of higher education. In reviewing the evolving American university, gridiron loyalties are part of that discussion. According to Lucas (2006), when reminiscing about college in the late nineteenth-century, one would remember a professor, or nostalgic memories of friendships and academic trials or tribulations. The addition of football transformed loyalty and added a sense of affiliation to your college or university long after graduation.
Improvised athletic contests were part of the college scene dating back to the 900s in medieval England. Men would kick an object around an open field (Lucas, 2006), but other than academics criticizing this activity as unbecoming of gentlemen behavior, faculty and staff ignored these activities. It was not until the 1850’s that boat racing gained popularity as a collegiate competition followed by baseball with track and field. According to Lucas (2006), it was not until 1869 that the first organized football game was held between Rutgers and Princeton. It was an informal game that was based on soccer. More games took place at other institutions and became popular. A version of the game that resembled English rugby was born (Lucas, 2006). Students would pay for the cost of the competitions themselves. In 1873 when students asked the president of Cornell to offset the cost of travel expenses for a game, he firmly declined (Lucas, 2006). Fast forward eight years and a team from Michigan traveled east and played Harvard, Princeton, and Yale within a week (Lucas, 2006). After this, football matches became a weekend occurrence among colleges and universities. Alumni began to join these games to root for their home teams. In 1880, Yale student Walter Camp reshaped the game to reflect a more urban-industrial society (Ingrassia, 2015). By 1883, with the Yale and Princeton game held in New York City, the age of big-time football began (Lucas, 2006). It is important to note that at this same time, higher education was also reshaping itself where professors were moving from an overall discipline towards a focus of a single academic discipline (Ingrassia, 2015).
While there were those that criticized the popularity of football, it was President Hadley of Yale that stated the game held the emotions of students in a way that made class distinctions unimportant and made the students gather in an old-fashioned democratic way (Lucas, 2006). He understood that students connected with the passion for the game much more than passion for academics. Football kept alumni involved with their alma mater and inspired potential donors bringing visibility and public support to institutions.
Why is holding these emotions and loyalty so important to an institution? According to a study by Hennig-Thurau et al. (2001), emotional commitment drives student loyalty. This loyalty is second only to the perceived quality of teaching a student receives. It is important to consider these two variables when performing marketing activities to bring funds into an institution (Hennig-Thurau et al., 2001). With state appropriations for colleges and universities in steady decline, both public and private institutions are becoming more dependent on gridiron loyalties that help generate private funding (Labaree, 2023). Think about the colleges and universities that you see in commercials, or their symbols displayed in stores. These institutions have become genuinely popular, not due to academics, but through a sport with lowly beginnings that came to elevate the status of an institution as a symbol of success and achievement (Lucas, 2006).
So, this Labor Day weekend, as you proudly don the colors of your institution and cheer on your favorite player, also be proud that you are participating in an activity that helped shape higher education into what it is today. (Que your Alma Mater here.)
References
Hennig-Thurau, T., Langer, M. F., & Hansen, U. (2001). Modeling and managing student loyalty. Journal of Service Research, 3(4), 331–344. https://doi.org/10.1177/109467050134006
Ingrassia, B. M. (2015). The rise of gridiron university: Higher education’s uneasy alliance with big-time football. University Press of Kansas.
Labaree, D. (2023, May 25). Nobel prizes are great, but football is why US universities rule. David Labaree on Schooling, History, and Writing; David Labaree on Schooling, History, and Writing. https://davidlabaree.com/2023/05/25/nobel-prizes-are-great-but-football-is-why-us-universities-rule/
Lucas, C. J. (2006). American Higher Education: A History. Palgrave Macmillan.
