Skip to content

Booksellers & Trade Customers: Sign up for online bulk buying at trade.atlanticbooks.com for wholesale discounts

Booksellers: Create Account on our B2B Portal for wholesale discounts

Common Enemies: Georgetown Basketball, Miami Football, and the Racial Transformation of College Sports

by Thomas F. Schaller
Save 26% Save 26%
Current price ₹2,395.00
Original price ₹3,230.00
Original price ₹3,230.00
Original price ₹3,230.00
(-26%)
₹2,395.00
Current price ₹2,395.00

Imported Edition - Ships in 18-21 Days

Free Shipping in India on orders above Rs. 500

Request Bulk Quantity Quote
+91
Book cover type: Hardcover
  • ISBN13: 9781496215710
  • Binding: Hardcover
  • Subject: N/A
  • Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
  • Publisher Imprint: University of Nebraska Press
  • Publication Date:
  • Pages: 304
  • Original Price: USD 32.95
  • Language: English
  • Edition: N/A
  • Item Weight: 590 grams
  • BISAC Subject(s): Cultural & Ethnic Studies / American / African American & Black Studies, Basketball, and Football

During the 1980s Black athletes and other athletes of color broadened the popularity and profitability of major-college televised sports by infusing games with a "Black style" of play. At a moment ripe for a revolution in men's college basketball and football, clashes between "good guy" white protagonists and bombastic "bad boy" Black antagonists attracted new fans and spectators. And no two teams in the 1980s welcomed the enemy's role more than Georgetown Hoya basketball and Miami Hurricane football.

Georgetown and Miami taunted opponents. They celebrated scores and victories with in-your-face swagger. Coaches at both programs changed the tenor of postgame media appearances and the language journalists and broadcasters used to describe athletes. Athletes of color at both schools made sports apparel fashionable for younger fans, particularly young African American men. The Hoyas and the 'Canes were a sensation because they made the bad-boy image look good. Popular culture took notice.

In the United States sports and race have always been tightly, if sometimes uncomfortably, entwined. Black athletes who dare to challenge the sporting status quo are often initially vilified but later accepted. The 1980s generation of barrier-busting college athletes took this process a step further. True to form, Georgetown's and Miami's aggressive style of play angered many fans and commentators. But in time their style was not only accepted but imitated by others, both Black and white. Love them or hate them, there was simply no way you could deny the Hoyas and the Hurricanes.

Thomas F. Schaller is a professor of political science at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. He is a former national political columnist for the Baltimore Sun and is the author of The Stronghold: How Republicans Captured Congress but Surrendered the White House and Whistling Past Dixie: How Democrats Can Win without the South.

Trusted for over 49 years

Family Owned Company

Secure Payment

All Major Credit Cards/Debit Cards/UPI & More Accepted

New & Authentic Products

India's Largest Distributor

Need Support?

Whatsapp Us