Chariots of Fire
On one level the Christians, Jews, and the English Class system are broken down to individual performances at the Olympics in the 1981 movie.
The characters and the story are based on fact leading up to the 1924 Paris Olympics. The amateur ideals of the time were even then starting to be questioned. I'm sure that Eric Liddell and Harold Abrahams did not meet the usual gentlemanly standards of the day and the why they were running was also off the charts. Using sports to promote ones beliefs as they were at the time was novel. Professional sports were more or less in their infancy.
College football and sports as practiced in the USA probably need a haircut. Sports and games are helpful in providing an opportunity, discipline and an understanding of teamwork in schools but then there is the rest of the story.
There are suggestions that college athletes should be paid because college make so much money off of them. I must say that if fairness is to be considered it is entirely reasonable to give players some more money for basic living expenses. Coaches are being paid millions at the football factories and universities market jerseys with numbers and names and even video games that bear a resemblance to stars.
At the University of Miami, first they dropped basketball, then football was almost jettisoned because the team had fallen on hard times, attendance was down, and sports were a losing proposition in the 1970's. Then came Howard Schellenberger and a strategic decision to use the football program to market a school better known as Suntan U. If it worked and it did there would be more and better students attracted to the school. Saturday football could energize alumni and provide free nationwide advertising to a school where both semesters were still spring and eventually the quality of education could be improved.
The run the UM had in the 1980's till 2001 was unbelieveable, national championships were magical and the winning streak at the Orange Bowl still stands even though the stadium has been replaced by the mistake called Miami Marlin Park. UM players became stars in the NFL and imitation became the most sincere form of flattery. Now everybody is trying to recruit players that can put fans in the stadium and get the team on TV. Cable TV and 24 hours sports radio do their part to promote the business of college "amateur" athletics.
I like the movie "Rudy", it's probably the only thing about Notre Dame football I will watch on TV. But it should be contrasted with ESPN Documentaries The U. and Pony Excess which is another honest version of college sports.
The characters and the story are based on fact leading up to the 1924 Paris Olympics. The amateur ideals of the time were even then starting to be questioned. I'm sure that Eric Liddell and Harold Abrahams did not meet the usual gentlemanly standards of the day and the why they were running was also off the charts. Using sports to promote ones beliefs as they were at the time was novel. Professional sports were more or less in their infancy.
College football and sports as practiced in the USA probably need a haircut. Sports and games are helpful in providing an opportunity, discipline and an understanding of teamwork in schools but then there is the rest of the story.
There are suggestions that college athletes should be paid because college make so much money off of them. I must say that if fairness is to be considered it is entirely reasonable to give players some more money for basic living expenses. Coaches are being paid millions at the football factories and universities market jerseys with numbers and names and even video games that bear a resemblance to stars.
At the University of Miami, first they dropped basketball, then football was almost jettisoned because the team had fallen on hard times, attendance was down, and sports were a losing proposition in the 1970's. Then came Howard Schellenberger and a strategic decision to use the football program to market a school better known as Suntan U. If it worked and it did there would be more and better students attracted to the school. Saturday football could energize alumni and provide free nationwide advertising to a school where both semesters were still spring and eventually the quality of education could be improved.
The run the UM had in the 1980's till 2001 was unbelieveable, national championships were magical and the winning streak at the Orange Bowl still stands even though the stadium has been replaced by the mistake called Miami Marlin Park. UM players became stars in the NFL and imitation became the most sincere form of flattery. Now everybody is trying to recruit players that can put fans in the stadium and get the team on TV. Cable TV and 24 hours sports radio do their part to promote the business of college "amateur" athletics.
I like the movie "Rudy", it's probably the only thing about Notre Dame football I will watch on TV. But it should be contrasted with ESPN Documentaries The U. and Pony Excess which is another honest version of college sports.
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