When I came to Canada in 1949, four university football teams were playing in the Senior Intercollegiate Football League that existed at the time in Central Canada — Toronto, McGill, Queen’s and Western Ontario. At Western, John Metras was head coach, Dr. Jack Fairs was backfield coach and I served as line coach. Happily, Western emerged as Canadian champions in both 1949-1950 and 1950-1951.

How times have changed. The official rankings indicate none of the football teams from these four universities are now listed in the top 10. These four universities have presumably maintained their academic standards for student admission and retention — and are not “buying” student-athletes in one way or another just to win games.

Should the present lowly status of the “Big Four” universities vis-à-vis national football standing concern us? It has been reported that Nero fiddled while Rome burned. But then we are not certain he had all of his mental faculties. I would argue we too are “fiddling”while some aspects of university competitive sport are catching fire.

Truly, it is not fair to athletes and coaches when they do well within one league, to have them advance to national play-downs competing with teams from other conferences where athletic scholarships or other financial enticements are the norm. We want our athletes to continue to do the best they can within an educational environment. Semiprofessional sport does not a great university make.

At this time, several potential box-office university sports are seemingly sliding into semiprofessionalism. I have no quarrel with a young person striving for excellence in competitive sport on a semiprofessional or professional basis. Sport is a legitimate aspect of our culture despite the abuses that are increasingly part of the scene.

Unfortunately, cheating and deceit are what have developed with semiprofessionalism in the 20^th century for so many young people in commercialized American university sport. These athletes are often underprivileged youngsters who spend so much time on football, for example, that they rarely earn a baccalaureate degree in the allotted four years. I am worried this “U.S. cancer” will spread north of the border.

Because of the excessive pressure exerted when semiprofessionalism in university sport is allowed, there are now reportedly more than 400 substances that may be ingested as many coaches and athletes seek improved performance. Anabolic steroids are just the tip of the iceberg. We shouldn’t increasingly place our Canadian university athletes in such a position that, because of pressure to win, they are tempted to experiment with potentially harmful drugs.

Canada generally has done quite well until now. High school instructors and coaches in Canada have, by and large, preserved athletics of an educational nature in their programs for students. Undoubtedly there’s been much support from principals and superintendents. I worry that Canadian university and college administrators won’t continue to show as much sense — that they may be unduly swayed by wealthy alumni, or government, that from time to time seem determined to use universities as training grounds for international elite sport.

Our problem is that there are conflicting forces at work within our federal government and universities that are gradually leading us down the garden path to a Canadian version of the “scholar-athlete,” as identified by both the U.S. National Collegiate Athletic Association and the National Association for Intercollegiate Athletics. Many of our Canadian officials and administrators argue that we are too intelligent and wise to allow the worst elements of the U.S. system to develop within higher education here. This may be true, but I doubt it.

I taught and coached at Yale and administered the phys ed departments at Michigan and Illinois. I know what developed there. So when I had the opportunity to return to Canada as the first dean of the faculty of physical education at Western in the early 1970s, I heaved a great sigh of relief. I was happy to return to a situation in which the new faculty’s undergraduate program, graduate program, intercollegiate athletics program and physical recreation and intramural program could strive for a concept of “balanced excellence” in an educational environment.

Now, 35 years later, the situation in higher education has changed markedly in all parts of the country. Western has truly been favored because of the quality of its athletic administrators and coaches since the program started. Many individuals have contributed to this unique development. Today, because of social forces and certain professional concerns within the field, we’re at a crossroad.

University administrators and faculty members across the land need to be kept on alert to the growing, insidious influence of the media barrage emanating from the U.S. covering the exploits of the majority of universities and colleges where semiprofessional athletics prevails.

As matters are progressing now, the best hope for retention of athletic sanity for some Canadian universities (e.g., those relating to Ontario interuniversity athletics) would be the establishment of a Canadian “Ivy League.” This would leave an assortment of other institutions in the East, West and Quebec selling their “academic souls” for a mess of pottage in a wide-open Canadian league. But, how do the resultant media attention and notoriety of such present endeavor benefit them? Winning football teams may attract attention, but they do not make a great university.

Canadian universities should be wiser than their commercialized U.S. counterparts are with their overall sport programs. Our objective should be solely to profit from the benefits that a sound program of developmental physical activity in sport, exercise and related expressive activities can bring for all people in our country — accelerated, normal, or special.

Canada can do reasonably well in international sport as well as provide healthful physical activity and physical recreation for all its citizens. Achieving such a balance can be done without perverting secondary or higher education. At the university level, we have a sufficient number of problems while we strive to avoid shabbiness because of inadequate support.

Allowing an increasing, unhealthy type of athletic-scholarship mentality to creep into university sport would eventually make us laughable to those who truly understand how it “ought to be.” It would also have a deleterious effect at the lower educational levels.

It’s better to be proud and somewhat poorer financially, yet remain honorable and fair as we promote educational and recreational sport for all of our students.

Earle Zeigler is emeritus professor at the University of Western Ontario. He is a dual citizen of Canada and the United States and is the author of numerous works on North American human values and ethics. His special areas of interest are education, sport, religion, politics, management, fitness, health, recreation and the future.

A shorter version of this article was published in the Western News, Feb. 7, 2002.

The views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily CAUT.

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