Commentary by Robert Escandon, Sumner Newscow — This past week I found myself musing about sports and academics in general.  Having lived in America and Europe, it is interesting to note both the similarities and the differences.

Robert Escandon

At the emotional level, supporting your chosen team is little different on both sides of the Atlantic but there are differences in the games themselves and in public expectation.  For instance, Europe is overwhelmed by one sport — Soccer — which is all pervasive.  Unlike the U.S.,  European Universities don’t have their own teams nor their own stadiums either.  People don’t watch televised Soccer games between –say — Oxford and Madrid University teams, because there aren’t any.  A University may play the odd friendly local league game against another University but it is not a big deal like here in the States and wouldn’t be televised or broadcast.

I was surprised when I first came to live in America to find Universities owning massively expensive sports stadiums, and paying their coaches ludicrously large salaries.  The money invested by Colleges (and especially universities) in their sports activities seemed, to me, more like the levels expected in professional sports.

When you attend a British University it is to study your chosen subject and not with the up-front intention of playing a sport.  As such, there are no sports scholarships on offer and therefore no sports’ scouts either.   You might get some academic assistance with your tuition fees (if you are very lucky and intellectually smart) but your sporting interest or abilities will be irrelevant to a University. 

I like to ask my seniors “what will you do when you graduate?”  Recently, I got a typical answer which was “I’m going to Cowley for Baseball.”  Those were his actual words.  When pressed further about academic subjects to be studied towards the direction of a future career, the student was vague and had little idea.  He was going to College for Baseball and thinking about his academic studies was way down on his list of concerns.

I’m not saying either system is better, but the emphasis is certainly different.  American and European Colleges and Universities are superb institutions whether or not sports are considered.  Another notable difference (although not concerning sports) is the American requirement of “getting your General Ed out of the way” in your first year.

European Universities assume that your General Ed has already been taken care of during your High School years and doesn’t need to be repeated.  When I went to University, to study Engineering then that is all I studied, from day one,  along with important related subjects like Math and Physics — at least that was so in my case, since I was majoring in Engineering.

Sports, and the enormous incomes it generates seems to have become more and more important to American Universities (in particular) to the level where you could begin to consider a University as a sports business with academics glued on, rather than the other way around.

Here’s a similar observation of priority-thinking.  About 10 years ago I applied for a Math teaching position in a small rural school in Western Kansas.  The Principal showed me around the building which looked for all-the-world as run-down and in need of renovation.  The Math rooms were a desert with just a few old textbooks lying around.  After the school “tour” the Principal said he was excited to show me what they had at the back of the school building.

As we stepped out, I was amazed to see a brand new sports hall.  Inside, the building was wonderful, with excellent lighting, beautiful polished maple floors and all the facilities you could possibly wish for.  The Principal proudly told me the sports facility was privately funded by local farmers and land-owners, of which he was one, and also with funding from the residents of the school district who had risen to the occasion and put their hands in their own pockets.  He had every reason to be proud of his locally-resourced facility.  It was superb!

I probably did myself no job-favors by politely asking if at least some of the money could have been used to improve the building and academic facilities in the actual school rather than putting everything into sports.  His answer was that it would not have been possible to excite the public sufficiently to raise funds for classrooms, whereas average mums and dads could picture a nice sports hall and get excited about it.  At least, that was his stated view.

I have to share this:  I didn’t get offered a contract to teach in that school, after the retiring math teacher informed the Principal that she believed “I was probably too intelligent for the job!”  I have had my share of rejections in life, as have we all, but being rejected for perceived over-intelligence, was a new one!

One last amusing thing to share with readers is a British definition of American Football that I heard last summer when visiting my family.  It suggested that American football “mirrors the America way of life.” In that it has “short periods of extreme violence followed by committee meetings!”  Another observation was about cheerleading in that the men are encouraged to beat themselves up, trying to gain territory, while the women cheer them on from the sidelines.

Wishing everyone a good week!

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Robert Escandon is a former Wellington High School math teacher and a professor at Cowley College. He was born and raised in Great Britain and now lives in Wellington. He periodically submits columns to Sumner Newscow.  

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