Comments about fractions of a blue on Education to the Nation have prompted me to write a blog entry rather than continue on that thread.
Why is it that in the UK only sport between Oxford and Cambridge Universities (note the between, it is important) raises any interest and not just among the alumni? Nobody cares about the boat race between Salford and Manchester Universities, nobody cares about cricket at Loughborough University or football at any UK University. However, THE boat race is watched by millions worldwide. Indeed, sport is so non-U at Manchester U that even though we have a number of olympic hopefull students swimmers, they train with the Stockport Swimming Club because the university does not have a coaching staff. Universities elsewhere in Europe also seem equally unfazed by sport.
Cross the Atlantic, however, and sport at university is king. The football (strange american variation on the game) coach can be the highest paid employee, stadia regularly fill with 60,000 or more for College games. Scholarships are widespread for almost every sport (I bet there is even a Scrabble one for Henry Gee). Prowess in Uni sport is important to the alumni and appears to affect fund raising.
So we now know who cares about sport at University, but can anyone explain why?
The UK only has 3 Universities, though. Oxford, St Andrews, and …
you know. The other one.
Richard, In the 16th Century Aberdeen had two Universities, the same number as in England.
I reckon it’s all to do with the tradition of amateur sportsmanship in Britain. Back in the day, before the Premier League and all that financially overstuffed malarkey, university football (qua soccer) teams played against clubs such as Manchester United. Seems hard to imagine now, doesn’t it? In the US, though, the collge sports teams are made up of professionals in all but name.
I am not sure you are right there. The original rules for the football association (hence Soccer) were I believe drawn up based on the Cambridge University rules, after much discussion about handling the ball. However, profeesional football and the football league was created in industrial towns and the two sides of the game only met in the FA Cup – where they could in principle still meet today.
I think the key thing is that the UK Universities held on to the gentleman amateur view until comaprably late in the day.
When I was still at Oxford (so not a terribly long time ago) we spent a pleasant afternoon sitting in the Parks watching Oxford play Australia.
I shall never forget Melvyn Bragg’s moustache.
No wait, that’s wrong .
It was rumoured that when Hume-Rothery was at Oxford he tried to get a tree cut down to improve his view of the cricket pitch from the then Metallurgy Building.
I think part of it has to do with the different career paths in professional sports. British footballers generally sign up to a club when they’re young, and tend not to go to University. North American professional leagues, on the other hand, often recruit / draft from college teams. So their university sports teams are stacked with kids that might be on their way to the NFL next year – which would no doubt make things much more exciting!
For some light-hearted and thematic entertainment, I would recommend “Leatherheads” if it’s in your local cinema. You may find answers to your questions, even if some liberties must have been taken. It’s also a nice change from the inspirational baseball movie.