LEXINGTON, Ky. (Jan. 21, 2025) — John Thelin, Ph.D., a University of Kentucky research professor emeritus in the College of Education’s Department of Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation, and author of “A History of American Higher Education” has published his latest book “College Sports: A History.”
The book was co-authored with Eric A. Moyen, a Mississippi State University professor in leadership and the assistant vice president for student success. Moyen received his Ph.D. at UK in the Studies in Higher Education program, where Thelin was his dissertation advisor.
Published by Johns Hopkins University Press, Thelin and Moyen explore the history behind college sports back to 1873, going through its successes as well as past and ongoing challenges. They assess how the modern American university’s structure grows around college athletics. Through the evaluation of key events, Thelin and Moyen trace how commercialization has become part of collegiate sports and opens doors for future careers for athletes.
“All the issues and areas we associate with higher education and American life have a distinctive connection to varsity sports — such as both access and exclusion according to such categories as gender, race, ethnicity, social class and geographic regions,” said Thelin. “We hope all constituencies in the American campus community — students, alumni, faculty, staff, trustees, donors and presidents — will enjoy and learn from the complexities, controversies, changes and continuities in American college sports over 150 years.”
Forbes magazine recently selected “College Sports: A History” as one of the top books on higher education for 2024. The book has received favorable reviews in The Wall Street Journal and Inside Higher Education.
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