Campus, Brand, and Circus

Campus, Brand, and Circus: A Social History of College Sports provides students with a historical perspective on relevant issues regarding college athletics. The text chronicles the evolution of collegiate sport while exploring topics including youth rituals, masculine identities, gender markers, leisure cultures, racial hierarchies, and more.


The text provides students with contemporary context for the study of college sports history, an overview of the inception of recreational and athletics activities by student associations in the 1800s, and insight on the rise of American football. The book addresses women in college sports, African American athletes' experiences, and the relationship between college sports and mass media. It also analyzes the consolidation of Big-Time collegiate sports, namely football and basketball, as national brands in sports entertainment and its continued effects on American culture.


The second edition features two new chapters titled "College Athletes and the New Status Quo" and "New Horizons: A Promising Era?" that address the evolving natures of college athlete's legal status and the profound transformations precipitated by NIL and the transfer portal. Campus, Brand, and Circus provides insight into the world of college sports and explores vital trends in U. S. sports entertainment studies. It is ideal for courses in American sports history, college sports history, and the sociology of sports.