Larry Gerlach Case

Larry Gerlach, the professor of history from University of Utah, addressed the speech Telecommunications and Sports at the Warren P. Williamson Symposium of Youngstown State University on October, 1983. The speech was mainly about how telecommunication affects the sports in American society. Although telecommunication builds the sports industry and brings a lot of wealth to the society, but the fact we have to admit is that telecommunication have negative effects on sport and it makes sport to be a dirty business.

Gerlach tried to explain the relationship between telecommunication and sports. First, Larry Gerlach gave us a definition to sports and athletes, and he analyzed how telecommunication changed the relationship between sports and athletes. He thought that telecommunication paid too much attention on athletes but not the sport itself. Next, Gerlach said that telecommunication played a key role on the problem about our sports today had became more and more purposeful, and he generated some impacts of it, like promotional, financial and so on. After that, Gerlach talked something about the college sports and he told people that college athletes are “athletes first, students second”. Then, the speaker analyzed why sports were so appealed in America today. At last, Gerlach compared what he believed in sports in his youth to what his son’s believe in sports today, and he showed some kinds of worry for the tomorrow of American sports to the audience.

Media makes things worse. Gerlach(1983) said in his speech that media made player to be the center of sports, no longer the enjoyment of the sports. Telecommunication built sports industry. It’s obvious media companies want those all stars like Lebron James and Kobe Bryant to be the biggest star of NBA, because they know people like hero. Sports league like NBA set up one or two super star to be the brand of that league. Sports is no longer sports, and players are no longer players, they are only merchandises sold by professional sports league and media. We buy those merchandises by paying the entrance fees for a game and other relative fees spending on our “hero”. That is ridiculous just like what Gerlach said in his speech. Sports should be pure, but it’s not pure today. Media companies use sports to be a tool for earning money from the rate of watching for a football or a basketball game. It’s all about money, no long the real sports, which is pure, a game between one person and another person, or a game between two different teams from different university or different cities, or just in a small sports fans group.

Telecommunication also brings negative effects on college sports. Gerlach(1983) thought that college sports player should not be consider as a student first, an athlete second.