ab jan¥20th anniversay - athletic business · 2008-08-23 · january 1997 athletic business 27...

26 ATHLETIC BUSINESS January 1997

OurWorld,OurWorld,

January 1997 ATHLETIC BUSINESS 27

With this issue, Athletic Business begins its twenty-first year ofpublication. In geological terms, 20 years is not a long time — KevinCostner aside, human beings haven’t grown gills in that time, forinstance — but there are subtle differences between 1977 and 1997.

Consider what the world looked like when AB first came on the sceneas Athletic Purchasing and Facilities. Distrust in government in the wakeof the Watergate scandals was sufficient to allow a Georgia peanutfarmer to ascend to the presidency. The Cold War dominated geopoliti-cal discourse, and not even an accident at a stateside power plantcould sidetrack the proliferation of nuclear power and arms. The recentArab oil embargo, meanwhile, was increasing interest in conservationand the development of alternative forms of energy. The inflation ratehad gone over 10 percent and was showing no signs of dropping.

Culturally, it was the decade of bad taste in fashion and music. PeterFrampton had just Come Alive, Saturday Night Fever was sweeping thenation, and after two seasons of reshaping late-night television, “Satur-day Night Live” had already begun its 19-year slide into irrelevance.

Twenty years ago, the athletics, recreation and fitness world looked alot different. Jogging was a national craze, as was tennis. Baseball play-ers had just gained free agency and Americans were appalled by thefirst $1 million contract. Women’s sports participation at the college andhigh school level was expanding rapidly in the wake of the passage ofTitle IX in 1972. Aerobics, stair climbers, in-line skates, the Jane Fondaworkout — these were things of the future.

That said, as the following pages will demonstrate, revisiting AB’sbeginnings shows how much of our world looks the same as it did in1977. The fights to attain gender equity and promote accessibility to allare far from over. NCAA institutions are still struggling to put theirfinances in order. High school athletic departments remain underfunded.Product liability reform is still being debated. Groups of entrepreneurshave high hopes for women’s pro basketball and professional soccer,just as they did 20 years ago. On the other hand, hair styles, thankgoodness, have changed.

We’re elated to still be here after Betamax, rotary phones and discohave all been consigned to the dustbins of history. Our hope is that thisglimpse into the past will allow you, and us, to take pride in the indus-try’s accomplishments over the last two decades, and inspire us all totake care of our unfinished business.

By Andrew Cohen

A N D Y O U R S

Illustration by Shola Friedensohn


[Product L iab i l i ty]

The Case For Reform“Senate to Consider Product Liability

Act,” read a headline in our April/May1977 issue, at a time when the sportinggoods industry was forming its first multi-action committee on liability. Four yearslater, with the issue still embroiling Con-gress, a member of that coalition, theSporting Goods Manufacturers Associa-tion, tabbed Maria Dennison (previouslya member of John Connolly and RonaldReagan’s campaign team) to open aWashington, D.C., office to house theassociation’s full-time lobbying arm. NowMaria Stefan, she serves as SGMA’s exec-utive director.

QWas product liability reform your pri-mary focus initially?

AOne of them. The issues of the daywere not very much different than

the issues now: product liability, elimi-nating non-tariff barriers to tradebetween the U.S. and Japan, gettingcriminal penalties attached to counter-feiting legislation and pushing for theextension of daylight savings time,which we were successfully able toaccomplish.

On product liability, we really had apresence in the halls of Congress and inthe floor of the hearing room. We hadour manufacturers there three or fourtimes a year testifying on the issue. Butwe also tried to cover the issue from thegrass-roots side. One of our efforts wasto develop the concept of CAPS, theCoalition of Americans to ProtectSports, which today does clinics around

the country that are educating hun-dreds of thousands of coaches — and,more than that, our text is being used incolleges to educate those coming out ofsports law and sports management cur-ricula about the problems and opportu-nities faced in this arena.

So we’ve gone full circle with that bat-tle, from making a stand in Congress topaying attention to our own house toworking with allied organizations likeACSM, with whom we’ve been talkingabout forming a national injury data-base. Something I think we’ve madegreat strides in is participation in ASTMcommittees, helping to set standardsfor sports equipment. When I look backto 1981, we may have had three or fourmanufacturers involved, and now wehave 250.

QWith all this progress, do you still see aneed for legislation?

A I think the way we’re going gets usmore immediate results. The point of

the legislation is that if you eliminatethis patchwork of laws in differentstates and establish standards, thenyou’d reduce frivolous suits becausethere would be a penalty for engaging insuch actions when you had no basis forthem in law. If we want to reduce thecost of insurance and return some pre-dictability to the costs that a business isgoing to have to assume, we need somestandardization in law.

QWhat are the odds of succeedingbefore AB’s 40th anniversary?

A I think as long as you have the politi-cal action committees and trial attor-

neys, as long as you have the Senateand House being made up of a majorityof trial attorneys, it’s going to be diffi-cult. I think, however, that the biggestproblem facing us is one that is internalto business. We’ve been fighting thebattle for so long that people are turnedoff. How do you excite people to makethe phone calls, write the letters andbelieve that the opportunity for passageof this law is possible?

What the opposition has done isscare people that their right to sue isgoing to be taken away from them. Andthat is an untruth. There is no one inthis country, no entity, no organizationthat can eliminate the ability of an indi-vidual to sue.

QCan that be overcome?

AThe more businesses have to pay forinsurance, the more they’re not

going to be able to get insurance, themore they find themselves in front of acourt on frivilous issues, the morethey’re going to want reform to happen.But the employees of those businesseshave to make their voices heard asstrongly as those on the consumer-activist side have made theirs heard.Congress responds to votes. You can’tjust rely on a coterie of lobbyists. Youhave to have that army behind you, andyou have to show the strength of thatarmy in order to succeed.

[Instruct ion]

Slings ofOutrageous

FortuneThe January 1979 issue includedan item about materials theNational Catapultry Associationwas making available to schoolsand recreational institutions forteaching slingshot shooting. “Cat-apultry is an ideal sport for devel-oping hand-eye coordination,muscle tone and perceptionskills,” the item read, “and requiresa minimum of equipment or set-up expense.” Perhaps it was thepotential liability expense thatkept catapultry from being giventournament status in the nation’sschools. ■

[Product Update]

I Can See Clearly Now

■

Pro-Tec Inc., now defunct, was responsible for this early eyeglass protectorfor racquet sports players, but nowadays, contact lenses and prescription pro-tective eyewear have largely sent such contraptions to the sideline. The onlyover-the-glasses model still in existence, the Vision2 from Leader Sport, has for-tunately received a makeover. Leader’s Craig Schmidt says his company manu-factures it partly because no one else does, making it the only option for people

who don’t wear contacts and would rather pay around$40 retail than purchase an expensive pair of prescrip-

tion sportlenses. “Ithas a nicheout there,”Schmidtsays. ■

A T H L E T I C B U S I N E S S : 1 9 7 7 - 1 9 9 7


In the late 1970s, Phoenix attorneyRick Ball defended Bike and Riddell inseveral high-profile helmet-litigationcases. Ball now describes himself as “aretired sports trial lawyer, and until a bigplaintiffs’ case comes along, I’m going tostay retired. When it does, I’m going tounretire and pay for my retirement.”

QHow would you characterize the last20 years of product liability reform?

AThere has been virtually no result interms of legislation at the federal

level. A few state statutes have beenadopted that are helpful to manufactur-ers, but those are a benefit only interms of injuries occurring and lawsuitsfiled in those states, and there’s no uni-formity among them.

At the time, helmet manufacturers,but also trampoline and gymnasticsmanufacturers, were having a difficulttime. There were 15 football helmetmanufacturers, and then the rathermonumental verdict against Riddell in1975 received a lot of national publicityand resulted in an awful lot of follow-uplitigation. Now there are two footballhelmet manufacturers.

QWhy hasn’t the push for reform caughton?

A In my view, the general public doesnot want to see significant limits

placed upon its ability to receive com-pensation for injury. The U.S. Constitu-tion guarantees us that right, and that’sone of the reasons the courts were cre-ated. I’m not sure how much the gen-eral public’s voice is heard inWashington, but I can tell you that atthe state level, when legislatures beginto seriously consider interfering withpeople’s ability to recover for injuries,people stand up and shout. In Arizona,we have had three different referendaor initiatives attempting to severely

limit people’s rights to recover, andthey have been absolutely crushed atthe ballot box. Whether that’s out of abroad social concern or a selfish desireto preserve a sort of lottery in case youhappen to get the ticket, I don’t know.

QStill, Republican legislators are push-ing the issue.

AAnd have been, since 1976. The polit-ical side of it is that until two years

ago, there hadn’t been a Republican-controlled legislature in all that time,and never in those 20 years had therebeen a Republican-controlled legisla-ture and a Republican president.Whether it is, again, the influence of thetrial lawyers or a socio-political philoso-phy, Democrats have not traditionallybeen willing to severely impede peo-ple’s right to recover, while Republi-cans have been very concerned aboutprotecting big business and industry.

Another factor is there is a limit onthe ability of Congress to restrict theright to sue in state court on state mat-ters. They have the right to make lawsthat have to do with interstate com-merce, and they can restrict the right tosue in federal court. But most productliability litigation is brought in statecourt. So a federal law wouldn’t neces-sarily have the broad-based impact thata lot of people seem to believe it wouldhave.

QWhat has been the trend in injury liti-gation?

AMy sense is that manufacturersaren’t dealing with litigation in any-

where near the volume they were from1977 to 1985. Part of it I’m sure is thatthe equipment isn’t so easy to attack.Also, the helmet industry got their acttogether and figured out how to defendthose claims, and plaintiffs’ lawyers arenot looking for hard cases. So there’s

been a dropoff in litigation, but it hasnot by any means gone away.

Is it still a significant problem? Youbet. Is there a way legislatively to make itgo away? Personally, I don’t believe so. Isaid that in 1977, that the industry ispouring money down the drain, and Ithink the wiser course would be to useall this money to educate parents, ath-letes, administrators and coaches howto reduce risk, where the real responsi-bility for injury lies — and sometimes theresponsibility for injury lies with thenature of the game. I defended severalcases where a paralyzed athlete had hishead driven into the turf while attempt-ing to make a tackle. The responsibilityfor that injury was the nature of thegame; nobody did anything wrong. Peo-ple need to understand that, and theydon’t.

And the need for education is ongo-ing. There’s an interesting dynamicthat’s taken place in football withregard to quadriplegia. If you carefullymonitor the statistics, you’ll see thatthere was a dramatic drop in footballquadriplegia beginning in 1977, it reallyleveled off in about 1981, and thenbegan to drift back up again around1990. If you take those numbers andcorrelate them with the typical age andlongevity of high school footballcoaches over the last 15 years, you findcoaches aren’t staying in it for 25 or 30years as they did 25 years ago. Today,you have an awful lot of young coacheswho weren’t really part of the educa-tional campaign that occurred followingadoption of the rule in high schoolsports in 1976 that prohibited initialcontact with the head. My belief hasbeen rather than change the law, spendmoney educating the athletic publicabout what causes injuries and whatcan be done to reduce them. ■

[Product L iab i l i ty]

The Case Against Reform

[Product Update]

Reel BreakthroughThe VCR’s ascendancy put an end to this 16mm version of the LafayetteAnalyzer, but the product lives on in a video configuration. Actually, “Thereare people out there who still use the 16mm machine,” says Terry Richardof Lafayette Instrument Co., which in addition tofilm analysis projectors for sports also makesequipment for rehabilitation and machines thattest dexterity, hand-eye coordination, soil com-ponents and truthfulness. Despite the recentevents at Boston College, Richard says with alaugh, Lafayette’s polygraph machines are notfor use in the sports arena. ■


[Advert isement]

Fund-Raising,1977

In the December 1978 issue, JohnToner, then the AD at the University ofConnecticut, described how the NCAAcould accommodate women’s sports, atthat time under the auspices of the Associ-ation of Intercollegiate Athletics forWomen. Temple University’s CarolOglesby and Kaye Hart co-wrote a blister-ing response in the March 1979 issue. Wereached Oglesby, in 1971 the AIAW’s firstpresident, at Temple, where she stillteaches.

QThe headline of your article was, “TheTime Has Not Yet Come” — that is, for

a merger between the NCAA and yourorganization.

AYeah, they didn’t pay any attention toour title. They just went ahead and

did it.

QHave women’s sports been well-servedby the NCAA?

AWell, not particularly. I’d say the last few years there’s been a lot of legal

action to ensure that equity is takingplace, and once the NCAA got “serious”— I put that in quotes — about equity,then program growth really got signifi-cant. But I never felt that they were hur-rying to serve women’s programs. Thatwas not a priority on the agenda. I don’tsay that in a disparaging way, just in afactual way — it wasn’t high on theagenda.

QIs it a surprise that Title IX is still prob-lematic?

ANone of us thought that 20 years laterinstitutions would just be getting

around to taking the legislation seri-ously. That happened much moreslowly than anyone imagined.

I find it ironic now that we thoughtthat Title IX was going to be immedi-ately effective. In 1971, AIAW was sign-ing up its first members and we had a

“no athletic scholarships”rule consistent with thephilosophy of women’sathletics that had guidedthe growth of women’ssports in the 10 or 15 yearsprior to that. Then, at prac-tically the same time theAIAW was formed and TitleIX passed in 1972, a lawsuitwas filed in Florida bya young woman whoclaimed she was being dis-criminated against by theAIAW because of this pol-

icy. Well, Title IX was going to make itillegal to discriminate in that way, so wesummarily dropped the rule. A lot ofsports scholars today look at that as acritical feature in the eventual takeoverof the AIAW by the NCAA, becausewhen we said yes to athletic scholar-ships, it put women’s sports in themoney game. Why did we do it? It wasthis naive belief that Title IX wasinstantly applicable.

QWill it take another 20 years for equityto be achieved?

AI’d say at least. If I’ve learned any-thing, it’s that the law is influenced by

common belief. We have legal prece-dent and things like that, but also,judges are influenced by what makessense in a given society. There arethings about equity that make sense topeople now that were totally outrageous20 years ago — why would I think that20 years from now people’s viewpointwouldn’t be dramatically altered again?

Social norms gave very poor treat-ment to women generally, and womenathletes certainly, and so the aftermathtakes awhile to fix. We have the sameissue with racism and with disabilitymatters. For example, we’ve come to anew consciousness about what kind ofaccessibility disabled people shouldhave, but this is a very expensive prob-lem to fix.

So I think that a lot has been done,but I would say a good portion of theimprovement has been done grudgingly,not necessarily because people arebeing mean-spirited, but because thereare these great difficulties in restructur-ing everything.

QDo you have high hopes for genderequity?

ARelatively speaking, I was a youngleader — I’m 58 now — so I say

prayers of thanks that I was able to stayaround long enough to see some amaz-ing things happen. What has happenedhas not been really achieving equity, butthat the leadership of various organiza-tions understand that equity is a neces-sary goal. Nobody is saying that womendon’t want or deserve equity, as theyonce did. I worked with people prior toTitle IX who thought championships forwomen were about the most bizarrething they’d ever heard of. A nationalchampionship to showcase what? It waslike, “This level of basketball is sopathetic, what’s the point?”

“Temcor Geodesics Are Now!”read the inside front cover of thefirst issue of Athletic Purchasingand Facilities — and what was truethen is true now, even if the word‘geodesics’ has gone out of vogue.“We call it an aluminum domenow, not a geodesic,” says BobDagenais, architectural sales man-ager for Temcor. Interestingly, themajor change in Temcor’s prod-ucts in the intervening years hasbeen a fabrication that uses lessaluminum because of rising costs.So while the faceted golden domeshown in the ad — which came in14 fixed sizes — is “basically adinosaur now,” as Dagenais says,the company is now able to cover

10,000-seatarenas likethe one atthe Univer-sity of Hawaii(pictured). ■

■


[Advert isement]

Then andNow

[Gender Equ i ty]

Not Yet Come



The physical educa-tion center at the

U.S. Naval Acad-emy in Annapo-lis, Md., featuredin AP&F’s April1980 issue, was

to house the“largest capacity

pools ever heatedby solar energy” upon

its completion in thespring of the following year. The center,now called Lejeune Hall, was to save24,000 gallons of oil per year by heatingboth its pool and domestic waterthrough the use of flat plate solar collec-tors erected on the building’s slopedroof.

At that time, the country’s desire toconserve depletable energy sources wasat its peak — a result of the OPEC oilembargo — and the Annapolis projectwas just one of many facilities that hadenergy-saving devices incorporated intoits design.

“The energy crisis was a big challengefor this country, and not just in terms of

transportation,” says architect DavidFinci of Hillier/Eggers Group and authorof the 1980 article. “Everyone was look-ing for different sources of energy andthe government was giving it a big push.When we designed the building, JimmyCarter was president. He came from theNaval Academy, and he was very muchin favor of applying solar energy to thebuildings.”

Unfortunately, heating a 25-by-50-meter and 8-foot-deep lap pool plus a 65-by-52-foot and 14-foot-deep diving poolwith solar energy was not as economi-cally feasible as the engineers originallythought.

“The initial investment for solar collec-tors is so great, and the storage you haveto provide for the hot water is so tremen-dous that in reality, oil prices didn’tcome so high that we could justify theinvestment,” says Finci.

Lejeune Hall was still built accordingto the original plans — with the poolsand long-span trusses above themangled 45-degrees to face due south —but the solar collectors were notinstalled as the membrane of the raised

roof (necessary to accommodate theadditional height required for the divingpool). Instead, provisions were made sothat system could be retrofitted to thebuilding at a later date, should it becomepractical.

“If they wanted to go solar, theycould,” Finci says. “All the provisions arethere. But I don’t think it will ever hap-pen.”

Today, reuse and prevention defineconservation, and utilizing alternativeenergy sources is still in practice, albeitlimited. “The passive solar system is onewe like to use,” Finci says. “We like tohave the right orientation and use asmuch sun exposure to a building as pos-sible, without going into mechanical sys-tems.”

Although Lejeune Hall’s solar applica-tion didn’t fare well, Finci does not dis-count the active system’s place in such afacility. “In places like Arizona or NewMexico where there are a lot of sunnydays, even if the climate is cold, you maybe able to use a solar energy system withsome success,” he says.

— Rachel M. Sherman

[Fac i l i t ies]

Solar Eclipse



When Donna Lopiano first wrote anarticle for AP&F in 1980, she was Univer-sity of Texas’ director of intercollegiateathletics for women and was about toserve as president of the Association ofIntercollegiate Athletics for Women. Shewas to be AIAW’s last full-term presidentbefore it disbanded in 1982, after theNCAA began offering women’s champi-onships. Lopiano is now executive direc-tor of the Women’s Sports Foundation.

QIn 1980 you saw an NCAA in crisis. Isrestructuring just the latest in a series of

crises for the organization?

AAt that time, there seemed to be atransition of power from the athletics

directors to conference commissionersand presidents, which was good. Therestructuring of Division I is really goingto put a lot of high-powered coaches inthe driver’s seat and put presidents andconference commissioners at a consid-erable disadvantage. As soon as you letDivision I play alone, without the checksand balances of Division III, I don’t thinkthey can stand up to the pressure of thecoaches.

QHas women’s athletics been well-served by the NCAA?

AIt’s about the same today as it wasthen, if not worse. The number of ath-

letic programs governed by women, thenumber of faculty reps, the percentageof women on committees all show thatwomen are at the same place in terms ofgovernance as they were when theNCAA took over, so there hasn’t beenany progress there.

QDoes that surprise you?

ANo. As long as the NCAA doesn’tsolve its financial problems, which

they haven’t done, then it’s going to beharder and harder to figure out where tofind the money to give women opportu-nities. Right now the schools have beencaught between a rock and a hard place.The courts are saying “You’d better give

women equal opportunities,” but theschools are unwilling to tell the big rev-enue sports, “You’ve got to have asmaller piece of the pie.” As a result,they cut men’s minor sports and blameit on the women, pitting the victimsagainst the victims.

As long as the federal governmentdoesn’t do enforcement, people don’tnotice. Title IX is only being enforcedbecause parents have been bringing law-suits. The governing bodies and the col-lege presidents have noticed thelawsuits, and the fact that a typical law-suit can cost a school $1 million hasmade them smarten up.

QAre you still hopeful?

AI think it’s going to happen, but I thinkit’s going to happen much more

slowly than people thought, and I thinkit’s at least 10 years off. The dinosaur isstill thinking it can win. It’ll be 10 or 20years before they retire or die. I’m notworried about the next generation orthis current generation of parents whogrew up thinking their daughters couldget an athletic scholarship — they justhaven’t ascended to positions of poweryet. When they do, things will be verydifferent in terms of the attitudes ofinstitutions.

The current generation gets it, and it’sno longer just a woman thing. Ourdaughters have to be just as preparedas our sons, they should get the samekind of education, the same kinds ofopportunities — younger men are sensi-tive to this, too, just from playing withwomen and growing up with sisters whoplay. Fathers are coaching their daugh-ters now and they’re the ones bringingthe lawsuits.

It takes a long time to change, espe-cially when you have a system likesports, where it’s been ingrained as anall-male privilege forever and ever. Ittakes quite awhile to change thatbeast.

[Gender Equ i ty]

Fighting the Dinosaur

[Advert isement]

Nice PitchWhat better way to illustrate the protective qualitiesof your gym wall padding? Steeleco, a division ofDraper Industries, still makes the padding, but thewhereabouts of these two are unknown. “It’s safe tosay neither one ever became president of the com-pany,” says Steeleco’s Jed Vardeman. ■

■

[Advert isement]

Show of StrengthLong before the term “StairMaster”began being used interchangeablywith “stair climber,” there was Nau-tilus. By the time of Nautilus’ firstappearance in AP&F in the February1978 issue, it already had joinedKleenex, Crayola and Xerox in themisuse-of-trademark hall of fame. ■

[Product Update]

Sprainful History

Meant as a training device to build upweak or previously injured ankles,the Adapto-Disc was developed in1978 by Widen Tool and StampingInc., whose main business is reelparts and electric trolling motors.According to Widen’s Gary Davis, thecompany’s owners put a lot ofmoney into the Adapto-Disc, but it“fizzled” and was dropped. “A lot ofthe tools we had are gone, the moldswe had have been junked,” Davissays of Widen’s one foray into theathletic realm. “We do get calls oncein a great while from somebody whowants one, but I don’t know how theyget ahold of our name anymore.” ■



[Metaphor]

X’s and O’sThe old rules for economy are chang-

ing. The other day I called an old friendof mine who is in the athletic business. Isaid to him, “Let’s assume that the rulesfor intercollegiate football change in thefollowing way: Instead of four downs per10 yards, the rules change to two downsper 10 yards. To make it a little moreplausible, all linemen become eligiblepass receivers.”

In this story of inflation, we are thegood guys; inflation is the visiting team.The football field is time and the rulechange has required us to abandonshort runs and go for the long pass.

Ten years ago, inflation was proceed-ing at an annualized rate of 5 percent andthis year, it is proceeding at an annual-ized rate of 12 to 15 percent. In order foryour money to lose no less than it did 10years ago while waiting for a decision,you have to accelerate your decisions bya factor of two. There are only twodowns in this game instead of four.

— FROM “INFLATION: ITS IMPACT ON ATHLETIC

FACILITIES, PLANNING AND PROJECT SUCCESS,” BY

DANIEL F. TULLY, TULLY ASSOCIATES INC., JUNE

1979

[Emerg ing Sports]

In-Line Skaters, BewareA recent sports participation survey by A.C.Nielsen Co. has identified racquetball as thefastest growing sport in the United States,having overtaken the growth rates of tennisand jogging. “Participation in racquetball is up283 percent over the three-year period from1976 to 1979,” reports Nielsen.

— FROM “RACQUETBALL: THE SPORT OF THE

’80S?” APRIL 1980

[Advert isement]

Still Jumping“Innovative simplicity” has beena watchword for Lifeline Interna-tional’s Bobby Hinds since heappeared in his own ad in theFebruary 1977 issue of AP&F.Lifeline still carries a version ofthe gym he used in the ad, buthis signature product now is agym small and lightweightenough to fit on a wall or door frame. Hinds says hisoriginal appearance in the magazine belies his com-pany’s longevity. “You could go out of business fastwith an ad like that,” he says. ■

[Headl ine]

How toConvert Your

Track to Metric

— DECEMBER 1977



When the University of California atBerkeley’s Underhill Field appeared onour pages in 1978, leading an articletitled “Useful Ideas,” converting arooftop into a usable sports area was arelatively new solution to a space prob-lem.

Underhill, a soccer field located on topof a parking garage, so served the needsof the landlocked Bay-area campus thattwo other rooftop facilities were lateradded, both accommodating recre-ational tennis courts. Although UnderhillField and the building beneath it had tobe torn down in 1994 because of thestructure’s seismic instability, the uni-versity is working on plans to rebuild it.

In 1994, AB recognized anotherrooftop facility, Riverbank State Park,honoring it with a Facility of Merit award.The construction of the New York Citypark offered a community that did notwant a sewage treatment plant in itsmidst a trade-off — 28 acres of sports,recreation and entertainment optionsbuilt above the plant.

“The real use of a rooftop facility is thefact that you can use the site for two

things instead of one,” saysRichard Dattner, architecton the Riverbank project.“In an urban center, itmakes a lot of sense. In asmaller city or a suburbanlocation, you can just builda plant or a park some-where else. Riverbankreally is a model for denseareas. In fact, a number ofthese have been built inJapan.”

So is the rooftop facilityof the future one bigger and better thanRiverbank?

“Unfortunately, I don’t think so,” Dat-tner says. “Eventually, there will bemore, but right now there’s not a lot ofmoney for public works. Riverbank is avery big success — more than three mil-lion users a year — and it’s very muchappreciated by the community. But itwas a big, expensive, $130 million proj-ect, and there are not a lot of municipali-ties that are willing to spend that amountof public funds.”

— R.M.S.

[Fac i l i t ies]

Up on the Roof

[Headl ine]

Today’s Video TapesPractical, Budget-Conscious

— There’s So Much YouCan Do With Them

New technology has placedthese within the reach of everyschool. Color or black and white,whatever the choice, the new videomay be just what fits your needs.

— NOVEMBER 1979


Robert F. Kanaby, who has served asexecutive director of the National Federa-tion of State High School Associationssince 1993, began his career in teachingand administration in 1961.

QOur second issue, April/May 1977,included an article on tax equalization

and its effect on high school athletic pro-grams. I assume that’s a dead issue now?

ANo, it’s still unresolved in someplaces. It still crops up as an issue.

Many of the problems facing high schoolactivities are still, 20 years later, relatedto funding. We see a greater number ofschool budgets defeated now than wedid in the past, and that threatens sportsand activities since they have a tendencyto be eliminated as a cost-saving mea-sure. Unfortunately, what will invariablybe eliminated within the programs willbe lifetime sports, to preserve big-ticketsports like football and basketball.

QWhy the increasing difficulty in raisingpublic monies for public education?

AWe’ve got increased costs and a gray-ing population. More than 50 percent

of the population doesn’t have childrenin schools, so they don’t see the need tosupport education. Those are all factors,and another one that can’t be dis-counted is the general feeling among thepopulation that we are not doing a goodjob educationally, so why pour moremoney into an agency that is not fulfillingits purpose? I disagree with that philoso-phy strongly.

QDo you ever think to yourself thatyou’ve spent the last 36 years trying to

justify the very existence of extracurricularactivity programs?

AYes, and I think there’s a need for thatmuch more so than ever before, to

make people recognize that we do bringto the educational process of young peo-ple the kinds of experiences that are noteasily replicated in the classroom.

QDoes it make it more difficult to justifywhen people feel that high school

sports are taking on some of the unsavoryaspects of pro sports?

AWithout question, and that’s anacknowledgement that we are as

much a part of human experience as any-thing else. I would never try to defendthis as being 100 percent pure, but theonly fair approach to take is to judge uson balance. Unsportsmanlike incidentsare going to continue to happen because

we’re involved in the human enterprise.By the same token, judge us also on thebasis of the many thousands upon thou-sands of positive experiences that occureach day in these programs.

QBack in 1977, we were also writingabout the move to non-mandatory phys-

ical education and greater numbers ofwalk-on coaches.

AYes, and both were a direct result ofthe loss of funding. We’ve got some

schools now where 75 percent of theircoaches are not teachers in the building.That’s very difficult for communication,difficult for kids. One of the realstrengths we used to have in our pro-grams was that a youngster would walkdown the hall or into the cafeteria andsee his or her coach regularly, and mighteven have him or her in the classroom.Those are three or four contact pointswhere certain behaviors could bealtered because the coach is watching.We’ve lost that, so to deal with the prob-lem we have to do other things to offsetthat loss of contact. I’m thinking of ourown Citizenship initiative for whichwe’re writing the curriculum right now.Hopefully 20 years from now the effortswe’re putting forth today will be bearingsome measure of fruit.

QDo you think we’ll be talking aboutthese same issues 20 years from now?

AI suspect we will be. But in the interimwe will be able to point toward the Cit-

izenship initiative and other kinds of pro-grams that truly will have made adifference.

The next step is to reinforce withincoaches the kind of impact they canhave among the lives of young people.That’s probably more true at our levelthan any other. If you’re going to try toteach someone a sense of honesty whenthey’re 19 or 20 years old, I think you’vemissed the boat. The time to create posi-tive change is at our level, and to use ourlevel to get down into the middle and ele-mentary schools. That’s where it’s got tobe done. It’s taken us three or four gener-ations to get where we are. I think wehave to realistically admit to ourselvesthat it may take us three or four moregenerations to get to wherever we thinkwe want to be, and just have thepatience to do it. But we’ll never getthere if we don’t institute programs likethis now and wait for the tree to growand eventually bear fruit. ■


[High School Sports]

Taxing Issues [Advert isement]

Who???To paraphrase

Mark Twain, newsof Gatorade’s deathwas greatly exag-gerated. WhilePripps Plus fell offthe map almost asquickly as it ar-rived, Gatoradestill dominatesthe sports drinkcategory after 30years.

Lisa Carlson, who’s in profes-sional marketing for Quaker Oats(Gatorade’s parent company), saysnew information in sports researchover the last 20 years has led to onlyminor changes in Gatorade’s for-mula. Meanwhile, new competition(Coca-Cola Company’s Poweradeand Pepsico’s Allsport) has grownthe category, expanding Gatorade’sreach if slightly cutting into its per-centage of market share, still awhopping 81.2 percent.

“I don’t know if there’s anotherbrand out there that has had such alarge share of its category for solong,” Carlson says. “Take an exam-ple from within our company: oat-meal. When people think of oatmeal,everybody thinks of Quaker Oats.Yet, we only have 64 percent sharein that market, so Gatorade’s 81 per-cent is incredible.” ■

[Advert isement]

All Washed UpPellerin Milnor Corp., a maker ofstate-of-the-art laundry equipment,didn’t get much help from this adinadvertently likening its productsto antiques. “I remember thinkingonce it got into print that ouragency had missed the boat,because push-button phoneswere really begin-ning to come intovogue then,” saysPellerin Milnor’sDave Adams. “Butyou know, we’rebased in NewOrleans, so thatmay have beenthe only phonethat was avail-able.” ■



[Anecdote]

Where the MoneyComes From

The first bylined article to appear inthe magazine was written by RobertBronzan, then a professor at San JoseState University and now a retired sportsconsultant living in Danville, Calif. Bron-zan, whose contribution to the earlyyears of Athletic Purchasing and Facili-ties was truly immeasurable, wouldeventually draw readers’ attention to theimportance of master planning, facilityaccess and safety, but his April/May1977 article focused on fund-raising incollege athletics.

“In 1977, funding was getting short,grants in aid were increasing, women’ssports were just coming on and the sit-uation was like the one we’re facingnow with the national budget — you’veeither got to cut the budget or raisetaxes,” Bronzan recalls. “The only placewhere ticket prices amounted to any-thing was football, and we felt theywere as high as they could go, so if ath-letics departments were going to sur-vive, they were going to have to get

into fund raising. Philosophically, I wasopposed to this, even if I was writingabout it; I’m probably naive, but I feltthen and now that if athletics are goodfor the university they should befunded just like any other department.

“Anyway, at that time I’d retired asan AD but continued to go to NCAAmeetings, and at one of them I ran intoDon Canham, who was then the AD atMichigan. He’d written an introductionto a book I wrote on facility planning,and when I told him I was writinganother book, this time on fund raising,he said, ‘Fund raising?’ and made thissquirrelly face. I said, ‘Whether you rec-ognize it or not, Don, all athletic depart-ments are going to have to becomevery proactive in fund raising or cutback or drop their programs.’ Hestepped back from me and said, ‘Theday I get into fund raising is the day Iquit as an athletic director.’ Well, bythe time he retired 10 years ago he waseven selling canned Michigan air.” ■

[Advert isement]

Hasta La Vista, BabyNot even an endorsement by thereigning Mr. Universe could saveDynaCam. Within three years of thisad’s 1981 appearance, Arnold hadgone from hugging machines to play-ing them in movies, while DynamicsHealth Equipment was bought outby Nautilus and the DynaCam linediscontinued. ■



[In jury Research]

Where theInjuries Are

Frederick O. Mueller, director ofthe National Center for CatastrophicSports Injury Research, began investi-gating football fatalities in 1965 alongwith Carl Blyth, his colleague at theUniversity of North Carolina. (Blyth’sarticle, “You have More Than aHumanitarian Concern for Student-Athletes” appeared in the April 1978issue.) Their studies of catastrophicneck injuries among football playersbegan in 1977, and in 1982 broad-ened to include catastrophic injuriesin all high school and college sports.

“Especially when Carl was doingresearch in the 1960s, there wasn’tthat much happening in the field ofdata collection. It wasn’t until theAmerican Football Coaches Associ-ation really got involved and theword got out that 36 kids weredying and another 30 were beingparalyzed each year that peoplestarted to get concerned.

“Now, I think people realize theimportance of good data collection.Everybody’s doing it now: USABaseball, the NFL, most pro sportsleagues. The National Institute ofHealth has gotten involved for thefirst time, and we’ve got one of thefirst grants to study high schoolathletic injuries among both malesand females.

“We need in-depth investigationof problem areas to figure outspecifically what we need to do tochange them. For example, we knownow that the rate of ACL [anteriorcruciate ligament] injuries is muchhigher in female athletes than inmales. That’s a possible area of fur-ther investigation, as is second-impact syndrome [concussions]and the efficacy of pre-participationphysical examinations. The Ameri-can Heart Association just came outwith guidelines for pre-participationexaminations, and doing them prop-erly entails extremely high cost —but at least it’s something that peo-ple are looking at.

“I think things have changed forthe better. Physicians, coaches andtrainers working together has reallyhelped a lot. The days of four peo-ple, one on each limb, carrying a kidwith a potentially catastrophicinjury off the field so a game couldcontinue, thank God, are over.” ■

Audiophonics Corporation could certainly have used anendorsement from James Bond for this portable publicaddress system built into an attaché case. It featured an“IC/PC amplifier, an 8-inch ceramic magnet speaker, adynamic cardioid microphone and a dual-function jack foran extension speaker or taping.” Oil slick, machine gun andejector seat were optional. ■


[Product]

For Your Hi-Fi Only


[Sports Law]

The Good That Lawsuits Do

[Fac i l i t ies]

Fee WillyDuring the 1971-72 school year,

students at Boston College approveda referendum that stated each stu-dent attending the school wouldcontribute $25 per year to fund anew recreation complex. When a42,000-square-foot addition waserected in 1975, students agreed toraise that fee to $32.

The William J. Flynn StudentRecreation Complex — named forthe former athletic director andauthor of an article on the centerthat appeared in the October 1977issue — still stands as the college’ssole recreation center. The studentfee, now $154 per academic year, stillmakes up the bulk of the center’sbudget. Flynn, who spearheaded theoriginal campaign to fund the facility,is working with Boston College againon plans to replace it with one thatoffers better use of space.

“This is a one-level facility, so ittakes up a lot of land,” explains TerryLavin, assistant director of studentactivities at the college. “We’ve alsohad significant problems with theroof. It was sort of the design of thetime — very progressive — but aspeople got into it and started using it,they realized that although it lookspretty funky, it’s very difficult to heatand cool, and it did develop leakageproblems over time.”

— R.M.S.

Herb Appenzeller, who retired fromGuilford College in 1993, where he servedas athletic director for 31 years and as ateacher in and a director of the sportmanagement program, wrote regularly inAP&F on sports law issues. His seminalbook, From the Gym to the Jury, waspublished in 1970.

“Even if the issues are much the sametoday in sports law, the awards cer-tainly have gotten larger. I remember inone of the first cases that really openedthe floodgates, Miller v. Cloidt in 1962,the award was originally $1.2 million,reduced to $385,000, and everybodywent crazy in the state of New Jersey,discontinuing springboards and triplingtheir liability insurance. Some of themtoday, plaintiffs ask for $52 million andget $20 million.

“But a lot of good things have come

out of the threat of lawsuits. I playedfootball at Wake Forest, and I never hada physical to play any sport, in highschool or in college, and I did have adisqualifying condition that kept me outof the Army. It seems crazy, doesn’t it?

“Women athletes wouldn’t be wherethey are today if it hadn’t been for TitleIX lawsuits. There have been more law-suits by people with disabilities in thelast four years than we had in the previ-ous 16. Because the threat of lawsuits isthere, we’ve cleaned up our act. Wegive pre-participation physicals now.Women and the disabled have moreopportunities. There are still someschools that do crazy things like notallowing water on the practice field, butfor the most part, we’ve done morethan we’ve ever done to address equityand make things safe.” ■

[Advert isement]

We’ve Come A Long Way, Baby

[Product]

Strength Training,1979

[Advert isement]

Make That ‘14th Century Conditioning’Actually, the Hydra-Gym neckmachine is still going strongas we approach the 21st cen-tury. It only looked medieval.It’s undergone a few modifica-tions since this ad beganappearing in 1979, but themajor change has been onthe corporate side. Acquiredfive years ago by HenleyHealthcare, Hydra-Gym is nowa part of the Henley division ofLaser Medics, and is distrib-uted by Heart Rate Inc. ■


ab jan¥20th anniversay - athletic business · 2008-08-23 · january 1997 athletic business 27...

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