that scholarship athletes are merely amateurs and have much more in common
with intramural frisbee players than with the professional athletes they have in
fact become.

Championing this myth is a cast of characters ranging from athletic directors
(the industry's fund raisers) to big-time coaches (the field representatives for
Nike, Adidas, and other apparel manufacturers). The bottom line is profit. By
insisting that scholarship athletes are amateurs, universities have been able to
keep labor costs to a minimum. Although this may not be slavery, so to speak,
the fact is that the coach has indeed become the boss and the player has become
the employee. The key to this employer-employee relationship is the coaches'
ability to use scholarship money to control the day-to-day activities of their
athletes and to set a cap on how much athletes can earn.

Walter Byers, the former executive director of the NCAA, has recently
published a book entitled Unsportsmanlike Conduct: Exploiting College Athletes,
in which he acknowledges the pervasive influence of money in college sports.
He further contends that athletic scholarships are little more than a "national
money-laundering scheme," which funnels money to so-called amateur ath-
letes. Byers's book, which has not received the attention it deserves, was a step
in the right direction.

Professors Allen L. Sack and Ellen J. Staurowsky have picked up the flag
where Byers left off and have produced a rigorous scholarly analysis of how the
amateur myth emerged and how it hurts student athletes. Books such as these
will raise the consciousness of the American public. The power to demand
change lies in the hands of the moms and dads who entrust the well-being of
their talented children to the NCAA. My sons will never be subjected to what
I have endured, and your child should not either.

On March 23, 1993, the Texas Workers' Compensation Board ruled in my
favor that "Kent Waldrep was an employee of TCU" when he was injured. This
case is still in the appeals process. Whatever the outcome of my case, the
amateur myth is under considerable attack from many directions and will
ultimately fall. Perhaps Sack and Staurowskys' book will help to hasten its
demise.

Kent Waldrep

President, National Paralysis Foundation

Dallas, Texas

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