Beyond The Cheers

From mascots to half-time shows to media coverage, Beyond the Cheers critically and honestly assesses the role of race in big time college sports.

Seeking a job as a first-year teacher, Robin Robertson heads for an interview at the Westminster Rural Agricultural Schools in the spring of 1956. Here, Robin could teach and also coach varsity basketball and counsel students. Amid the pressures of beginning a new career, he starts to wonder whether a big-city person like himself can adapt adequately to the lifestyle of small-town, rural America. This story pictures a way of life that has vanished in all too many places. Many readers will relate to the challenges, conflicts, and rewards between students and an untried but idealistic teacher. Others will recall athletic contests won and lost and perhaps will remember counseling that went way beyond arranging school schedules. The author draws upon forty-three years of educational experience in high school and community college -- focusing on that memorable first year in front of a classroom, being in charge of the community's "Winter Entertainment Committee" (basketball games), and creating a newly mandated school guidance program.

There were cheers from the family, friends and military personnel when we returned from Vietnam. When we left the gate to go home we were faced with protesting and shouting. On the way home my mother said Its strange that inside the gate everyone was happy, but outside the gate there were no cheers.