Deford '61 discusses hype and hoopla of sports

Towering above the podium at the center stage of Richardson Auditorium, prolific sports journalist Frank Deford '61 captivated and amused an audience of student-athletes and community members last night in a lecture titled, "Sports: The Hype and the Hoopla."

A six-time U.S. Sportswriter of the Year at Sports Illustrated and former chairman of The Daily Princetonian, Deford was introduced by Director of Athletics Gary Walters '67 as the latest lecturer in the Princeton Varsity Club's Jake McCandless '51 Speaker Series.

Beginning with some cheerful and self-deprecating remarks about his time on Princeton's junior varsity basketball team, Deford quickly launched into the substance of his talk — sports in American society today. From the role of sport in society to Theodore Roosevelt's near ban on football, Deford encompassed a wide range of subjects in his hour-long lecture.

"Wherever I've been in the world — Indiana, Indonesia, India, whichever — there are two things that I hear the people say. Well the men anyway," Deford said. "Number one, 'We have the best looking women in the world right here.' Number two, 'We have the best sports fans.' Not the best athletes because that can be resolved on the field of play, but the best sports fans."

"We love sports more than anybody else," Deford continued. "It's a great point of pride wherever you are. What's the worst thing you can tell somebody about where they live? You're a bad sports town."

Deford's expertise comes from over 40 years in the wide world of sports. Considered one of the top sportswriters in the country, Deford is a member of the Hall of Fame of the National Association of Sportscasters and Sportswriters. He has also won both an Emmy and a Peabody award for his work in broadcast journalism. He currently serves as a commentator for National Public Radio's "Morning Edition."

Deford discussed how sports have become ingrained in society and their big-name players turned into heroes. Deford told a story about covering the legendary Alabama football coach Paul "Bear" Bryant's record-setting 315th career win. Deford wrote a short, unflattering paragraph about Bryant's restroom-related tendencies in an article of 5,000 words. The blurb generated a tremendous amount of hate mail, as well as a petition calling for Deford's firing. In telling the story, Deford raised the question of whether it is healthy for grown men to idolize these heroes as they do.

Deford went on to explain, however, that sometimes this adoration of athletes can be a good thing. Covering the 1990 World Cup match between England and Cameroon, Deford watched the game at a local Cameroon bar. After Cameroon scored the first goal of the match, a "short, fat lady" grabbed Deford and danced him around the bar.

"Such unbounded joy as you could see on that woman's face, and when Cameroon lost that night — I've never felt such despair and horror," Deford said. "Sports could never matter as much to those poor people as much as it did on this day. Our team loses [in the United States], and sure we're upset, but life goes on and it's such a good life we have. We're very, very blessed. People in Cameroon probably knew they would never have a moment like this again. I've never fully understood the full power of sport until that moment."

Beside talking about the unifying power of sport, Deford also analyzed the darker aspects of the nature of American athletics, especially at the college level.

Despite Deford's belief that that sports create bonds among young boys and teach "teamcare," Deford has many criticisms of modern athletics. Most disturbing to Deford is that in today's world, where some NFL players have "the life expectancy of a second lieutenant in battle," we believe that "the game is what matters, not those poor bastards giving up their bodies."

Speaking about the morally suspect aspects of modern sports, Deford cited the hiring of Nick Saban at Alabama for $4 million a year, when the total budget for need-based financial aid at Alabama is only $3.3 million a year.

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The occasional outcry of sports fans over events like these often leads to calls to restore collegiate sports to their former wholesomeness. Deford finds these cries unfounded.

"College athletics never had any purity to recover," Deford said. "Really, we're all unindicted co-conspirators."