Word: student
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...with a cavernous bass voice and a ready smile, he wears a pith helmet and has a whistle dangling around his neck to summon cabs. "There's more to life than sports," he says. "It's a hard reality." That is a lesson that Scates, and thousands of other student athletes across the land, are given a lifetime to mull over...
...many student athletes, whose efforts make this bonanza possible, spend their college years scrimping to make ends meet. A large number of these players are black and look on basketball as their one chance to escape from poverty. But the path to the National Basketball Association, where annual salaries average $600,000, is exceedingly narrow. The chances of making it are less than 1 in 500. Nearly 20,000 young men play college basketball; about 40 will make the N.B.A. each year. "The odds of becoming a brain surgeon are greater than the odds of winning a starting spot...
...colleges say it is a fair exchange: the student athletes get a free education. Some do. But for many -- particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, who often arrive in need of extensive remedial work -- the opportunity to get an education is an illusion. Even the most motivated students would have trouble keeping up academically while practicing as much as 30 hours a week. Many student athletes, moreover, are not primarily interested in getting an education; they see college as a stepping-stone to a lucrative pro career. When Eldridge Hudson graduated from high school in 1982, he was named Player...
Sometimes, in the lingo of coaches, student athletes are "greased" -- passed along by high school teachers, coaches or administrators who cannot bring themselves to bar a star athlete's academic progress. Gene Pingatore, head coach of St. Joseph's High School outside Chicago, has a reputation as a man devoted to helping his student players, on and off the court. "I take a very personal interest in the kids," says Pingatore. "I'm going to do everything I have to do within the realm of what's legal and right for the kids." Just how far he is willing...
...first game. It begins with the high school players recruited by the school. A single talented player can be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to a college -- and, indirectly, to a coach. The NCAA prohibits recruiters from offering money to prospective players. But many student athletes say recruiters offered them cash, cars and jewelry. For some young players, and especially for their families, the promise of educational help can swing their decision. It is not only the larger schools that have problems...