Beyond the Game^TM: Transforming Life Outcomes of Black Male Collegiate Student-Athletes

Abstract

This chapter explores the complexity of issues surrounding Black males and athletics in higher education. Multiple studies over the past decade and a half have depicted an oppositional relationship between athletics and academic achievement. Research suggests that media imagery, stereotyping, and other non-academic influences on African American males who participate in intercollegiate athletics tend to result in an over-identification with professional athletes, sports, and perceptions of great value associated with physical performance activities and a simultaneous under-identification with academic performance, scholarly identity, and student development. These pressures ultimately limit career options outside of athletics. In an effort to combat these issues, Beyond the Game™ (BTG) Program, a program described in this chapter that was developed in Wisconsin’s Equity and Inclusion Laboratory (Wei LAB) and implemented at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, seeks to harness curricular, co-curricular, and on-the-field leadership training to strategically develop and support post-graduation options. This comprehensive, multi-faceted program directly confronts the challenges student-athletes face when they exhaust their eligibility status but have yet to identify viable career alternatives to professional sports. This chapter explores the main tenants of the program, established with a group of Division 1 NCAA-affiliated college athletes as participants.

Citation

Charleston, L.J., Jackson, J.F.L., Adserias, R.P. and Lang, N.M. (2015), "Beyond the Game^TM: Transforming Life Outcomes of Black Male Collegiate Student-Athletes", Black Males and Intercollegiate Athletics: An Exploration of Problems and Solutions (Diversity in Higher Education, Vol. 16), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 285-306. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-364420140000016014