From a sport marketing viewpoint, it appears as though the scandal at Penn State has dramatically affected its merchandise sales. It wouldn’t be the first time a school has seen a dip in licensed merchandise sales as a result of unfavorable events, but the decrease was drastic, according to sources in an Associated Press story. [...] Read More

[Braham Dabscheck is an industrial relations scholar, sports writer and enthusiast, and author of Reading Baseball: Books, Biographies, and the Business of the Game, published April 2011, by FiT. He has written extensively on many aspects of sport, and he continues with that tradition today by offering a review of Raceball: How the Major Leagues [...] Read More

The battle between NBA players and team owners has dissolved into a game of Chicken. Each side has seemingly resolved to make no concessions, even if it means that there will be no 2011-12 season, but whether both sides will stand their ground remains to be seen. Yesterday, the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) rejected [...] Read More

The firing of Penn State football coach Joe Paterno fired up Nittany Lion fans. The students, immediately upon learning of the news, turned out by the thousands to protest on campus and city streets. Many students also congregated on the front lawn of Paterno’s house to express their support for the legendary coach. The gatherings [...] Read More

Has the issue of diversity in football leadership been sidelined? The movement of FBS teams to different conferences has garnered most of the media’s attention lately, but what is more imperative is the diversity among the leaders of these teams. This past year brought six new coaches of color into the FBS, bringing the total [...] Read More

In an NPR interview to promote his memoir, West by West: My Charmed, Tormented Life, basketball legend Jerry West reminisces about growing up in Chelyan, West Virginia, a small town with fewer than 800 residents. He “loathed” the nickname given to him upon his arrival in Los Angeles, ‘Zeke from Cabin Creek,’ because he’s actually [...] Read More

A leader without moral actions isn’t a real leader. That’s the essence of the current situation at Penn State University, where the campus and community is engrossed in arguably the most morally reprehensible story in college athletics (and there have been plenty). By now everyone is likely familiar with the back story of former Penn [...] Read More

[Braham Dabscheck is an industrial relations scholar, sports writer and enthusiast, and author of Reading Baseball: Books, Biographies, and the Business of the Game, published April 2011, by FiT. He has written extensively on many aspects of sport, and he continues with that tradition today by offering a review of Showdown: JFK and the Integration of [...] Read More