A Typical Underdog Story: From Poverty to the Pros

Emily Sims

English 102

23 April 2017

A Typical Underdog Story: From Poverty to the Pros

       How many times have you heard a sports broadcaster talk about how a professional athlete went from rags to riches? This is the overused underdog narrative that has consumed the media and is influencing many young teenagers in the United States. Many African Americans are growing up in unsafe and poor neighborhoods due to socioeconomic conditions. For these children and teens, sports are a sign of hope because they provide a way to escape from their problems. Public education enables anyone to participate in athletic programs, which is leads to sports being seen as an escape from low social class for many young African Americans. Critical race theorists such as Tonmar Johnson and Todd Migliaccio have argued that “...the emphasis (by media and society) on sport for African Americans perpetuates stereotypes about African Americans, while simultaneously limiting the opportunities, both perceived and real for African American boys. Limited options in conjunction with high expectation of success through sport for African American boys results in parents pressuring boys to pursue sport… boys play believing it to be a primary road in life to getting ahead and helping themselves and their families in the future” (Johnson and Migliaccio 99). Looking at films like Hoop Dreams and The Blind Side, the media’s use of the underdog story encourages poor African American athletes to unrealistically rely on professional sports as a career. I demonstrate how the depiction of black athletes who face poverty as they try to forge the path to make their athletic dreams a reality ultimately contributes to African American student athletes failing as students because they see sports as their only opportunity for success in the future. My work extends the position held by Tonmar Johnson and Todd Migliaccio in order to show what factors encourage African American teenagers to become professional athletes and what prevents them from using academic opportunities granted through sports to pursue a more attainable career.

       The typical underdog story is the tale of someone surpassing tough circumstances where the odds are against you, like socioeconomic status or health issues, and turning it into a tale of hope and overcoming to inspire others. This occurs in many narratives on athletes to encourage support for the athlete and reflect fans that may have had similar struggles. The film The Blind Side is a perfect example of the underdog narrative in sports. The main character, Big Mike, was a poor African American teen with a bleak looking future until he was accepted into a better school due to his possible athletic talent. After Mike was taken in by rich white family, he excelled at football and had access to tutors for academic success as well. Scouts lined up around the corner trying to recruit Big Mike onto their college teams. Mike had his pick of the litter so he went to Ole Miss and was ultimately drafted into the National Football League. Big Mike went from being homeless, not having a supportive family and failing academically to being a true success story (Hancock, Blind Side). Some black male teenagers can relate to stories of how other athletes used to be poor and lived in a bad neighborhood. Now that their idols have made it in professional sports and earn a large salary, these teenagers think that if those athletes could make it so can they.

       Sports media is guilty of spreading the underdog narrative around like wild fire. It is nearly impossible to turn on a sports match without hearing the announcers discussing the health, family or socioeconomic struggles of an athlete. In the documentary Hoop Dreams, two young African American boys, Arthur Agee and William Gates, have dreams of future careers in the National Basketball Association after hearing the story of Isiah Thomas. Thomas was also an African American male from the projects in Chicago, just like the two teens, who had been recruited to the St. Joseph’s basketball program and then proceeded to join the NBA. Seeing someone who had the same struggles as them but still became successful inspired Arthur and William. In the documentary it often shows the two boys watching their idol’s games on television, using Isaiah's nickname “Tuss” as their own and being referred to as the next Isiah Thomas by their families and coaches. Basketball became their main focus and only career goal (James, Hoop Dreams). The blind hope, caused by the underdog trope, led to increased opportunities but also a sense of failure when the reality of the barriers and odds of making it in the NBA hit.

      There is not much hope for the future when many teens, that up in families on the poverty line, witness more people around them falling into bad circumstances rather than getting out of them. So why do African American male teens view sports as the primary way out of their socioeconomic conditions? Sports provide an outlet to children when dealing with typical issues that occur in project housing, like gangs, violence, drug abuse, family problems and poverty. The media then teaches these children that professional athleticism is attainable to everyone even people going through similar struggle which is then enforced through school sports programs. Media falsifications of reality lead black teens to focus on becoming an athlete and little else. According to the article The Mis-Education of the African American Student-Athlete, “one of the main reasons scholars suggest many African American youth strive to be professional athletes is due to their mis-education acquired through the consumption of the American dream through athletic success… American people are inundated with images of African Americans athletes poised as paragons of financial success and fame. On the contrary, there are far more African Americans who are successful lawyers and doctors than professional athletes...” (Harrison et al. 5). Instead of trying to further their education in order to earn a high paying professional career, African American teens more often see the recognition and monetary compensation that professional athletes receive and desire the same results. This phenomenon is also noticeable in Hoop Dreams because Arthur and William viewed sports as their escape instead of choosing a more educational career path to follow. William Gates stated, “Basketball is my ticket out of the ghetto… It’s the reason I’m going to college” (James, Hoop Dreams). Gates illustrates just how dependent a lot of student athletes from lower class families feel because of how media has manipulated sports as an easily attainable career.

        Another reason why African American male adolescents are attempting to pursue an athletic career is due to the encouragement to participate in sports rather than focus on education. Almost all United States high school sports programs are required to have educational boundaries. For example, students must achieve a “C” or higher to be able to participate in extracurricular activities such as athletic teams, which is meant to ensure that student are also academically equipped for the future. The flaw in this plan occurs when students are only mandated to work harder in school when their sports careers are on the line. The article The Mis-Education of the African American Student-Athlete illustrates how this problem affects African American student athletes by stating that "the agenda for the African American student-athlete is ominously obvious to those involved and engaged in collegiate sport. While it is not communicated as a part of the formal curriculum in universities, the purpose of their presence is clear". Singer (2008) reports that student- athletes in his study indicated that the term ‘student- athlete’ was inappropriate, considering the time and effort required by their athletic endeavors. The participants in Singer’s study insisted on using the term “athlete-student” as it more accurately portrayed the position athletics occupied in their existence (Harrison et al. 4). It is evident that many African American adolescents that are recruited onto other high school teams are only there due to their athletic capabilities. The faculty only becomes interested in them as students once there is an academic threat to their sports participation. This is visible in the film The Blindside because when Big Mike is accepted into high school it was purely due to his projected athletic ability. All of Mike’s teacher just pictured him as an African American athlete not as a student. Only one teacher went out of their way to ensure Mike was learning while the others simply let him fail. However once Big Mike’s athletic eligibility was at risk, all of the teachers made sure he had the chance to pass and his adopted family even hired a tutor. Academics were always second to athletics for Big Mike, his adopted family, teachers and coaches (Hancock, Blind Side).  The same instance happened in the documentary Hoop Dreams, the agenda for student athletes at St. Joseph’s high school was to do work so you are eligible to play not to focus on school and participate in sports secondly. The athletic director at St. Joseph's told the incoming freshman recruits, “If you work at the grades and at basketball then I’d be able to get you to college… that I can guarantee” (James, Hoop Dreams). This leaves the impression that the sports director actually meant for the students to work on basketball more importantly. The school faculty helped reinforce the idea that education is only to continue to be able to play basketball. Attending college is only useful in order to get recruited on a professional basketball team, which is only possible if basketball motivates you to do well in school.

           In addition to being convinced to focus primarily on sports, what else is deterring African American male youths from seeking solace, out of their current socioeconomic conditions, in the form of higher education to get a better paying job? The lack of access to college preparation courses, the educational curriculum controversy of institutional bias against African Americans and the rising price of college, especially without athletic scholarships, all contribute to this issue. If student athletes are not academically apt to attend college, they are going to feel behind in their classes and only focus on their success on the sports team. College preparation courses help ready students for the academic hardship of secondary education and teaches core skills and ideas that will be needed in college. The SAT and ACT standardized tests are essential to getting into college and for measuring  what level of preparedness a student is at. However, with a lack of funding many urban schools cannot afford to offer these courses and few of the students’ families can afford private ones. In the documentary Hoop Dreams, William Gates needed to get at least a score of eighteen on the SAT to become eligible for division one college athletic scholarships. Therefore, in order to ensure St. Joseph's image of having a superior athletic program, they offered Gates free SAT classes in order to guarantee that he move on to a college notorious for its basketball program. Basketball was the only reason Gates had access to educational help (James, Hoop Dreams). The school only went the extra mile to help students that struggled with poverty if the student showed promise in sports. In return, if the students succeeded athletically it would reflect positively back on the high school when they make it onto to division one college teams or even professional sports.

         Student athletes are also unaware of the other possible career paths they could pursue in college, which is a result of not having access to college prep courses. Many of these student athletes feel that their only option is to make money through professional athletics because their main interest is sports and do not know there are a lot of related jobs such as sports medicine, exercise physiology, health promotion and more. In The Blindside, Big Mike was never once asked what career or major he was interested in, instead everyone just assumed he want to join the NFL and would automatically be recruited (Hancock, Blind Side). Then for Arthur Agee, in Hoop Dreams, there was a scene where Arthur was going on his first college tour and several faculty members asked him what he wanted to major in. At first Arthur said, “Uhh... communications”. The next time he stated, “I like [general communications] and uhh...accounting like business”. Lastly, Arthur declared, “I want to fall back to have my own business like...real estate” (James, Hoop Dreams). The constant flip flopping made it clear that this was possibly the first time he even thought about his future career plans without basketball. If the education system is not preparing student athletes for careers outside of sports, it is not giving them a fair chance for all students to succeed in college and find a worthwhile career.

      In order to be recognized by college scouts, African American teens will have to go to out of district schools with better sports programs than they can find in their own neighborhood. Both adolescents, in Hoop Dreams, were invited to be a part of St. Joseph’s basketball program due to their athletic talent. However along with attending a better school, the student athletes had to figure out a way to pay for tuition while their family was already struggling. In William Gate’s case, the high school increased his scholarship and reached out to a donor to pay for William’s tuition because of his projected basketball success. However, Arthur Agee was forced to stop coming to school because his parents could no longer afford the payments. St. Joseph’s did not go out of their way to help Arthur because of his lack of commitment educationally and not living up to his promise on the basketball court (James, Hoop Dreams). Opportunities for socioeconomically challenged student athletes are strictly dependent on their athletic success, otherwise they are disregarded.

         High school students are forced to seek out any and all scholarships they qualify for due to the rising price of education. According to the book Tuition Rising, “The tuition levels at these institutions have continually increased at rates that exceed the rate of increase in consumer prices. Faced with tuition increasing at rates that exceed the growth of prices and often of their incomes, many American families with children nearing college age worry that they can no longer afford to send their children to these selective private institutions” (Ehrenberg 4). When an African American family is already struggling to live month to month, college is seen as privilege they cannot afford, which forces student athletes to rely on their athletic abilities to pay for their way throughout college. Often “...athletic programs serve as the primary motivation for many individuals to pursue higher education, especially, prospective students from low-income and ethnic minority backgrounds...” (Horton 1). When athletics are the only reason that many student athletes are able to receive higher education, it teaches them that pursuing sports is the only path to success.

        In both of the films Hoop Dreams and the Blind Side, the underdog trope is used to show African American teens that come from nothing becoming successful with opportunities made available to them through athletic excellence. Hoop Dreams shows the real story of how two African American male student athletes overcome obstacles and how they are influenced by the underdog story of professional athletes, through sports media, to attempt to become professional athletes themselves. Many African American student athletes believe sports are their only way out of their bad neighborhood and to make a lot of money. Student athletes in poor socioeconomic areas are often only given opportunities because of their athletic abilities. The problem occurs when these adolescents only attend college to be eligible for professional teams leading to them not following another more easily attainable career, dropping out once they get recruited or once see that they are not going to be. According to the article The Social Construction of An Athlete: African American Boy's Experience in Sport, “...the chances, of any youth making it into professional sport are extremely low: 2 in 100,000 for an African American male” (Johnson and Migliaccio 98). The implications of the underdog narrative in sports media on African American student athletes cause them focus on athletics rather than academics which can lead to failure later in life once they realize a professional sports career is not possible. The overuse of the underdog story convinces teenagers that becoming a professional athlete will solve all of their problems when it in reality failing to achieve this dream without having a backup plan creates more problems.

Works Cited

The Blind Side. Directed by John Lee Hancock, performances by Sandra Bullock, Tim McGraw,

and Quinton Aaron. Alcon Entertainment, 2009.

Ehrenberg, Ronald G. Tuition Rising. [Electronic Resource]: Why College Costs so Much.

Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, 2002., 2002. EBSCOhost, ezproxy.lynchburg.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=cat00204a&AN=lybc.b1716528&site=eds-live&scope=site.

Harrison Jr., Louis, et al. "The Mis-Education of the African American Student-Athlete."

Kinesiology Review, vol. 6, no. 1, Feb. 2017, pp. 60-69. EBSCOhost, ezproxy.lynchburg.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=s3h&AN=121527068&site=eds-live&scope=site.

Hoop Dreams. Directed by Steve James, performances by William Gates, Arthur Agee, Emma

Gates and Sheila Agee. KTCA Minneapolis and Kartemquin Films, 1994.

Horton, David, Jr. "Between a Ball and a Harsh Place: A Study of Black Male Community

College Student-Athletes and Academic Progress." Community College Review, vol. 43, no. 3, 01 July 2015, pp. 287-305. EBSCOhost, ezproxy.lynchburg.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ1064007&site=eds-live&scope=site.

JOHNSON, TONMAR S. and Todd A. Migliaccio. "The Social Construction of an Athlete:

African American Boy's Experience in Sport." Western Journal of Black Studies, vol. 33,  no. 2, Summer 2009, pp. 98-109. EBSCOhost, ezproxy.lynchburg.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=44811205&site=eds-live&scope=site.