Raw, unfiltered history: C-SPAN tapes sports history class

Lights flashed and cameras rolled Thursday in Manning 209.

The television network C-SPAN filmed professor Matthew Andrews’ Sports and American History class for its educational lecture series on its American History TV program, which features videos of professors teaching their classes.

“We come in, and we do the entire class verbatim. There’s no editing, there’s no adjustment — it runs for integrity’s purposes as it happened,” Producer-Director Ken Bumgarner said. 

Andrews said C-SPAN was interested in doing a section on sports history, so one of its producers contacted him.

“(A) producer said she got online and googled 'sports history,' and my name came up," Andrews said. "She read my teaching reviews and thought they were good and so on until she asked me if I could do it."

Andrews said he was both nervous and excited about being filmed. He said he agreed to be filmed because he thought his students would enjoy the experience and appreciate the change in routine.

“I was actually kind of aware of (the film) being there and the light shining in my face for 5 minutes, but then after 5 minutes, I just sort of settled in and it felt like a regular lecture," Andrews said. 

The course, History 120, examines the significance of sports in American history and how sports reflect larger trends in American life. 

Andrews' lecture, “Return of the Great White Hope," presented racial tensions in professional boxing and the NBA in the latter half of the 20th century. He tied complicated concepts like affirmative action and the anti-busing movement into major moments in sports history.

He discussed symbolic representation in sports, when a single black athlete represents the larger black collective. Andrews said NBA player Magic Johnson had the burden of not just competing for himself but also for the whole of black America. 

Andrews said he does not want to directly tell his students that something like racial tension does or does not continue to happen today. Rather, he wants his students to think critically about these topics while they watch sports.

"I also want to raise the question in their minds that perhaps this is still going on, and so the next time they are watching sports, and the next time they are reading about a sporting event, they can use their newly acquired knowledge to perhaps think differently about what they are watching," he said.

Junior Rossi Anastopoulo said the class is one of her favorites. She thinks anyone would enjoy taking a course with Andrews. 

“I think he’s awesome," Anastopoulo said. "He’s definitely one of the best professors I’ve had here."

She said she knew C-SPAN was going to film the class, but the news didn’t really affect her.

“He’s a great lecturer," she said. "I love how he teaches the course in general and how he gets students involved even though it’s a large lecture class."

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