Chapter 10: When The Cheers Fade: Rethinking College Transitions for Black Male Student’Athletes and Reframing Success

Ethnic minority male athletic participation has received much critical, and worthy dialogue, during the last decade. Seemingly, young men, particularly from urban and metropolitan areas, are foregoing satisfactory academic performance in high school for aims of potential future opportunities as professional athletes (Whitmire, 2010). Researchers contend that historical and institutionalized discrimination may encourage ethnic minority males to deem athletics as a primary, attainable, and viable option for better life opportunities, and upward social mobility, in a more egalitarian environment, than others in which they live (Benson, 2000; Donnor, 2005; Hodge, Burden, Robinson, & Bennett, 2008; Snyder & Spreitzer, 1990). These young men are apt to experience success and establish status through their athletic talents rather than academic endeavors as they perform a normative masculinity (Harris & Harper, 2008).