Kemper book reading October 21

October 14, 2021

The Karl Mundt Library is hosting an author event for Dr. Kurt Kemper on the afternoon of Thursday, October 21. Kemper, Professor of History, will be reading from his 2020 book “Before March Madness: The Wars for the Soul of College Basketball.”

Initially interested in gambling scandals in the 1950s, Kemper’s research led him to look at the forces that created what is now Division II college basketball and their tournaments.

Over six years he “learned of the intense conflict within higher education that is riven throughout the discussion on the meaning and function of college athletics.”

This developed into “Before March Madness: The Wars for the Soul of College Basketball” which is described as focusing on the athletic, academic, and sociocultural forces that shaped college basketball and intercollegiate athletics from the late 1920s through the late 1950s. The book examines the dominance of the NCAA and the other side, an alliance of liberal arts colleges, historically Black colleges, regional state universities, and the NAIA, all of which had individual interests. But it also looks beyond basketball to the struggle for social change.

“Before March Madness: The Wars of the Soul of College Basketball” (University of Illinois Press, 2020) was named as one of the 21 Best New Books on College Basketball in 2021 by BookAuthority.org and was nominated for the Association of the Study of Higher Education’s Outstanding Book Award.

The reading will take place Thursday, Oct. 21 at 3:30 p.m. at the Karl Mundt Library. Attendees will be able to ask questions and purchase books for signing.

Who: Dr. Kurt Kemper

What: a reading from recently published “Before March Madness: The Wars for the Soul of College Basketball”

When: Thursday, Oct. 21 at 3:30 p.m.

Where: Karl Mundt Library

Kemper’s bio:

Kurt Edward Kemper graduated from USD in 1992 and earned his Ph.D. from Louisiana State University in 2000. He has been at DSU since 2008 and has been the Director of the General Beadle Honors Program since 2013. He is the author of “College Football in American Culture” (University of Illinois Press, 2009) and a textbook entitled “American Sports History 1607 – Present” (Scholastic Texts, 2020). His current book, “Before March Madness: The Wars of the Soul of College Basketball” (University of Illinois Press, 2020) was named as one of the 21 Best New Books on College Basketball in 2021 by BookAuthority.org and was nominated for the Association of the Study of Higher Education’s Outstanding Book Award.