What Does Barbaro’s Passing Have To Do With Higher Education?
Odd though it is in a space dedicated normally to the vagaries of marketing in higher education, I want to join the gaggle of pundits in penning a piece on the death of Barbaro, the Kentucky Derby winner whose passing last week garnered more ink than Hillary’s first post-presidential-campaign-announcement trip to Iowa.
What does the horse that riveted the attention of many as it battled back, temporarily, from a debilitating injury in the Preakness have to do with higher education? The answer is rooted in the litany of beautifully written columns and Op Eds that dotted our nation’s newspapers and websites after the horse was euthanized mercifully by its owners. Most parodied today’s college and pro sports world and concluded that Barbaro was a welcome respite from these athletes, many of whom appear on local police blotters with growing frequency. All of us in higher ed should take notice of the impact our sports programs have on our institutions – and work to make the impressions more positive.
The best of these columns ranged from Sally Jenkins in the Washington Post to Jeff Neuman in the New York Times. Both wrote eloquently that our imaginations were captured by the horse simply because it was a world-class “athlete” without the ubiquitous foibles of today’s college and sports world.
Neuman’s column said, in part, “He never talked about himself in the third person...He didn’t trash talk, taunt or hang on the rim… His only tattoo was discretely hidden…He never dated Paris Hilton…. he never claimed he had been disrespected…. He did not attribute his victories to the glory of his personal Savior... He never claimed he was misquoted in his autobiography… He never fathered multiple off-spring out of wedlock.”
Are there sports marketing lessons our institutions should take from Barbaro’s passing? Should we redouble efforts to teach media training to our football and basketball players and coaches? Should we follow the lead of the NCAA, which is trying increasingly to rein in sports programs that are little more than the minor leagues for the NFL and the NBA? Perhaps some food for thought.