This is a book about athletic competitors belonging to something larger than their accustomed and immediate pursuits. The centerpiece of this book is an accomplishment of justice in the routine conduct of American intercollegiate athletics. This accomplishment was a resilient assembly of intercollegiate athletic competitors who sustained bilateral playing relationships and concurrently ventured into playing relationships outside their circle. This was a just arrangement because participants tolerated one another’s separate pursuits while affirming that they belonged to enduring playing relationships. They affirmed such belonging through their bilateral scheduling practices. Evidence of this justice accomplishment is abundant in hundreds of schedules.
This book contains two historical narratives about connected competitors departing one another’s company to travel distinctive pathways. In both narratives, athletic competitors reestablished playing relationships from which they had departed. Through their acts of connection, departure, and reconnection, these competitors joined to create enduring patterns of centered belonging. And, they did this as athletic competitors whose interests were directly opposed.
