Pro athletes today demand—and often get—the salaries and contracts they want. They bring enormous value to corporate brands, even to governments, and they know it. Social media fuels their fame and the 24/7 news cycle headlines their negotiations. But these athletes couldn’t always write their own tickets. Until a few decades ago the so-called “Reserve Clause” locked players up with one team; only the team’s management could unlink the chain. Join President Emeritus, baseball historian, (and die-hard Pirates fan) Walter Harrison, and Dean Emeritus (and die-hard Giants fan) David Goldenberg. They’ll give the play-by-play on the Reserve Clause history, and how a Black St. Louis Cardinals All-Star, Curt Flood, challenged the status quo. Flood had marched for Civil Rights with Jackie Robinson and the NAACP in Mississippi. When the Cardinals later announced Flood’s trade he balked, saying “a well-paid slave is nonetheless a slave.” His fight to break the Reserve Clause bondage and forge an athlete’s right to Free Agency, reached the U.S. Supreme court. Curt Flood v. Bowie Kuhn (1972) revolutionized baseball’s Major Leagues, forever altering the owner-player relationship.
Walter Harrison is President Emeritus of the University of Hartford. He served as president from 1998 until 2017, a period of growth, vitality, and transformation of the University. As the longest-serving president in the University’s history, he oversaw a dramatic improvement in the University’s financial stability, a near tripling of the University’s endowment, and a transformation and re-design of the University’s campus, constructing or renovating 17 different University buildings during his tenure. Most importantly, he oversaw a significant growth in the undergraduate and graduate student population, new professional programs in architecture and the health sciences, and a noticeable improvement in the rigor and quality of the University’s academic offerings. The University’s libraries are now named for him, to recognize his devotion to the life of the mind.
David H. Goldenberg served as Dean of Hillyer College at the University of Hartford from 2001—2022, and currently teaches as a professor of business within the College. A Dean, Chief Academic Officer, and Chancellor of universities across the United States over the past 40 years, he began his career as head of the Office of Student Affairs for the State of New York, handling student legal rights education and cases on behalf of the Commissioner of Education. David Goldenberg has authored articles and books on education law and will have a book coming out in 2024 based on a class he co-teaches entitled Trials That Shaped America.
Wednesdays: Feb. 21 and Feb. 28 | 12:30 p.m. – 2 p.m. | The Greenberg Center/Harry Jack Gray Center | $40 | Register Here
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