Murray A. Sperber (born November 30, 1940) taught at

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a state university system, system of Public university, public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. The system has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration o ...

, Bloomington, from 1971 to 2004 and is a

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

Emeritus of English and American Studies at the school. He subsequently taught (2008-2017) in the Cultural Studies of Sport in Education program in the Graduate School of Education at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

. At Indiana, he published seven books and many articles and reviews. His books have won various awards: Sports Illustrated placed ''Beer & Circus'' on its list of "100 Best Sports Books of All-time" (Dec. 16, 2002) and Frank DeFord named ''Shake Down the Thunder'' as the second best sports history book (Dec. 16, 2002). Sperber was the first chair of the Drake Group, a national faculty committee advocating reform of college sports and he later received its Robert M. Hutchins Award. In conjunction with his work on college sports he appeared on many national TV and radio programs, including CBS-TV's ''60 Minutes'', NPR's ''Morning Edition'', ''All Things Considered'', and ''Talk of the Nation'', and PBS-TV's ''Newshour''. He also contributed op-ed pieces to ''The Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Education,'' and other periodicals, including ''The New York Times''. Sperber was born in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

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, Canada. He received his B.A. from

Purdue University Purdue University is a Public university#United States, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, United States, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded ...

in 1961, and both his M.A. (1963), and PhD (1974) from the

. Sperber was involved in the events in 2000 surrounding the firing of Indiana University men's basketball coach, Bob Knight. Sperber criticized the university's handling of the situation and incurred the wrath of many of Knight's fans. As a result, he had to take a leave-of-absence from the university. He later returned but, in 2004, retired from Indiana University, and left the state of Indiana.

Works

* ''Beer & Circus: How Big-Time College Sports is Crippling Undergraduate Education (Henry Holt & Co. 2000).'' * ''Onward to Victory: The Crises That Shaped College Sports (Henry Holt & Co, 1998).'' * ''Shake Down the Thunder: The Creation of Notre Dame Football (Henry Holt & Co, 2002)'' * ''College Sports Inc.: The Athletic Department vs. the University (Henry Holt & Co, 1991).'' * ''Literature & Politics: (Hayden Humanities Series, (Hayden and Co.,1978). * ''Arthur Koestler: A Collection of Critical Essays, The Twentieth Century Views Series, (Prentice-Hall Inc.,1977). '' * ''And I Remember Spain: A Spanish Civil War Anthology (Macmillan and Co., New York, 1974).''

References

External links

Official Page
*
The Man Who Stood Up to Bob Knight
An Interview by Nathan Schiller, ''Construction Magazine'', October 3, 2011 {{DEFAULTSORT:Sperber, Murray Living people 1940 births Academics from Montreal Anglophone Quebec people Indiana University faculty Purdue University alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni American academics of English literature American male non-fiction writers Writers from Montreal