Introduction
Pickup basketball is a play activity "heavily invested in specific versions of masculinity" (Wellard 2009: 7). This website will explore some of the social mechanisms through which these masculinities are performed and negotiated by college age males. The website will particularly explore the athletic performance on the court and the language used by the players within the frame of the basketball court as primary processes through which masculinity is iterated. Many male students of the University of Notre Dame play pickup basketball games. One informant typically goes once a week, whereas his friends sometimes go up to five times a week. Given the hectic lives of these college students, who balance class, extra-curricular activities, and work, the pickup basketball game seems to be a meaningful activity for the young men who play. Whereas their peers involved in varisty sports are obligated to play, the voluntary aspect of the pickup basketball game "is significant in that the time and effort invested in taking part is rewarded through less obvious material rewards" (Wellard 2009: 8). Thus, there is more to the pickup basketball game than just play in and of itself, for the young men are also at play with their masculinity.
Methodology
The methodology for this projected consists of the following techniques. Informed consent was achieved for all study participants and pseudonyms are used to maintain individual anonymity.
- Class readings and discussion
- Observation at distance
- Participant observation
- 3 unstructured interviews at fieldsite
- 1 structured interview with key informant
- Related readings in books and journals
Context
The University of Notre Dame is a prestigious institute of higher learning. It is located in the United States, in the state of Indiana, adjacent to the city of South Bend. The undergraduate population is 8,363.
Sport and play are important activities at the University. While one of the mottos of the university is that the university enriches the "mind, heart, and soul," a look at a map of the university illustrates that "the body" is an equally important category. By this I mean that a glance at this map shows that spaces of sport and play are the most numerous within the built landscape of the university property. There is more space set apart for play then space set apart for learning or for worship. This shows the value the institution places on sport and play. Including two golf courses, tennis courts, volleyball courts, two gyms, plus all the facilities for the explicit use of the 24 varsity athletic teams, such as a football stadium, soccer fields, indoor tennis courts, indoor/outdoor track, baseball diamond, softball diamond, etc., the spaces designed exclusively for sport and play permeate the landscape of the university.
Basketball is a popular sport. Many students are avid fans of the men's and women's varsity basketball teams, which are among the best in the nation. The largest outdoor basketball tournament, called "Bookstore Basketball," is a beloved university tradition. [Here provide link to other student pages who are doing their website projects on Bookstore Basketball]
On the subpage Ethnic Makeup of Pickup Basketball , I explore the ethnic component of the pickup basketball activity. This section is based on quantitative observation and is meant to provide another layer of description of the sites. Because all the informants interviewed for this particular study are white, little can be successfully analyzed concerning the correlations between masculinities and ethnicity. It is important to note that the ethnic diversity of the University is less than that of the United States. African-Americans are particularly underrepresented at Notre Dame, in comparison to the general population. The following is the percentage breakdown of ethnic diversity at Notre Dame as reported by the University:
11% Hispanic
8% Asian
4.6% African American
0.6% Native American
Fieldwork for this project was carried out in two different gyms at the university, the Rockne Memorial (Rockne) and the Rolfs Sports Recreation Center (Rolfs). Around 75% of participant obsevration was carried out at Rockne, and the remaining 25% at Rolfs. The Rolfs complex is significantly larger than the Rockne complex. At times, as many as 4 full length baskeball courts may be in use at Rolfs. The maximum of full length courts at Rockne is 3. In general, faculty and staff also use the facilities at Rolfs, whereas Rockne is primarily used by undergraduate students. Furthermore, it is generally understood that the level and intensity of play is higher at Rolfs than at Rockne.
Pickup Basketball as Play and Ritual
Huizinga defines play as "a voluntary activity or occupation executed within certain fixed limits of time and place, according to rules freely accepted but absolutely binding, having its aim in itself and accompanied by a feeling of tension, joy, and the consciousness that it is 'different' from ordinary life" (Huizinga 1949: 28). Because all these characteristics are manifest in the pickup basketball activity, I see it as fundamentally a play activity. The activity is voluntary and is done within the boundaries of a particular space. Play also occurs within temporal boundaries, and the explicit results of the game generally do not extend beyond these boundaries. By this I mean, if a player wins or engages in a brief "tussle" with another player, this does not explicitly have much affect on the rest of his day or week. The pickup basketball game is played according to a shared set of rules, although the rules vary according to the space. For instance, play is to 21 points at Rock while it is to 15 points at Rolfs. Whereas in formal basketball, score is accumulated by twos and threes, in pickup basketball points are accumulated by ones and twos. The game is seen as apart from "ordinary life." During one unstructured interview, an informed explained that the basketball game "is something fun for after class and school, to let me get my competitiveness out." Whereas the demands of classes make up most of the "ordinary life" for the young men, the basketball game is perceived as a space removed from the quotidian.
A ritual begins every pickup game to determine the makeup of the teams and/or the team that begins the game with possession of the ball. This ritual varies, however, depending on whether the players come as a team or in smaller groups. If teams are already decided, then the team that starts with possession is determined by a "do or die" shot. If the player makes the shot, his team starts the game. If he misses, the other team starts the game. At the end of the game a ritual gesture and utterance is performed by every player to the other players. With an outstretched hand and palm, he will make contact with the open palms of his fellow players and say "good game." This symbolically marks the end of the contest.
Play takes place in a space specifically designed for this use. It is a "sacred" space, for it is really only the basketball activity that is socially condoned on the court space. Other uses of the space marked off for basketball are considered profane and are systematically prohibited. Players dress themselves based on an implicit dress code.
The following text is a pickup basketball narrative as recounted to me by one informant. The informant is male and in his first year at the University of Notre Dame. I had accompanied him and his four friends to the Rock earlier in the day and then asked this particular informant to recall his experience as part of a structured interview. I asked him questions about what had happened during the game, and then asked him to recount a typical experience. What follows is an emic narrative of what he sees as a typical pickup basketball game. I will be referring to the text of this narrative throughout the website:
Well we show up at the Rock, first thing is to swipe cards, well swipe a card and get a basketball. Some go to check if courts are open and we go upstairs, start warming up, shoot around, foul each other, get rebounds. Other people were stretching or messing around in general to warm up. We warm up on one basket so there are other groups of people who are messing around. Typically there is five of us, and other guys come in groups and mess around with each other with their friends. Two people go over and say, "Hey do you guys wanna play?" If they don't have enough for a team, we recruit from other courts. As soon as that happens no more messing around, one team shirts, one team skins. One team volunteers for shirts [laughs]. You shoot to see who goes first, it's do or die, make it take it. Then we play pretty intensely to 21. Occasionally tussles happen. One guy gets fouled and he gets a little angry and pushes back a little bit. It always gets settled, the little flashes of tension. It's because people calling their own fouls too much gets annoying because there are no referees. Guys getting frustrated with people that aren't as good at times. After the game, the winner team stays on the court and there are usually people that are watching and they get to come in and play for the people on the losing team... I don't care if I lose, if I played badly individually I would feel embarrassed. When you win you feel generally better, but if you played bad and you won you still don't feel that great. After the game you go get water, its disgusting. We never go to the water fountain as a group. You leave with at least some of the guys you came with. Some stay and work out and some keep playing basketball. I play a max of two games, but some keep playing like Brad* plays ten games.
*Indicates psuedonym