The spirit of amateur athleticism was a noble one, which I mean both as praise and critique. There was a real distinction, no different in spirit than that betw

The spirit of amateur athleticism was a noble one, which I mean both as praise and critique. There was a real distinction, no different in spirit than that between junior sports and adult sports. Class privilege was a real thing, sure, and the Jim Thorpe story in fact shows that, by custom, a poor boy could earn some extra money playing in the minors under an assumed name, which Thorpe just didn't know due to his background. Today, being an amateur tennis player means you've had thousands of hours of professional coaching, there aren't really exceptions, although there's enough charity that exceptionally talented players do get that coaching sometimes. Back then, it meant you played tennis. This is already long so I'll refrain from talking about the wacky and fake rules around NCAA amateur status; I'll content myself with saying that more change is needed.