Education, Athletic Scholarships, and the Occupational Career of the Professional Athlete

Based on a survey of 335 former major league baseball players, college education was found to be incompatible with sports performance but positively associated with postbaseball occupational achievement. Athletic scholarship recipients, when compared with nonsupported college peers, were characterized by lower levels of playing ability and limited occupational success. The results are discussed in terms of three distinct "ideal-typical" career profiles based on differences in baseball skill, commitment to baseball, and later occupational achievement. The results seriously compromise the myth of occupational mobility for the sports hero.