Robert A. Bennett – författare

There are numerous books documenting the challenges of student athletes and presenting recommendations for academic success. They primarily focus on understanding the issues of student-athletes and recommendations are oftentimes overly simplistic, failing to explicitly provide interventions that can be executed by student-athlete support personnel. In addition, the topic of supporting student-athletes who are academically at risk and/or are diagnosed with high incidence disabilities has been overlooked by scholars resulting in few publications specifically focusing on providing strategies to the staff/personnel who serve these populations. The general target audience is college/university practitioners who interface with student-athletes who demonstrate academic and social risk in the realm of athletics.These stakeholders include but are not limited to: academic support staff, student athletes, parents, coaches, faculty/educators, counselors, psychologists, higher education administrators, student affairs professionals, disability services coordinators/personnel, as well as researchers who focus on education leadership, sports, and special education. All of these groups are likely to find this book attractive especially as they work with student-athletes who are at-risk for academic failure. Also, it is ventured that this book will become the staple text for the National Association of Academic Advisors (N4A), the official organization for all personnel who work in collegiate academic support and can be used by members of intercollegiate athletic associations to reform policies in place to support at-risk student-athletes.

There are numerous books documenting the challenges of student athletes and presenting recommendations for academic success. They primarily focus on understanding the issues of student-athletes and recommendations are oftentimes overly simplistic, failing to explicitly provide interventions that can be executed by student-athlete support personnel. In addition, the topic of supporting student-athletes who are academically at risk and/or are diagnosed with high incidence disabilities has been overlooked by scholars resulting in few publications specifically focusing on providing strategies to the staff/personnel who serve these populations. The general target audience is college/university practitioners who interface with student-athletes who demonstrate academic and social risk in the realm of athletics.These stakeholders include but are not limited to: academic support staff, student athletes, parents, coaches, faculty/educators, counselors, psychologists, higher education administrators, student affairs professionals, disability services coordinators/personnel, as well as researchers who focus on education leadership, sports, and special education. All of these groups are likely to find this book attractive especially as they work with student-athletes who are at-risk for academic failure. Also, it is ventured that this book will become the staple text for the National Association of Academic Advisors (N4A), the official organization for all personnel who work in collegiate academic support and can be used by members of intercollegiate athletic associations to reform policies in place to support at-risk student-athletes.

Jim Brown, a first-round NFL draft pick, played fullback for the Cleveland Browns until 1965. Born in 1936 in Georgia, Brown was a child of the Great Migration and faced racial discrimination throughout his football career. His desire to work toward civil rights led him to form the Negro Industrial and Economic Union (NIEU) in 1966, later known as the Black Economic Union (BEU). The Union combined elements of the Civil Rights and Black Power movements with a call for African Americans to accumulate green power by participating in the US's economic infrastructure through entrepreneurship and government programs._x000D_In More Than an Athlete, author Robert A. Bennett III explores the BEU as part of Jim Brown's legacy to answer larger questions about the role of Black athletes as activists and how the response to these actions impacted their careers and movements they supported. Set in the years following the famed 1964 meeting of Jim Brown, Muhammad Ali, Malcolm X, and Sam Cooke, the book examines how Black professional athletes leveraged their social capital in the fight for Civil Rights throughout the 1960s. Bennett provides life sketches for important BEU figures, highlights the experiences that shaped their political consciousness, and weaves in the Union's mission alongside ongoing organizing efforts of the era._x000D_A compelling analysis about the intersection of fame, sports, and race, More Than an Athlete is a thoughtful look at professional athletes' sustained contributions to social movements.