During the early decades of the twentieth century, there was a gradual shift from educational sports as a forum for non-risk individual participation to team and coach-centered endeavors where an emphasis on winning existed. That shift reflected social changes in the United States as American society itself became highly structured and organized for efficiency during the 1920's and 1930's. In the 1920's, the Detroit school system, under the direction of Vaughn Blanchard, introduced a program of non-adult participation in athletic events. That is, during an athletic contest, students organized, played, and managed the event. No adult was allowed to participate in any phase of the contest except officiating. The attempt to implement the non-adult rule in Detroit demonstrates the efforts of Blanchard and other reformers to return the control of athletic events to the students. Yet, the idealistic program failed in Detroit after a four-year trial. The general public, players, and especially the coaches were not prepared for such an innovative concept. In this instance, the press played a major role in establishing educational policy. Also detrimental was Blanchard's inability to communicate the rationale for the program to the athletic consumers. Had that plan worked, students would have entered the mainstream of decision-making by controlling their own affairs. This would have indicated that the program of inter-school athletics was not a social agent transmitting the culture surrounding it. Yet the program was rejected, indicating that interscholastic athletics was an agency for the integration of the whole of the culture. (Author)