Labor Case Filed by Injured Player in ’70s Has Echoes Today

BELLEVILLE, Ill. — In a drill at a college football practice, Fred W. Rensing charged downfield, lowered his white helmet and drilled the punt returner in the chest for a thunderous hit. Rensing did not get up, and he never walked again.

He spent the next 28 years in relative anonymity, the initial years engaged in a long-shot legal dispute with his university, Indiana State, fighting for benefits for injured workers.

Today, as a landmark case at Northwestern challenges the foundation of collegiate athletics, Rensing and the 1976 punt drill that felled him still resonate. Though he has been largely forgotten by the public, those who have been pushing for changes in the N.C.A.A. see him as a pioneer in the struggle to win employment rights for campus athletes, a victory that could qualify them for protections like workers’ compensation benefits and unemployment insurance.

Rensing did not win his fight. When the courts ultimately ruled against him, the decision gave the N.C.A.A. an important legal victory, bolstering its stance that its athletes are not professionals and delivering a precedent that stood opposite to what Rensing had pushed for.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/23/sports/ncaafootball/collegians-early-case-for-employee-rights-echoes-still.html?emc=edit_th_20140423&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=42530878