[Crafter Artisan]

I've noticed some pro teams in Australia are named for universities. I wonder what the history behind that is. Did Australia have an era long ago where college sports were a big deal, but it evolved into the teams splitting off and going pro, in contrast to the US model of outsized college athletic departments?

Happens a bit for soccer teams. For example UNAM Pumas (or Universidad Nacional) in Mexican soccer evolved out of amateur teams put on by the national university in Mexico City. Universitario in Peru has a similar history. I believe there are a few others -- but in Latin America my sense is that these amateur teams were among the strongest in the country and then gradually went pro. 

Of relevance to the original subject of this thread: especially in the UK, but elsewhere also true, soccer started out as an officially amateur game, generally practiced by the wealthy and/or aristocratic of each society. But bit by bit as the masses became interested in what the classes were doing, this changed: it's not really practical for working-class people to play in the same sport, in the same league, on the same terms as the wealthy. You can't train or anything. So eventually players get no-show jobs, followed by formal payment arrangements, all bitterly resisted by toffs who want to keep soccer to themselves. It was, of course, a losing battle.

So if I understand this correctly, in the beginning the elite played soccer because they were wealthy, and now they're wealthy because they play soccer?

[Crafter Artisan]

I've noticed some pro teams in Australia are named for universities. I wonder what the history behind that is. Did Australia have an era long ago where college sports were a big deal, but it evolved into the teams splitting off and going pro, in contrast to the US model of outsized college athletic departments?

Happens a bit for soccer teams. For example UNAM Pumas (or Universidad Nacional) in Mexican soccer evolved out of amateur teams put on by the national university in Mexico City. Universitario in Peru has a similar history. I believe there are a few others -- but in Latin America my sense is that these amateur teams were among the strongest in the country and then gradually went pro. 

Of relevance to the original subject of this thread: especially in the UK, but elsewhere also true, soccer started out as an officially amateur game, generally practiced by the wealthy and/or aristocratic of each society. But bit by bit as the masses became interested in what the classes were doing, this changed: it's not really practical for working-class people to play in the same sport, in the same league, on the same terms as the wealthy. You can't train or anything. So eventually players get no-show jobs, followed by formal payment arrangements, all bitterly resisted by toffs who want to keep soccer to themselves. It was, of course, a losing battle.

So if I understand this correctly, in the beginning the elite played soccer because they were wealthy, and now they're wealthy because they play soccer?