articles and reviews. His books have won various awards: Sports Illustrated placed Beer & Circus on its list of "100 Best Sports Books of All-time" (December 16, 2002) and Frank DeFord named Shake Down the Thunder as the second best sports history book (December 16, 2002).

Sperber was the first chair of the Drake Group, a national faculty committee advocating reform of college sports and he later received its Robert M. Hutchins Award. In conjunction with his work on college sports he appeared on many national TV and radio programs, including