Creating Social Change in and through Intercollegiate Sport: State of the Field, Challenges, and Future Directions

Abstract

I write these concluding comments for the special issue on Creating Social Change in and through Intercollegiate Sport having just returned from attending the 3rd Annual Athletes and Social Change Forum at the Mohammad Ali Center in Louisville, Kentucky. Muhammad Ali served as a civil rights activist in his opposition to the Vietnam War, which cost him his heavyweight boxing title and four years of his career. In defense of his decision to boycott the war, Ali stated in 1966: Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go ten thousand miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights? (Zirin, 2008, p. 147). Propelled by the vision and legacy of Ali as an advocate for social change, practitioners, academics, athletes, and activists dialogued in Louisville about what it means for athletes to engage in social change, philanthropy, and work within the community. To begin the conference, Hudson Taylor, founder of Athlete Ally, which has a mission to end homophobia and transphobia in sport and now has chapters on 50 college campuses, challenged the attendees to better articulate the "why" and "what" of social change to mobilize people to action. "Social change does not happen without the support of the majority," said Taylor (Taylor, 2015a). Taylor also advocated that "we should focus on sport culture and the power of athletes to bring about social change." In fact, Taylor epitomizes how athletes can be activists and agitators for social change. As a student-athlete and former All-American wrestler at the University of Maryland, and former wrestling coach at Columbia University, Taylor observed first-hand the use of homophobic language and demeaning humor directed at LGBT student-athletes. He felt called to do something, and founded Athlete Ally as a means to educate athletic communities and combat discrimination against LGBT athletes. The above remarks by Taylor, who is also an author of an article in this special issue, seem both prescient and prudent as we embark on exploring ways to create social change in and through intercollegiate sport. Without truly understanding the

A Current Analysis of Black Head Football Coaches and Offensive Coordinators at the NCAA DI-FBS Level

“…A second recommendation is to develop programming-like coaching fellowships-designed to assist Black coaches in attaining desired positions as suggested by pervious researchers (Agyemang & DeLorme, 2010). Our third recommendation, in agreement with Welty- Peachey (2015) and Melton (2015), is that scholars need to investigate what would motivate athletic departments to engage in social change work and activism. Social change actions like the Eddie Robinson Rule have little chance of being successful if athletic departments fail to find a reason to join the movement.…”