I'll admit it I'm a faithful yet perpetually disappointed sports fan as a native of the state of Georgia I was raised to be a fan of the Atlanta Hawks and the truth of the matter is my stand up is only from them as an adult so sports clearly matter to me but I'm not the only one there are millions of people who exercise a level of faith and devotion into their teams of choice it begs the question why do sports matter to so many people on a simple level sports are fun but upon a second
planet so much can bring us together can give us a commonality through the good and the bad that wins and the losses according to authors Billings and Truman Sports has infiltrated our society to the point that there's very little things left that have Undead have been left untouched by athletics and in many ways society and our daily lives are very much reflected in sports so for us it's clear that there is some sort of social attraction but in my mind the relationship between sports and society runs much deeper in that so today I'm going to
explain to you why sports matter and why sports serve as a reflective element within our society I'm going to explain to you why we have an attraction to sports how the media certainly perpetuates this love affair and how the examination of our favorite team can provide us with a social spyglass into the norms and values of our society now let's think for a moment why do we love sports well in my mind it's because of romanticism now think of romance sometimes it's illogical sometimes it's blind but certainly there's a level of devotion and I would
argue that when it comes to our love of sports there certainly is a lack of logic there is a level of devotion commitment but more often than not this relationship is perpetuated by myth let me give you an example there are some parents out there who tell themselves that the only way to teach their children values such as teamwork or camaraderie is through an early involvement in athletics now certainly sports can teach there's no doubt about that but is it the only way and the answer is no that's a that's a myth Sports is not
the only way to learn these things and oftentimes we go back to athletics because we see it as an educational outlet now speaking of romanticism and myth sports also gives us the hero okay now think about that for a moment think about the hero as children we look to athletes and we say you know what I want to be that guy we emulate that athlete we dress like that athlete we perform like that athlete there is a genuine fascination with that athlete but what happens when your hero is Mark McGwire who as he's speaking to
Congress forgets all the years of steroid abuse what if your hero was Michael Vick who went to prison for dog fighting what if your hero was Mike Tyson who was convicted of rape see here's the myth we look at these individuals we put them on a pedestal the fact is they are fallible creatures they are just like us they make mistakes but as a sports consuming society it hasn't stopped us from ascribing value to these individuals in many ways we treat sports like a religion now according to the book religion in sports in American culture
both religion and sports our social expressions that have functional similarities please keep that in mind functional similarities look at how we celebrate religion and sports we congregate we gather usually in the same place at the same time we celebrate we dress appropriately for the occasion and we pledge some level of faith to a deity of our choice or to our favorite team so you see clearly we place a level of importance on sports in our society but to what extent has sports really infiltrated our cultural staples let me give you an example when I say
the University of Alabama very few people are going to say wow what a mathematics department the truth of the matter is the common individuals going to say roll tide now in this instance we have an educational outlet an institute of higher education higher learning that has become instantly identifiable with the success of its athletic program now before you think to yourself and ask the question hey isn't the institution upset about this portrayal let me introduce you to the Flutie effect name for fame Boston College quarterback Doug Flutie Harvard Business professor Doug Chun found that when
a team from a college or university has a level of success in either football or basketball applications to that school increase 18.7% so colleges and universities they benefit from this persona they benefit from a successful athletic program and what happens is as a society we look towards an athletic program and we instantly ascribe a value that in truth is based on sports I want you to think about another cultural staple I want you to think about the holiday specifically Thanksgiving think about how you enjoy Thanksgiving you gather with family and friends and you feast all
right what happens afterwards you watch football think of it this way ok think of it this way it has become almost ritualistic we will make sports fit into our holidays into dates that matter and we'll do the reverse as well we will make sports fit into days that don't matter and the fact of the matter is if something interferes with that sport we will make changes how many of you how many of you have ever heard of a church coordinating their Sunday night service with the Superbowl the truth of the matter is they still want
to facilitate a level of attendance and within our society you could easily argue that maybe there aren't bigger days on the sports calendar than the Super Bowl we will make sports fit we will accommodate sports you even see a crossover between sports and politics I give you the 1968 Olympics Americans Tommie Smith and John Carlos took to the medal stand and as the national anthem played they raised a single fist in the air and they bowed their heads they staged a silent civil rights protest concerning the conditions that African Americans faced in this country during
the civil rights movement just this past season in the NFL we had San Francisco 49er quarterback Colin Kaepernick who every time the national anthem played kneeled and bowed his head and in Kaepernick's mind he is making a social statement about the treatment of blacks in our society when it comes to interactions with the police now whether we agree or disagree these individuals were vilified for their actions but let's be honest they are not siloed off from society they are a part of it and they face the same problems you and I face the same issues
the major difference here they have the platform sports afforded them a stage and so they took that moment to try to incite change now as we say that the primary conduit of this relationship between sports and society is the media if we were to make a decision about what is important in our society and all we did was look at the sheer amount of content sports would be very high on that list when you look at television we have a multitude of Fox Sports and ESPN channels devoted to specific niches within the marketplace we have
mobile apps we have social media we have websites blogs message boards magazines they are all devoted to sports only content and no matter what's going on in your local community no matter what's going on in society pick up a newspaper to this day they still devote roughly 25% of all coverage to sports now many a media scholar has told us that the acquisition of information through the media has profound effects on the user and basically can impact what we think is important and how we formulate public opinion so if we're looking at the media and
we're saying to ourselves what matters clearly sports have to be on that list now with that said certainly it's somewhat cosmetic to make such a statement but understand something the media does not thrive without sports and sports does not thrive without the media it's a codependent relationship one does not work at without the other the media needs sports the sports need media sports does not spread without the media the media has a source of convenient and cheap content and let's face facts we watch sports because we love drama we expect to see the unexpected the
media is well aware of this and if you really think about it if there is a niche that you like in the sports world you don't have to wait too long somebody within the media will tailor content for you again it's a very codependent relationship now with all of that said it doesn't necessarily tell us how the endeavors of our athletic teams can be reflective of the society in which we live in my mind you have to look very much on the local level and from a local perspective there is a typically speaking there is
a strong relation ship between a community and the teams that represent said community to the point that they're reflective of one another historian Kurt Kipner wrote that sports particularly in the south has value and more often than not people look to other sports teams for cultural validation now think about that for a moment we look towards athletics for cultural validation you see in Kepler's mind we should be able to look at the teams that represent us and see a reflection of our norms our values so I applied Kipp nurse contention to my own research and
in my book full-court press I examined Mississippi State University's men's basketball team during the 1950s and 60s during this time period Mississippi State won multiple Southeastern Conference championships yet they never played in the NCAA tournament that contention today would be unheard of so why didn't they because if kempner is correct and we look at Mississippi State and we say that team is reflective of us one of those values was segregation and the NCAA tournament was integrated and understand in this time period any consideration to integration was seen as a gross social violation so Mississippi State
stayed away because they had to maintain that reflection with the society in which they lived eventually state did play in the tournament in 1963 and they lost to an integrated team so what does that say it tells us that as a society perhaps what we believe in perhaps the values we hold true maybe they're wrong maybe our belief in our faith and segregation was wrong interestingly enough the press in Mississippi completely ignored the loss they moved on because it was not a reality they were willing to address at that point so if we hold our
values true and we expect to see a reflection of our social norms and values within our athletics Mississippi system was broken and it stayed that way even through the recruitment of African American athletes which did not happen in that state until 1968 if you want a more contemporary example I urge you to look at the Olympics every day without fail in this country we hear about the medal count why because we're number one we're American and we have to win let me give you the 1988 men's Olympic basketball team it's the last team in the
Olympics from a male perspective in basketball that was completely made up of collegiate athletes and you know what they won the bronze that year they lost to the Soviet Union now in a lot of situations in a lot of countries a bronze medal is wonderful but not in America we're free we're democracy we're number one and in no way in no way is it acceptable to lose to the Soviet Union during the Cold War we are not a third-place team we're not a third-place country so what happens well in 1992 the Olympics raid the professional
ranks and we get the fabled Dream Team of Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson and Larry Bird you see in both situations something was broken those teams weren't reflecting the values of the society in which they served so you know what something had to change now when it comes to the Olympics and men's basketball and eighty-eight and then subsequently in 92 they thought the team was broken so that's what changed in Mississippi it was the society that was broken and they quickly learned that that archaic oppressive way of life just wasn't going to last so see
we can look towards sports and we can learn valuable lessons about ourselves and about the societies in which we live in closing let me stress to you that I clearly view sports as being important and I acknowledge that some people find little interest in the notion of sports but don't be so quick to dismiss in my mind sports do not exist in a vacuum they are a cog in society just like education just like politics just like religion just like entertainment now understand I'm not ascribing value I am NOT telling you that one is better
than the other I'm simply asking that you consider the ramifications of what sports does for us as a society and what it says to us if you want to know what a society thinks if you want to know what a community holds true try looking at their representative sports teams thank you very much [Applause]
