Daniel E. Doyle Jr.: Honoring Senators Pell and Chafee on Sportsmanship Day
01:00 AM EST on Tuesday, March 2, 2010
By DANIEL E. DOYLE JR.
Today is the 19th Annual National Sportsmanship Day. Thousands of schools in the U.S. and abroad will celebrate the day by engaging in discussions about the role of fair play in athletic competition and in our daily lives. The belief that thoughtful dialogue can discourage bad sportsmanship has been the core premise of National Sportsmanship Day since the Institute for International Sport introduced NSD, in 1991.
As we head toward the 20th Anniversary of National Sportsmanship Day in 2011, the institute will be joined by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) and the Positive Coaching Alliance at Stanford University in a one-year examination of the state of sportsmanship in America. The project will include exploring ways that NSD participants can intensify their commitment to fair play.
Based on 19 years of NSD evaluations, our group will focus on four areas:
• Crowd Behavior: We will challenge conditions or trends that compromise the importance of fair play. A major focus will be on crowd behavior, perhaps the most egregious example of bad sportsmanship. We will help schools and leagues develop a coherent and practical policy of crowd behavior, and we will encourage student participation in developing their school’s policy. At the core of each school and league policy will be a stated position both necessary and unequivocal: Attendance at a sporting event does not give one the right to indulge one’s most unseemly and potentially harmful behavior.
“Competitive Self • Restraint”: We will call attention to the fact that sport, just like any other major institution, has an obligation to contribute to a civil society. Schools and leagues will be encouraged to foster a culture of “Competitive Self-Restraint” — compete hard but within the rules, respect your opponents, respect the game.
We are a Fair Play • Program: We will encourage coaches to enroll their teams in our new “We Are a Fair Play Program.” Member programs will abide by a culture that honors hard, clean play in competition and recognizes the importance of good behavior at all times. Coaches will be asked to emphasize the extent to which sportsmanship in games influences civil, considerate behavior in everyday life. Fair play engenders respect, maintains positive relationships and simply helps life go much more smoothly than the aggressive talk and profane language that now fill arenas and airwaves. We fully expect that member programs will generate well-earned respect within their schools and communities.
• Recognition of Exceptional Contribution: On March 1, 2011, in celebration of the 20th anniversary, the Institute will pay special tribute to the late Rhode Island senators Claiborne Pell and John Chafee. In 1989, I approached both senators regarding the creation of a National Sportsmanship Day. Their support included appointing staff members to assist us with the 1989-90 research project on the state of sportsmanship in American schools. The research was the basis for a 1990 press conference in Washington, D.C., hosted by Senators Pell and Chafee, to formally announce the creation of National Sportsmanship Day, including official Congressional recognition.
We will also recognize four groups for their landmark contributions to fair play in America: 20 living Americans, 20 deceased Americans, 20 organizations and 20 schools, the latter of which will be designated as All-American Sportsmanship Schools. A selection committee will spend the next 12 months researching worthy candidates in each category.
The honorees will be admirable examples of how sport, at its best, does indeed contribute to a civil society.
Daniel E. Doyle Jr. is the founder and executive director of the Institute for International Sport, based at the University of Rhode Island, and founder of National Sportsmanship Day.
