Title IX began the change of integrating women's sports into universities, but it was up to each university's athletic administration, external media sources, and public relations practitioners to determine how female athletes and sports were supported and publicized. In 1976, Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah hired Ellen Larsen as its first female sports information director responsible for women's sports. Through her 19 years as a sports information director at BYU, Larsen was an advocate for her athletes and helped pave the way for future female athletic administration roles. While there is plenty of literature on male sports information directors, literature on female sports information directors is thin. Even less has been published on pioneer women in this role. This paper will tell the story of Ellen Larsen, BYU's first female sports information director, and describe her pioneering impact in the publicizing of women's athletics at BYU from 1976 to 1995.

Research examining how these athletes, specifically football players, are racially mistreated in revenue sports in Power Five conferences, as well as the effect of this mistreatment on their health and well-being, has been sparse. Thus, the purpose of my study was to examine current Black male college football players' experiences of racial mistreatment within their lives in general, and their collegiate sport experiences in particular, and to learn how these experiences have affected their health and well-being across their academic, athletic, and social spheres of functioning. Through reflexive thematic analysis, I gathered that (a) the athletes believed that football defines and limits them, (b) they felt misunderstood and isolated on campus, (b) they were dehumanized and criminalized, and (d) they were physically and psychologically exhausted from chronic racial mistreatment. Despite the NCAA making positive strides toward addressing mental health concerns within collegiate athletics, there remains a clear need for more support and nourishment regarding the mental health of Black male college athletes, particularly football players. Further results and implications are discussed.

Group cohesion has been operationalized in the literature by measures which tend to focus only upon limited aspects of the phenomenon, usually interpersonal attraction or attraction to the group. In sport, it is imperative that instruments developed to assess group cohesion reflect factors associated with the goals and objectives the group is striving to achieve as well as factors associated with the development and maintenance of harmonious positive interpersonal relationships. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to develop a valid and reliable group cohesion instrument that measures both task related forces as well as social related forces that exist in sport groups.

In the last thirty years, a movement in America helps students struggling with substance abuse and dependency. Only recently, in the 1970s to be precise, has there been any significant documentation that unveils the problem of substance abuse in college. Schools like Texas Tech University and Kennesaw State University are in the forefront helping hundreds of thousands of students who struggle to have a safe and productive college experience. These schools provide support systems, scholarships, and mentorship to those students who are free from drug use and dependence and are looking to further their education. It is my intent to demonstrate a growing need for these support systems and present a theatrical work that will raise awareness of this issue. Oftentimes, the issue of substance abuse is an embarrassing and uncomfortable topic for people to discuss. There are issues of denial at both the personal and academic level. By using theatre as a means to present this topic in a non-confrontational, engaging, and thoughtful manner, I contend that there can be progress in bringing Collegiate Recovery Programs to colleges nationwide. My play, A Way Back, will add to the canon of substance abuse plays with an emphasis on substance abuse recovery in college.

The research seeks to understand and explain the impact, if any, on the transition out of sport, based on the level of commitment to sport being a Collegiate Athlete. Interest for this study came from personal experience as an athlete, as well as knowing numerous athletes who have gone or are going through, questioning their Identity once their playing days came to an end. This study includes extant literature discussing Athletic Identity. It offers a different perspective than other studies working through grief and loss after losing the ability to play a sport. The purpose of this study is to offer possible explanations and resources to deal with the problem of Identity Crisis in a post-athletic career. Here, Identity Crisis will be defined as a “personal psychosocial conflict, especially in adolescence that involves confusion about one's social role and often a sense of loss of continuity to one's personality” (Merriam-Webster's dictionary). This is currently being brought to light with the COVID-19 pandemic. The results of this study will describe the effects of transitioning out of sport through the Kübler-Ross “Grief and Loss cycle” of an athlete. This study is intended to be a resource for collegiate athletes, coaches, trainers, administrators, parents, and counselors to be better prepared to help athletes with this transition.

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