Mountaineering is not typically considered an academic subject. Nor is there much scholarship on the sport, let alone its history in the state with the smallest population, Alaska. Yet through analysis of the sport, deeper connections in the relationship between humans and the environment, the history of colonizing both indigenous peoples and land, and the place of gender and sport in Alaska come to light. Mountaineers that traveled to Alaska in the late 19th century and early 20th century were some of the first advocates for protecting its land, yet also displayed their imperialist and masculine values in the mountains. The effects of these approaches to climbing structurally excluded women and furthered the project of colonizing the land by both physically and metaphorically claiming the peaks of mountains for the nation. Their climbing also contributed to the idea that humans conquered nature; by dominating the peaks these climbers saw themselves in a battle with nature, and reaching the summit was their victory. As World War II hit Alaska, new approaches to climbing surfaced, reflecting both the spirit of war time in Alaska and the resulting population boom. Organized through the branches of climbing and environmental clubs, women began to participate with a distinctly female culture of climbing. Women sometimes expressed views of the union between humans and nature, and men also organized as environmental protectors due to their experiences in the mountains. Yet as this thesis will point out, in viewing nature and humans as separate mountaineers encouraged the view that Alaska and its land were a wilderness resource for recreation, rather than a land to act in community towards. This thesis attempts to complicate the sport of mountaineering, documenting the ways people climbed and the different meanings they embedded in their climbing activity.

NBA general managers are responsible for all aspects of roster management and seek to acquire players with complementary skills. Ayer (2012) examines elements of roster composition, including player types and the impact of the composition of a team’s top two and three players on winning games. I expand the literature on roster composition by redefining player types and examining the impact of star and role player combinations on playoff success. Contrary to popular belief, I find that general managers should avoid superstar point guards, as teams featuring this player type tend to underperform in the playoffs. The results of this study suggest that teams should seek to acquire, among other player types, two elite wings, one defensive-specialist, and one three-point specialist, all found on a total of five championship teams from 1994 to 2013.

Around the world, religion takes many forms that vary greatly in practices, beliefs, and doctrine. In fact, defining the term "religion" is a difficult task in encompassing a multitude of faiths. In America, various cultural practices emulate the religious nature of various classic religions. Sport is a peculiar example that hold the interests of millions. However, the way sport is experienced as a fan differs greatly from the way sport is experienced as an athlete. I argue that to an athlete, sport functions as a placeholder for religion in modern-day America. By exploring various functions of religion, as defined by Winston King in the Encyclopedia of Religion (1959), it is clear that sport offers the same components as religion. However, as scholars such as Price and Chidester have found, sport does not function completely as a religion for fans. I finish with a discussion of why sport in the eyes of a fan fails to meet the requirements for sport acting as religion; using King's definition, it becomes clear that sport, for fans, fails to offer the same type of traditionalism and sacred experiences as found in religion, as well as the experience of sport for an athlete.

Exploitation of African-American male athletes is one of the results of integrating collegiate sports. Predominately White Institutions’ infatuation with the athletic prowess of black men has become a societal norm. African-American student-athletes make up a majority of these revenue-generating athletic teams. Universities have shown that they are willing to achieve fame even at the academic exploitation of their black student athletes. Since integration there have been multiple cases of academic malfeasance of athletes. Select universities want to utilize the utility of Black male bodies but are not interested in expanding their minds. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will be used as an example in this study. Since the 1960s, scholars have assessed this problem within collegiate sports. This thesis adds to previous research and can assist universities across the country that are committed to solving the dilemma of black athletic exploitation and reforming this oppressive model.

This paper analyses the pay-performance relationship in the English Premier League in order to isolate the determinants of success by regressing individual player salaries, and salaries relative to team-mates on the individual performance measures of goals and assists. A weighted OLS and fixed effects model is utilized alongside various control variables to conclude that the positive pay-performance relationship found at the team-level is not reflected at the individual level. The paper also determines that relative income position and various team-effects do not significantly impact individual performance.

This paper examines whether racial salary discrimination exists in the National Hockey League (NHL). I examine data from Hockey Reference and CapFriendly and find some evidence of racial salary discrimination, controlling for a rich set of demographic and performance characteristics. Specifically, when I solely control for race, I do not find any racial wage gap. This gap exists when I control for race and limited place of birth groups, however, the effect is wiped out by performance controls. When controlling for race and detailed place of birth groups, I find some evidence of a race gap even when controls for performance are included. Lastly, I discover that whites from all countries excluding the USA earn more than whites from the USA.

Using economic data collected from 24 different Metropolitan Statistical Areas in the US, this thesis investigates the impact of constructing a new National Basketball Association (NBA) arena on the host city’s economy. When a simplistic model is implemented, which does not control for other economic factors or individual subject heterogeneity, significantly positive economic impacts of arena construction are observed. However, when a more appropriate model specification is implemented that controls for economic activity and individual heterogeneity, these effects are no longer statistically significant. This comparative analysis ultimately highlights the importance of appropriate model specification and supports the conclusion that new NBA arenas, by themselves, are not significant catalysts of urban economic development.

There were two purposes involved in this study. The first objective was to construct increased increment scoring tables for selected track and field events based on the achievement of female physical education students at Rhodes University, South Africa, using the initial performances recorded by the students in each event during the years 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1964, 1965 and 1966. Secondly, the tables were used to test the effectiveness of the increased increment principle in predicting the improvement of the students in subsequent trials during the same period.

Sports presents one of the most popular forms of entertainment in society, and sports media continues to expand its billion-dollar influence through new television deal and broadcasting rights. But with a population of journalists who are overwhelmingly white, straight, and male, sports media is promoting the hegemony of said image by reproducing stereotypes in its broadcasts to audiences around the country. Mainstream media regurgitates these stereotypes in their coverage of minority athlete by portraying black players as unintelligent or “thug”-ish, women as “butch”, and gay athletes as effeminate. These representations allow for the perpetuation of the white, heterosexual male narrative throughout society while sidelining those who do not fit the description. But just as sports media is growing in popularity, so too is the athlete activist. Starting in 2013, today’s athletic superstars are now using their exalted platforms to address societal issues and speak on behalf of marginalized groups that are often ignored or misrepresented by traditional media narratives. The efforts of Colin Kaepernick, Billie Jean King, and Jason Collins in fighting against the system and these stereotypes will reveal how certain athletes are represented in the media and their unique position of changing the discussion and inspiring others to challenge societal norms. The growing popularity of social media and its use as a tool for social activism will also be examined, particularly as it has revolutionized the culture of athlete activism.

The use of nostalgia has become a feature in baseball ballparks in recent years, with research showcasing the prevalence of nostalgic stimuli including bricks, steel beams, and old-fashioned scoreboards popular in the past. The impact of such stimuli on spectators’ emotions and behavior had yet to be explored, though. Therefore, the purpose of the current study was to investigate the impact of nostalgia on minor league baseball spectator emotional and behavioral responses. Data collection occurred at three minor league baseball games during June 2017. Utilizing the SOR framework (Mehrabian & Russell, 1974) as the theoretical foundation, a 39-item instrument was constructed by adapting items from previously-constructed surveys in the contexts of sport and general consumer behavior. Using systematic random sampling, a total of 232 completed and usable surveys were collected. To investigate the impact of nostalgia on spectators’ emotional responses, structural equation modeling was utilized. The study sought to specifically examine whether nostalgia evoked through spectators’ senses (sight, smell, sound, taste, and touch) and social interaction impacted their pleasure. Results showed that only social interaction was a significant positive predictor of pleasure, with sight a significant negative predictor of pleasure. A significant, positive relationship between pleasure and spectator’s behavioral intentions was also found. Finally, the study explored whether spectators’ arousal moderated the relationship between pleasure and arousal. The results displayed that arousal did not significantly moderate this relationship, with pleasure and arousal maintaining a strong correlation. Results and implications of the study are discussed, with suggestions for future research provided.