This study was undertaken to investigate the importance of various characteristics possessed by volunteer Hunter Education Instructors, as perceived by two study populations. The populations of volunteer Hunter Education Instructors in Kentucky and Hunter Safety Coordinators in the United States and Canada were asked to rate the importance of thirty-five given characteristics. Respondents were also requested to list any characteristics perceived as important that were not included in the battery of given characteristics. Both groups perceived that the majority of given characteristics were highly important. The volunteer Hunter Education Instructors and Hunter Safety Coordinators mostly agreed on which characteristics were important. Characteristics seen as highly important included "Is highly knowledgeable in hunter safety practices"; "researches questions to which he or she does not know the answers"; "Is organized and prepared"; "stimulates thinking among students"; "speaks clearly and audibly"; and "makes students feel at ease and comfortable." Respondents perceived the characteristics "Is a member of a hunting and/or conservation organization or club" and "Is certified as an Emergency Medical Technician as being of no importance when possessed by a volunteer Hunter Education Instructor. Other given characteristics were perceived as 'moderately important' or 'of little importance' for volunteer Instructors.

The purpose of this investigation was to determine the effectiveness of using imagery in eliminating post-rest warm-up decrement (WUD) in the volleyball serve, and to assess whether individual differences in imagery ability mediated any possible reductions in WUD. Thirty-nine State level volleyball players were placed into one of 3 groups, High Imagery, Control, and Low Imagery, based on their scores on the Vividness of Movement Imagery Questionnaire (VMIQ). Players served 15 balls at a designated target area, rested for 10 minutes, and then attempted 5 more serves. During the last 2 minutes of the rest period, the players in the High and Low Imagery groups engaged in imagery of successful serving every 10 seconds, for a total of 12 repetitions. The Control group continued to read a magazine article. To ensure adherence to the imagery instructions, players were evaluated at completion of testing. Results revealed the High Imagery group was significantly better on serving performance post-rest, however there was no significant differences when comparing the mean of the last 3 pre-rest trials with the first post-rest trial. The interaction approached significance (p_= .091) and suggested that the High Imagery group may have benefited from the use of imagery. These findings have implications for the Nacson and Schmidt's (1971) activity-set hypothesis that states that an appropriate task will reduce WUD. It may need to include the effect individual differences, such as imagery ability, may have on the performance of that task.

This Senior Thesis in History analyzes a number of newspaper articles from the 1950s and 1960s in order to investigate a noticeable historiographical narrative on former Harlem Globetrotters’ owner Abe Saperstein. Three historiographical accounts present the debated dichotomy of Abe’s character as a patronizing, bigoted owner toward his black players and as a champion of blacks’ rights. This research inquires as to the extent to which 1950s and 1960s newspaper portrayals of Abe either support or oppose historiographical interpretations. The resultant analysis argues that while a large portion of 1950s and 1960s articles bolster the substantially negative modern interpretations of Abe’s character, a significant amount of the primary sources present the owner in a much more favorable manner.

To regular exercise and a healthy diet, the American Heart Association (AHA) strongly recommends rope jumping, and according to previous studies, rope jumping is considered a very strenuous exercise. Therefore the purpose of this study was to determine the steady state metabolic cost of repetitive jumping on the Digi-Jump machine, and to determine if exercise on this device is more or less strenuous than similar exercise with a jump rope. We also evaluated relative intensity of this type of exercise, based on each person’s VO2max as measured on a treadmill. Twenty – seven subjects completed two trials, one jumping trial at a rate of 120 jumps per minute (JPM) with the jumping height set at .5 inch for 5 min, and one graded exercise test (GXT) using the Bruce protocol. Oxygen uptake (VO2), heart rate (HR), respiratory exchange ratio (RER), and rating perceived exertion (RPE) were measured each minute during each trial. Results of this study indicated that steady state VO2 during the 5 min jump test was reached at the 3rd min (p < .05), therefore we equated all other variables (HR, RE, RPE) steady state to be from 3rd min. Average jumping steady state VO2 was 31.1 ± 5.5 ml/kg/min, while average VO2max was 56.4 ± 12 ml/kg/min, thus steady state VO2 during jumping trial was 57.1% of VO2max. Average jumping steady state HR was 149. 2 ± 20.1 bpm, while mean GXT HR was 184.7 ± 9.9 bpm, thus steady state HR during jumping trial was 80.9% of their maximal HR obtained during GXT. Average jumping steady state RER was .99 ± .6,while average GXT RER was 1.15 ± .07, thus steady state RER during jumping trial was 86%, and average jumping steady state RPE was 13.5 ± 1.5, while average GXT RPE was 17.9 ± 1, thus steady state RPE during jumping trial was 75.2%. These data indicate that jumping is a strenuous activity, even if the trial is done on Digi – Jump machine without rope.

The study examines a particular aspect of the development of athletics in Scotland. The first organised clubs for the sole purpose of purely athletic competition in the contemporary sense, were cross country clubs known as harrier clubs. Through investigation of the origins, governance and the social structure of harriers clubs, the study connects these three fundamental themes in understanding sport within broader social historical study. In this study the origins of cross country running are set within a theoretical framework which recognises the nature of the urban and rural environments which defined the sport. The sport’s early growth and governance in Scotland is set alongside the broader ideological position of the ‘amateur’. Additionally, club organisation promoted the clubs as cultural institutions. Clubs served as a focus for male sociability and elevated the status of membership of the harriers. Membership meant more than just sporting engagement; it included social and civic standing. The purpose and function therefore of early clubs extended beyond participation. This study demonstrates how membership of cross country clubs conferred upon its members a status, establishing harriers clubs as important social institutions. This research shows how social networks within sport replicated society more broadly. The significance of the contribution of cross country clubs to the development of Scottish sporting culture is therefore implicit. Harriers clubs were the epitome of the complexity of sporting engagement representing both respectability and liminal behaviour.

Academic analysis of sport and religion is still in an early and formative phase. Only in the past fifty years has the conversation of sport and religion substantially been revealed as subject matter for serious academic work. This thesis includes literature from various scholars interested in religion and sport, contemplation on the religious nature of college basketball in the state of Kentucky, and challenges for leading scholars arguing over the notion of sport as a form of religion. The first half of the thesis presents the narrative of the increasingly growing academic debate over considering sport a religious phenomenon. The latter half includes analysis of college basketball in Kentucky and my conclusions concerning the viability of the notion of a religion of sport. All the text is chiefly inspired by—and constructed in relation to—the approach of scholars reviewed earlier in the thesis. This text provides readers with a sense of various arguments on both sides of the discussion of the religion of sport. Secondly, the work encourages consideration of new alternative approaches to discussing sport and religion. This work is intended to provide a challenge to the rigid nature of previous scholarship on this subject. Demonstrating the relative utility of college basketball in Kentucky, through revealing its usefulness to both groups of scholars divided on this question of the religion of sport, proves to be instrumental in exemplifying the complexities within this scholarly debate. This case study also proves to be crucial for legitimizing the suggestions for alternative approaches to sport and religion that are raised within this text. Elsewhere, by emphasizing the significance of definitions of religion, evaluating the utility of the comparability of any observable phenomenon, and emphasizing the diversity among approaches to sport and religion, this text encourages the development of new approaches to research, increased self-criticism, and willingness to extend charity among scholars interested in debating sport as a religious phenomenon.

This thesis is about transnational Turkish football communities and how they come to be imagined through internet technologies. The research is based on an ethnography of one particular group of Turkish football fans in Europe. The team is Beşiktaş, one of Turkey's top teams, and the fans make up Çarşi Berlin, their largest supporters' club in Europe. Founded in 2003 in Berlin, the group has grown to consist of 600 members, with branches from London to Switzerland. The thesis explores the internet and its effects at a specific historic juncture on the fashioning of Çarşi Berlin. I approach the topic via three routes, namely, the effects of internet technologies on: football fandom; the spaces in which it occurs; and the cultural forms and practices by which it is instantiated. In the process I contribute to current scholarly debates across sub-disciplines both within and outside anthropology: those of sport and globalisation, enchantment, publics, personhood and the imagination. I argue that football communities are increasingly imagined in ways that are distracted, ephemeral and playful and that, contrary to common conceptions, fun, affect-laden imaginings can have the power to alter conceptions of concepts such as the nation or family. In the process, I contribute greater appreciation of the experience of being a diasporan football fan and its salience for broader understandings of how we imagine belonging in the twenty-first century.

The goal of my dissertation is to further our understanding of the political ramifications of women's running stories by focusing on the intersections of feminist rhetoric, women in sports studies, political theory, and ontology. To this end, I examined six books written by women, about women, who participate in the sport of running. Since I am most interested in how gendered concepts teach us how to be "appropriate," and due to the fact that what is considered appropriate gendered behavior changes over time, I start from a place of understanding that "appropriateness" is necessarily both hegemonic and unstable. As a feminist rhetorical critic, I am foremost concerned with gendered relations of power, and am interested in working to move those relations towards the democratic end of liberty and equality. This dissertation examined the following five research questions: First, how do women articulate their running identities in the stories they tell? For example, do women depict running as central or influential to their self-concepts, roles, identities, ambitions and/or goals? If so, how? Specifically, what identities, concepts, or themes are common across stories? Second, do individual women explicitly discuss, or implicitly allude to, multiple identities or roles? If they embrace multiple identities or roles, how do they rhetorically navigate among them in the stories they tell? Third, how, if at all, do women articulate their experience of gender norms? Fourth, what are the points of possible contention, clash or disagreement in the discussion of women runners' experiences? How might the various perspectives that women (and others around them) express be in legitimate (agonistic, pluralistic) conversation with each other? And finally, in what ways might these stories hint at ontological change as a real possibility, and/or provide a canvas for an agonistic and plural relationship with the self and others? In other words, what commitments, goals, beliefs, and/or values do different perspectives have in common, that might bring them together to work for mutually-agreed upon change in the world, or in the political order? Upon completion of this dissertation, my feminist rhetorical analysis provided ample evidence that the texts I examined are clearly consciousness-raising documents, as their sole purpose is sharing stories of how women journey through life via running. This project illustrated that a particular kind of consciousness is raised when women's bodies are running, sometimes alone, but often together. This consciousness provides a freedom for these women to be more whole, strong, and authentic versions of themselves; running gives way to a mental and physical strength that these women may not have found otherwise. While for some rhetors and audiences, the essential question of women and girls' participation in sports looms large, for many other people, the issues have broadened and deepened from the original `to play or not to play,' and now encompass subtler concerns, from the wearing of the hijab in athletic competition to whether or not women should train during pregnancy. The female body is constantly on display and up for debate, and the female body in the realm of sports is no exception. Together, feminist rhetorical criticism and agonistic pluralism provided me with the foundation to creatively analyze women's running stories for their political and feminist ramifications, places where women are celebrated and heralded as strong athletes, as well as point out places where liberty and equality are still lacking.

The Olympic Games are a global phenomenon that focus a spotlight onto the hosting city once every two years. While the athletes are judged on their physical abilities, the host city is judged on its architecture, organization and capabilities. It is a chance to showcase your city and country to the world. But while athletes from all over the world are welcome to compete in the games, becoming a host city has only been granted to a few countries, not reaching all seven continents. One must look into what it takes to host the Olympic Games and what factors are creating an exclusionary trend.

Each year the top 125 players on the PGA TOUR money list receive fully exempt status for the upcoming season. Past literature looks at the determinants that led to success for the top professionals on the PGA TOUR. Instead, I look at the determinants of finishing inside the top 125 on the PGA TOUR money list and retaining one’s TOUR card. I analyze the difference both statistically and in future earnings between finishing 100-125th on the money list and 126-150th. This paper finds that greens and regulation and putting have the largest effect on retaining a TOUR card while driving distance and accuracy are significant but at a much lower level. Future studies should look into the tradeoff between playing on the PGA TOUR and less marque tours like the Web.com as it can affect one’s earnings greatly.