...that clings to some like a parasite-- a ravenous curse that you cannot shake, and leaves others falling asleep on the couch. No matter which view defines a person, sports are an integral part of our society and our everyday lives. For as long as sports have been popular, men have been in the spotlight-- glimmering and physically menacing gods made solely for running a ball down a field-- but now a challenger has come to challenge their throne: Women. Women have consistently sat on the sideline while men have done it all, but now they want a piece of the action. It has not been the easiest path, much of society has attempted...
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...(PEDS) affecting the future of sports? Although many PEDS are banned by the USADA, there is a reason why some should be allowed. The war between sports and drugs has been going on for a long time and is affecting all sports. The United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), is the national anti-doping organization (NADO) for Olympic, Paralympic, Pan American, and Parapan American sports in the United States. They try to preserve the integrity of competition , inspire true sport, and protect the rights of athletes. Drugs not allowed by the USADA include erythropoietin, anabolic steroids, stimulants, human growth hormone, and diuretics. The USADA collects urine and blood samples to test for drugs. They inform athletes of the results of their drug tests and also manage any potential anti-doping rule violations....
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...College hoops' black coaching issue Myron Medcalf [ARCHIVE] ESPN.com | July 18, 2013 When a national sportswriter calls to talk about minority hiring in college basketball, folks of all races seem to get nervous. As I sought feedback following last week's release of the "2012 Racial and Gender Report Card: College Sport" by Central Florida's Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport -- the report excludes historically black colleges and universities -- which states that the current pool of Division I African-American head coaches (18.6 percent through the 2011-12 season) is at its lowest mark since the 1995-96 season, people weren't sure what, if anything, they should say. Multiple administrators passed on the opportunity. The NCAA wanted to see my questions, and then it wanted a pre-interview phone conversation before it ultimately emailed its responses. The coaches who talked on the record always ended our chats with the same concern: "I didn't say anything that will make me look bad, right?" Shaka Smart Andy Lyons/Getty Images To reach Shaka Smart's level, black coaches often have to overcome certain labels. I don't blame them. It's an incendiary issue, because we're uncomfortable with race as dialogue. It's still a subject that makes athletic directors -- 89 percent of whom are white at the Division I level, per the report -- squirm. Minority coaches speak cautiously, because they don't want to be labeled as rebels or militants. That hesitancy...
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...Winning was and still is a big part of it all. It affected everyone, from debating on who was going to win, to who was the better team. If you actually were perticipating in the games or even just being a spectator. The Olympic games were getting bigger and better. Before the 1960s, the U.S. hockey team had never won a gold medal before in the winter Olympics. This was a huge defeat to the Canadians, the soviets, and the Czechs. the NBA joined the expansion of professional sports and Baylor was discovered. He was drafted first over everyone by the Los Angeles, Lakers. For the first time in eighteen years, the Lakers won the NBA championship. Then, Wilma Rudolph couldn't walk until she was twelve years old. However, she was so fast by the time she was twenty, she got the title of the world's fastest women. She won three gold medals in the summer Olympics. All athletes have to train hard to reach their...
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...Women began to protest against unfair and unequal wages as early as 1820. In 1844 women who were mill workers in Lowell Massachusetts created the Lowell Female Labor Reform Association which testified that the work they were doing was dangerous and ended up finally leading to an investigation in worker safety. (Leckie, 1) This was critical because it allowed women to be heard. A step forward for women in the workplace occurred in 1881 when the members of one of the largest and most important labor organizations of the 1880s, the Knights of Labor, voted to finally admit women. This organization stressed equal pay regardless of sex and this was a huge accomplishment. Although the organization did not last long, it helped women immensely by...
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...In Latin America, the popularity of the sport is growing rapidly and the most recent of talent into the NBA is migrating from Latin America. The cultural popularity of the sport was growing exponentially and is well documented in China with the likes of Yao Ming and Jeremy Lin who are Asian sensations. With Latin American backgrounds integrating into the game of basketball, I wonder how these international translations are in turn changing the game we see at home. In Latin America, where the climate and geographies are so much different than the one in the United States, we find growth in basketball. Though the NBA in Latin America is growing, it is still not a hit in Central and South America. Though whenever you go either it is Latin America, China, America, etc… there is always someone playing the game. Even in the likes of Mexico, they are mostly known for militant based political revolution than anything else, but basketball courts do exist. The courts might be used for other things like farming during the day, but you will always see some kid playing and working on his game. Just like what I do when I am in my hometown hooping outside of my house, no court just the concrete and the hoop I have next to my garage. The growth of basketball throughout Latin America region is unexpected, only because they compete for national attention in their number one sport soccer. Basketball has to compete in Central American countries like El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Cuba, and...
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...Media in a Pluralistic Society (Communications) It wasn’t until the 1960’s that women started to break into the previously male-dominated world of sports broadcasting. With many setbacks, difficulties and a large male audience and workforce to win over, female sports broadcasters have endured many challenges and earned the positions they have today. Although the ratio is still what some would consider unfair, the examination of some of the pioneers of female sports broadcasting can help us gain a better understanding of both the evolution of female sports-broadcasting and the unique role in which they play today. Considered three of the most influential figures in female sports broadcasting history, Jane Chastain, Gayle Gardner and Jeannie Morris each have a career and story detrimental to the progression and current position of women in sports broadcasting today. Jane Chastain is documented and credited with being the first woman to work for a large network, and is also widely considered the fist woman to do play-by-play. Being the icebreaker, her role is important but however, her struggles and setbacks as a woman were not well documented. Jeannie Morris’s however, were. A talented journalist and writer, Morris didn’t have a difficult time breaking into the field. Morris was also thought to of gotten the job through her husband’s assistance, Johnny Morris, who is the all-time leader in receiving yards for the Chicago Bears. Morris may have gotten her foot in the door...
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...WNBA players get paid between $50,000 to $110,000. However, NBA players get paid up to $560,000. That’s a $450,000 difference! Females athletes don’t deserve this. They train equally as hard or even twice as hard as male athletes. They play the same sports with the same rules and same equipment. Many female athletes don’t get paid with the money they deserve and that’s not right especially if they have won more trophies/medals than men. This sends a bad message to the younger generation, mostly to young girls who want to be an athlete when they grow up. The gender pay gap is getting smaller for jobs like teachers, doctors and police officers. Being an athlete is no different from...
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...Michael Jordan " I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed." Those encouraging words were spoken by Michael Jordan. Michael Jordan was born in Brooklyn, New York, on February 17, 1963. His parents, James and Delores Jordan, moved to Wilmington, North Carolina when he was still a toddler. Jordan has two older brothers, one older sister, and one younger sister. I am going to tell you why Jordan is in fact so famous. To get there he had to overcome tough obstacles but it the end has many great achievements. His love for basketball began when his older brother, Larry, continuously beat him in one-on-one pickup games. As with any challenge Jordan faces, this determined Michael to become a better player. Jordan played basketball for Laney High School in Wilmington, North Carolina. Ironically, Jordan was cut from the varsity team as a sophomore. Instead of giving up after failing to make the team, Jordan used it to spur himself to greater achievements, practicing hour after hour on the court. "Whenever I was working out and got tired and figured I ought to stop, I'd close my eyes and see that list in the locker room without my name on it," Jordan said, "and that usually got me going again." He eventually made the team and led it to the state championship. Jordan then accepted a basketball scholarship...
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...Sweatshops and Third World Living Standards: Are the Jobs Worth the Sweat? Benjamin Powell David Skarbek Independent Institute Working Paper Number 53 September 27, 2004 100 Swan Way, Oakland, CA 94621-1428 • 510-632-1366 • Fax: 510-568-6040 • Email: info@independent.org • http://www.independent.org Sweatshops and Third World Living Standards: Are the Jobs Worth the Sweat? Benjamin Powell and David Skarbek• Department of Economics San Jose State University San Jose, CA 95192-0114 benjamin.powell@sjsu.edu ABSTRACT Many studies have shown that multinational firms pay more than domestic firms in Third World countries. Economists critical of sweatshops have responded that multinational firms’ wage data do not address whether sweatshop jobs are above average because many of these jobs are with domestic subcontractors. In this paper we compare apparel industry wages and the wages of individual firms accused of being sweatshops to measures of the standard of living in Third World economies. We find that most sweatshop jobs provide an above average standard of living for their workers. Benjamin Powell is an Assistant Professor of Economics at San Jose State University and the Director of the Center for the Study of Entrepreneurial Innovation at the Independent Institute. David Skarbek is an economics major at San Jose State University and intern at the Independent Institute. The authors thank Jeffery Hummel, Charles Murray, Larry Pratt and Edward Stringham for helpful comments...
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...For thousands of years, many races wore dreadlocks for its ability to keep hair out of the face, from Vikings to Buddhists to Native Americans to Africans. In fact, dreadlocks originated with Rastafarians, a religious group in Jamaica who viewed dreadlocks as the mane of the Lion of the Judah. Since dreadlocks began as part of a religious movement rather than a racial movement, the race argument does not have the same justification. Many legal cases have also forced the dreadlocks and cornrows issue into the spotlight. In 2010, Chastity Jones, a black woman working at the insurance claims processing company Catastrophe who wore dreadlocks to work to keep hair out of her face, was fired after refusing to alter her dreadlocks, a hairstyle it deemed “unprofessional.” Even though the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Jones and called the act discriminatory because “the hair…is…culturally associated with people of African descent,” an appeals court disagreed and Jones lost the case. These kind of cases represent the fight...
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...Introduction Former University of Oregon track coach and co-founder of Nike Bill Bowerman once said: “If you have a body, you are an athlete!” (Nike Inc., n.d.) It is this way of thinking that describes the root of Nike’s approach to marketing. Every person is a potential athlete or “consumer”. This is a common thinking in the realm of athletics but when Bill Bowerman said this, it was in direct reference to the shoe industry. From their marketing strategies to their selling philosophies, Nike has developed one of the most recognizable and demanded names and logo ever. Nike, which is the name of the Greek Goddess of Victory, was born in 1972 when Blue Ribbon Sports (BRS) launched its first branded shoe at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials. A former University of Oregon track team member Phil Knight created Blue Ribbon Sports. At Oregon, Knight was coached by the legendary Bill Bowerman and then went on to become alumnus of the Stanford School of Business. BRS was crafted in 1962 when Knight made a deal with Onitsuka Tiger Company, a Japanese shoe company, to import their shoes to the United States. Knight had the idea to sell a low cost shoe with a very high quality, with high aspirations of taking Adidas out of the top spot in the athletic shoe market. In 1964, Bill Bowerman decided to join Knight as a partner at BRS to create a joint quest to be number one. Bowerman redesigned the Tiger shoes while Knight acted as the accountant/personal seller and the two went on...
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...the Olympic Games. Table of Contents Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….page 1 Table of Contents………………………………………………………………………………………………………………page 2 List of Tables and Figures………………………………………………………………………………………………….page 3 Chapter I: Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………………………page 4 Chapter II: Review of Literature Chapter III: Research Methodology Chapter IV: Results Chapter V: Discussion and Conclusions References Appendices Tables and Figures Chapter I: Introduction This purpose of this study will pertain to whether the use of professional athletes from American sports leagues in the Olympic Games is a good or bad idea. Currently, players from the National Hockey League (NHL), National Basketball Association (NBA), Major League Soccer (MLS), Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) and the Professional Golfers Association (PGA TOUR) are allowed to participate in the Summer and Winter Olympic Games by their respective leagues. There are many problems that have arisen from the allowance of professionals in the Olympics. They range from injuries to star players, financial impacts on the leagues, shutdown of schedules to accommodate the Olympics, competitive disadvantages for some countries, and not enough exposure for the American leagues on a global scale. In this study, I will look at whether the professional sports leagues in the United States should reconsider using their athletes in the Olympics. I want to see if the Olympics have really...
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...need to recognize and appreciate Marquis M. Converse for creating Converse sneakers, which 60 percent of Americans own or have owned. Our group has a new marketing plan that we want to implement so that this company can get back to being one of the leading sneaker retailers in the world. Background It was in 1908 when in his late 30’s that Marquis Converse, who was a manager at a footwear manufacturing firm, opened the Converse Rubber Shoe Company in Malden, MA. Originally he began selling winterized rubber soled footwear for men, women and children. In 1915 after producing 4,000 pairs of shoes daily, Marquis began manufacturing athletic shoes for tennis. Two years later he designed and produced the world’s first performance basketball shoe called the Converse All Star. The new Converse All Star shoe helped revolutionize basketball. Synonymous with Converse sneakers is a logo on the shoes with the name Chuck Taylor. You may wonder why that appears on every sneaker and who is Chuck Taylor? Chuck Taylor was a basketball player for the Akron Firestones who sported the Converse All Star shoes while he introduced the game of basketball to Americans across the country. In 1921 he joined Converse to become the first player endorser. Two years...
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...revised or alternative histories of historical events? What should be done about racial disparities in the sentencing of criminals? Should the American government pay reparations and return land to Native Americans? Should hate groups have the right to distribute literature on university campuses? If research shows that certain racial or ethnic groups receive poorer medical care on average, how should this problem be corrected? Should governmental organizations have staffs that accurately reflect the racial, ethnic, and gender balance in society? Gender and Sexuality What should be done to eliminate salary disparities between men and women? What should be done to create equity in executive positions for women in particular corporations and industries? Should women be allowed in military combat? To what extent? Is healthcare for women underfunded? In what ways? Should insurance companies which cover the cost of Viagra prescriptions also be required to cover birth...
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