Sport and Society
July 2006
Banner photo: Image Source/Getty Images
The Chipping Effect
Opening ceremony of the World Scholar-Athlete Games
In 1968, I was selected to play on a New England prep school all-star team that toured Europe during spring vacation. The trip took place at the height of the Vietnam conflict, and for the first time since the Second World War, many Europeans treated Americans not as welcome visitors, but as intruders. Our team felt this disfavor in the form of boos during games. We were even confronted with a picket line!
Our coach, Dee Rowe, seized on the harsh reaction to make the tour not merely about games, but also about education beyond the court. He arranged a series of postgame receptions where we met and spoke with our opponents and others in the community, many of whom expressed strong anti-American sentiments. Despite some philosophical differences, it was obvious to me that my teammates and I could develop friendships with individuals we competed against, once we had the opportunity to get to know each other.
On many occasions since 1968, I have watched sports serve not only as a medium to unite people from diverse backgrounds, but also as a proving ground which can profoundly influence such personal qualities as integrity and self-discipline.
Following the '68 tour, two other personally transforming experiences took place overseas. In 1975, as the head boys basketball coach at Kingswood-Oxford School (CT), I took my team to play in the Prague Christmas Festival Tournament. During an informal scrimmage with a 19-and-under Czech team, I proposed to the Czech coach that the first half be our school versus Czechoslovakia, but that in the second half we mix the teams. The contrast in dynamics was apparent, and I could easily see that my players enjoyed getting to know their new Czech teammates and forging relationships of a different sort than one nation versus another.
In December 1980, my Trinity College (CT) men's basketball team became the first American team to travel to Cuba since the 1959 Revolution. When I tested this "mixing" idea again in an informal scrimmage with the Cuban Junior National Team, I realized that the concept might be applied on a larger scale.
I left coaching to enroll at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, where I wrote a paper on the creation of an Institute for International Sport whose core program would be an international sport/cultural event with no national teams. A women's basketball team might be made up of 12 women from 12 different countries; a men's soccer team of 11 young men from 11 countries, and so on. At the Games, there would be as many poets as basketball players, as many singers as soccer players. I proposed the World Scholar-Athlete Games as a program that would honor both the scholar-athlete as well as the scholar-artist--equally.
In 1986, Dr. Ted Eddy, president of the University of Rhode Island, invited me to house the Institute on the URI campus. Four years later, the Institute received a grant to work with Catholic and Protestant youth in Northern Ireland. The idea was to use sport to break the cycle of violence and hatred that has permeated the region for centuries. "Belfast United" was formed, and the first activity was a Scholar-Athlete Games program at the University of Ulster in Jordanstown, Northern Ireland. One hundred twenty young people from Belfast--60 Catholic and 60 Protestant--were selected. We mixed the group into two teams--Sparta and Athens--and for eight glorious days, every activity--from sports to debates--was a competition for points. As early as the second day, we knew we were onto something special. Coaches and teachers, who were skeptical of the concept at first, began to say, "This is working," a statement later proved by research and evaluation.
On the final day, a "peak experience" occurred. A shy and frail Protestant boy discovered a skill he never knew he had, finishing a surprising eighth in a 5-km roadrace. That evening, he went on to read a powerful poem on "The Troubles," prompting a standing ovation and scoring enough points to bring his team to victory.
After the Games, the boy described Belfast United as one of the greatest experiences of his life. "I got to ride the bus--to be with teammates from both sides of the divide--a first for me, and for all of us." In 1995, when President Bill Clinton, who served as Keynote Speaker of the 2006 World Scholar-Athlete Games, traveled to Northern Ireland to celebrate progress toward peace, he mentioned Belfast United as one of the catalysts.
From June 24 to July 1, 2006, young people from approximately 155 countries converged upon the University of Rhode Island for the fourth World Scholar-Athlete Games. The United Nations, which recently announced a formal partnership with the World Scholar-Athlete Games, sent speakers to address issues such as world hunger and the environment.
Our objective is to provide the precious young participants with three gifts--the gift of friendship with other leaders from different cultures, the gift of discernment through listening to and discussing various viewpoints on critical issues, and the gift of true world peace for their generation.
The latter goal was captured in a comment to me by a Northern Ireland coach at our very first Belfast United Games.
"The chipping effect," was what he called it.
Daniel E. Doyle, Jr., is founder and executive director of the Institute for International Sport, and author of the forthcoming book, The Encyclopedia of Sports Parenting.
