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Spring training for the Baltimore Elite Giants of the Negro National League began April 1, 1946, at Sulphur Dell in Jim Gilliam's hometown of Nashville. A brief story in the [...]

The purpose of the study was two-fold: (1) to examine the influence athletic performance has on the elements of source credibility, and (2) to investigate its impact on the causal relationships among consumers' brand attitude, attitude toward the advertisement, and purchase intentions. A between-group experimental design was chosen to assess differences in the source credibility based on an athletic endorser's on-field performance. Findings identified differences in the elements of source credibility based on an athlete endorser's on-field performance, while the decomposition of the effects revealed the positive relationship between perceived on-field performance and source credibility. It is necessary to recognize what impact sport celebrity endorsers have in advertising and on endorsed brands based on their current performance, given that the issue of whether or not the sport celebrity's on-field success affects individual dimensions of source credibility is scarcely addressed in athlete endorsement literature., Impact of Perceived On-Field Performance on Sport Celebrity Source Credibility In the past decade, sport celebrities have been collectively earning millions of dollars, annually, from their endorsement contracts. In 2010, [...]

Informed by framing theory, the study strove to investigate nationalism by examining Chinese newspaper coverage of the 2014 Incheon Asian Games. Through document and textual analysis of 324 articles from 5 mainstream newspapers, the study indicated that Chinese newspapers always portrayed Chinese athletes as "dominating the competition" and "lacking opponents in Asia" while portraying other countries' athletes as "less competitive" and not at the "level of Chinese athletes." The results also suggested that Chinese newspapers tried to positively spin the story when reporting the failure of Chinese athletes at the Asian Games. However, to increase readership and enhance public awareness of the Asian Games, Chinese newspapers also attempted to created rivalries between Chinese athletes and competing nations and, at times, emphasized national failures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to better understand women’s perceptions of and barriers to mountain biking in Northwest Arkansas (NWA), known for having some of the best trails in the United States. Using descriptive statistics, the results of an online survey (N = 150) revealed descriptors that detoured women from participating in mountain biking: mountain biking is a maledominated sport (M = 3.88, SD = 0.92), the gear is too expensive (M = 3.87, SD = 0.96), people who ride mountain bikes are super athletic (M = 3.57, SD = 1.04), when I think of mountain biking, I picture men (M = 3.35, SD = 1.02). The results of this study may influence outdoor education professionals, parks and recreation programming, cycling advocacy organizations, and any who make marketing materials for the outdoor industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social media have become an increasingly important tool for college coaches and administrators to connect with fans, alumni, and recruits. However, despite their increasing prevalence, it is not well understood which factors may contribute to the reach and popularity in social media of high-profile figures such as coaches and athletic directors. Using Football Bowl Subdivision head football coaches and the popular social-media platform Twitter, this case study sought to explore the potential influence of on-field performance on coaches' popularity in social media. Among the results is the finding that the most influential factor is the football program's prestige (long-term success), while the coach's on-field success and the size of the school's fan base are of lesser importance. Given the increasing influence of social media in intercollegiate athletics, the case study's results feature several important considerations for administrators seeking to use social-media platforms to increase the reach of their athletic programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Black male student-athletes have endured frequent stereotyping on college campuses (Hawkins, 2010). Additionally, Black student-athletes have experienced educational, campus, and athletic stressors (Miller & Hoffman, 2009). Many student-athletes do not seek mental health services because of their status on campus (Watson, 2005). The general population has experienced common barriers in seeking mental health services including low socio-economic status (Hurd, Stoddard, & Zimmerman, 2013) and negative stigmas related to metal illness (Wang et al., 2005). While it is reasonable to assume similar challenges exist for Black student-athletes, it must be investigated empirically. As such, the purpose of this study was to examine the perceived barriers Black Division I football student-athletes face in seeking professional mental health services. Using phenomenological methodology, semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine Black football student-athletes. The data revealed two themes: weakness and silence. The results of this study will allow stakeholders to better assist this population in seeking mental health treatment and eliminating the barriers associated with seeking mental health services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growth of the Web has had a tremendous impact on how information is disseminated and shared about sports. Research has shown that consumers use media to satisfy a variety of needs and desires, has examined online sport media consumption, and the use of online sport media. But there has been no examination of the motivating factors behind subscription based online media, in particular, paid content sites and message boards. This study explored the relationships of motives perceived value, and hours in usage per week. Five motives were verified through a confirmatory factor analysis. An examination of the usage characteristics of the respondents demonstrates a loyal and active user. This is important for the site administrators in that the subscribers are using the site as a "go to" destination and not merely something to peruse during their leisure time. The site is acting as an entry point onto the Web. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study used second-level agenda-setting and agenda-building theory as a framework for investigating media coverage of the NFL Network carriage dispute and how NFL and cable operators attempted to frame this issue via their respective public relations efforts. National, regional, and trade media stories over a 2-year period were content analyzed along with corporate press releases. Results indicated that the NFL and cable operators in particular were framed negatively in media coverage. However, the percentage of positive media stories was much higher for the NFL than for the cable operators. The findings suggest that initially the NFL was more effective in having its messages resonate with the media than were the cable operators. As the issue evolved over time and fans were faced with the prospect of missing key games, the media framing of the debate shifted the blame from the cable companies to both cable operators and the NFL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This case study explores the use a Major League Baseball team's organizational weblog. Organizational weblogs are forums for the 2-way exchange of information and commentary between an organization and its publics. Most sport organizations, however, have yet to embrace the weblog as a form of organizational communication. Recent research suggests a greater need to understand how sport organizations might use weblogs to outreach to target audiences from a communications perspective. This study assesses whether readers perceive an organization's official weblog to be an effective form of 2-way communication and profiles the readers of an organizational weblog based on demographics, consumption patterns, and points of attachment. Results showed that readers perceived the organizational weblog to be highly conversational and effective at communicating organizational commitment. In addition, readers were voracious media consumers of the team's games, repeat ticket customers, and highly identified, both with the sport and with the team. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An interview with Frank Brown, Group Vice President of Media Relations for the National Hockey League (NHL), is presented. He discusses the NHL's communication policy during the NHL lockout. He also discusses the importance and difficulty of proactively communicating organizational messages in an era where the media prefers to tell negative stories about athletes. He admits that the NHL tailors its message to suit different target audiences.

It is important not only for athletic departments to consider the promotion of inclusion but also the overall treatment and protection of college athletes. Numerous studies (e.g., Barber & Krane, 2007; Cunningham, 2015a, 2015b; Cunningham & Melton, 2011) have demonstrated the competitive advantage of inclusion. Informed by Ottenritter's (2012) framework for accepting and supporting LGBTQ individuals, the purpose of this case study is to understand and describe inclusion of college athletes who identify as sexual minority within a NCAA Division I institution. Through convenience and purposeful sampling (Patton, 2002), this study employed multiple data collection methods including interviews and document review. The intent of this study is to positively contribute to the development and implementation of inclusive policies and practices regarding college athletes who identify as sexual minority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined national differences of team identification toward intercollegiate athletics and students' academic adjustment, as influenced by social adjustment. A purposive sample of 320 American students at a major public university in the southeastern part of the United States and 301 South Korean students at a major private university in the western part of Korea participated in this study. While team findings indicated that team identification was significantly different between the two countries, social adjustment was not significantly different between two countries. In particular, while team identification with intercollegiate athletics functions as a stronger predictor to enhance students' academic adjustment in American students than Korean students, team identification has a greater impact on social adjustment for Korean students. In addition, social adjustment influenced by team identification is a more significant factor on academic adjustment for Korean students. This study may provide insight into intercollegiate athletics as significant communication tools to improve the quality of students' life in college environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2003 the NCAA developed the Academic Progress Rate (APR) designed to measure the eligibility and retention of student-athletes. As of 2012, the penalty threshold was 930 (out of a possible 1000). Ensuring that all teams meet APR requirement, avoiding NCAA sanctions, has become a priority for NCAA institutions. Despite growing interest, the impact of student-athlete academic services on APR scores is relatively unknown. Grounded in Adams’ Equity Theory, the purpose of this study is to provide a framework to understanding how resource allocation decisions within student-athlete academic services impact APR scores. An online survey consisting of 7 Likert-type items that measured distributive justice as well as questions regarding the academic services was sent to senior staff members in academic service. The results revealed that study hall hours showed a significantly negative impact in football APR scores, and were negatively correlated with men’s and women’s basketball APR scores, whereas priority enrollment, budget, and number of full-time staff members positively impacted APR scores. This study strives to better understand how decisions are made regarding resource allocation and what factors can be controlled for by athletic academic support staff members, possibly leading to an increased APR score. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the most highly identified college students will become season ticket holders, donors, and consumers of merchandise, there is still a lack of researches in securitizing factors significantly associated with the development of students' identification with intercollegiate athletics. Therefore, this study was to examine whether a student's situational and enduring product involvement related to intercollegiate athletics has a significant impact on team identification. A total of 242 undergraduate students in a major public university in the southeastern region of the United State completed questionnaires for the study. The researchers tested the efficacy of the model by examining a test of the measurement model and a test of overall model predicting team identification. The results of a structural equation model and the chi-square difference revealed that the secondorder correlated model was the parsimonious model for the data when compared to the first-order model. The results from the structure equation modeling demonstrated that situational involvement and enduring involvement could enhance students' team identification in higher education. Findings of the study suggests that sport marketers and college administrators in higher education should pay particular attention to the development of student centered environments via improving interaction with players and coaches, enjoyable peripheral stadium services, various community activities, social media communication, and learning opportunities about the team and its sports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reviews the potential legal issues including the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment issues to copyright law in the U.S., on digital age's impact on an institution related to intellectual property protection. It reports that College athletic organizations and professional leagues has adopted reactionary content restrictions which demonstrated a general misunderstanding and fear of social media's role in the consumption of sports content.

The article presents a study on the perception of college football season-ticket holders on service quality in the U.S. It examines the relationship of the dimensions of service quality, such as service product, service environment and service environment, with the assessment of service quality, such as perceived service quality, satisfaction and behavioral intentions of fans. Results are said to enhance the game experience to maintain sports attendance and add more season-tickets holders.

The study aimed to investigate how Chinese Olympians' coach-athlete relationships differ from a convenience sample of Western Olympians within the context of the interpersonal constructs of Closeness, Co-orientation, and Complementary (three Cs). A total of 12 Olympians, including six Chinese Olympians and six Western Olympians, were invited to participate to this study. All participants had won medals at either World Championships or Olympic Games in their sports. A semi-structured interview was conducted with five open-ended questions about their coach-athlete relationships. Content analysis revealed Chinese Olympians have higher satisfaction than selected Western Olympians in terms of the commitment of coach and dedication of time of their coaches. Western athletes described the relationship as a partnership, but Chinese Olympians described the relationship as paternal. In addition, Chinese athletes were dominated in dyadic relationships since their personal lives were controlled by their coaches, while Western athletes were given more freedom and democracy by their coaches. With respect to gender, female athletes tended to train with male coaches but male athletes were more concerned with a coach's knowledge rather than their gender. The study also indicated that athletes were more sensitive when they were in different gender coach-athlete relationships than in same gender relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship among leisure attitude (e.g., behavioral, affective, cognitive), satisfaction and well-being (e.g., stress, loneliness, personal self-esteem) for college students. A total of 207 undergraduate students enrolled in a major public university participated in this study. Results indicated that leisure attitudes are positively associated with leisure satisfaction. The satisfaction derived from participation in leisure activities with positive leisure attitudes effects psychological well-being by decreasing stress and loneliness, while also enhancing personal self-esteem. These findings expand existing research regarding leisure attitudes, satisfaction, and well-being by providing evidence that having positive attitudes toward leisure activities can enhance social and psychological well-being through a mediating effect of satisfaction. Finally, college students may use their free time in order to enhance physical and psychological condition by doing leisure activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined team identification as a non-academic environment predictor of academic performance through an enhanced sense of belonging to the university. Data were collected with a convenience sample of 274 undergraduate students from a major university in the southeastern region of the United States. Findings indicated that while team identification did not have a direct relationship with academic performance, when mediated by a sense of belonging to the university, team identification explained a significant amount of unique variance in academic performance. This study may provide significant insight into intercollegiate athletics generating an intangible benefit in students' academic performance. By understanding an intercollegiate athletic program as one of the academic facilitators associated with academic performance, college administrators can utilize the appropriate environment of college sports to assist students' academic success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the sports management programs in colleges and universities. Topics include the Ivy League, Recreation and Sport Management or Sport and Fitness Management in Commission on Sports Management Accreditation (COSMA), and the various sports management programs. It also mentions the levels of intercollegiate athletic participation by division.

This study examined the relationship among social media consumption, team identification, word-of-mouth intention, and attendance intention. By analyzing a total of 146 undergraduate students, this study revealed the following insights. First, social media consumption directly affects team identification and word-of-mouth intention. Second, team identification directly affects word-of-mouth intention and attendance intention. Third, social media consumption affects word-of-mouth intention and attendance intention, mediated by team identification. These results expand the use of social media in the marketing and research field upon prior studies of social media and team identification in sport. The most important contribution of this study was to provide the evidence that social media consumption can affect behavioral intention directly and indirectly with team identification as a mediating factor. Thus, this study suggests the way that social media can be used not only for information distribution but also for driving more revenue by stimulating fans' team identification and intentions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The success of intercollegiate athletics has been recognized as a powerful communication tool to enhance the university profile while an ongoing controversy regarding financial benefits of intercollegiate athletics still exists. Previous research focused primarily on the role of successful athletic programs in either alumni giving or total giving, rather than examining the relationship between academic and athletic giving. There is a need for research taking the direct association between athletic success and athletic giving into account when explaining the relationship between athletic giving and academic giving. The purpose of the study was, therefore, two-fold: to examine whether athletic giving is associated with success in intercollegiate athletic programs; and to explore whether athletic giving crowds out academic giving. A longitudinal design with panel data, including 155 Division I, II, and III universities that have fielded both football and basketball teams over a 10 year period from 2002-2003 to 2011-2012, was employed. Findings evidently supported spillover effects of athletic giving on academic giving rather than crowding out effect. As private giving is becoming one of the most critical financial resources, this study could assist administrators in both academics and athletics to build an optimal sharing structure of their financial resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Competitive balance in sport has been identified as a predictor of demand for sporting events, and leagues. Conferences frequently seek to maximize outcome uncertainty as a means of increasing demand. While competitive balance was not initially a goal of the Bowl Championship Series (BCS), competitive balance in American college football has generally been regarded as improved since the implementation of the BCS. The present study confirms empirically that within-season competitive balance inside all six founding BCS conferences has improved since its creation. However, only three of the six conferences exhibited improved between-season competitive balance, meaning frequent turnover of championship teams was not observed in all conferences. Potential implications for these findings and their impact on college football are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine how Olympic audiences utilized Twitter to follow American National Governing Bodies (NGBs) during the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. Design/methodology/approach - Guided by economic demand theory, the researchers sought to explore whether factors such as the content of social media messages, athlete's performance, event presentation, scheduling, and TV broadcasting contribute to enhancing fans' interests in following NGBs on Twitter during the Olympic Games. In total, 33 American NGB Twitter accounts formed the data set for this study. Each of NGBs' Twitter data was collected every night at midnight from August 7 to 23, 2016. Data collected from each NGB account included number of followers, number of accounts followed, number of tweets, and number of "likes." Findings - Results of this study revealed that team's performance and the number of tweets had direct and positive relationships with increasing the number of NGB's Twitter followers on each competition day. The number of "likes," however, had a significant negative relationship with fans' interests in following NGBs' Twitter. Originality/value - The results of the study are expected to help Governing Bodies in the Olympic sports have a better understanding of fans' social media usage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]