Conclusion - Max Perry

This class allowed me to see new perspectives on gender and race issues in sport. Before this class I was unfamiliar and/or uniformed on many of the topics we covered in class like transgenders such as Renee Richards, or the issues women both who are straight and lesbian face in collegiate and professional sport. I had never heard of the racist incident at Indian Wells involving the William’s sisters and I can’t believe that something so blatantly racist could’ve occurred in a professional sporting event so recently. The Indian Wells incident is a prime example of the benefit of this class. Although major progress has been made over the last 50 years for gender and racial equality, clearly racism and sexism are still alive and present in society and the Indian Wells incident clearly exemplifies this. 

The blog entries were helpful to expound on thoughts and ideas discussed in class in addition to serving as refresher on the material and a compact place to find class concepts from throughout the entire semester. Overall, what I will take from this class is a more nuanced, and informed opinion on gender and racial issues. In my career in sports there will more than likely be situations and scenarios which call upon me to make a fair and informed decision and thanks to this class I feel as though I will be more than prepared to make the right decision. This class taught us to think critically about hard issues that may have no right answer and I believe that will be a valuable skill throughout life. 

Max Perry

Final Blog, Jay Clark

            When I first began this class I thought to myself, how deep can we really go with the topic of sport and gender?  After a few weeks in the class I found that I was mistaken.  Just yesterday I was explaining to my roommates the truths about people that are transgender and their differences in sexuality.  Before I took this class I was accepting of homosexuality and differences in peoples sexuality but I had a limited perspective on the topic all the same.  If I had a choice in the layout of our sport management classes I would consider breaking this class into two classes simply because the topic was an eye opener. 

            Aside from learning about sexual orientation I learned many other things from this class.  I was extremely interested in how our MLB teams recruit players from overseas and pay them less.  These are the kind of topics that make me happy I paid for the class.  I say this because this is interesting information that I will take with me rather than forget about by next semester.  That being said, MBL recruiting is not the only thing I will take from this class.  I enjoyed our discussions each class and was always surprised how active my fellow students were in relation to each topic.  Overall I took a great deal from this class and enjoyed my semester in Sport and Gender 4250.

Conclusion- Shaun Higgins

This Sport and Gender class has turned into my favorite class that I have taken. The discussion in this class has been not only engaging, but also very thought provoking. My viewpoint on so many issues has changed or at least been expanded due to the information provided.  As I stated at the end of our group presentation, I believe that the thing that will stick with me the most from this class is to not think in binary terms. Many of the topics that we discussed dealt with the multiple facets of the issues. I learned that everything is not just black and white (both figuratively and literally). Race, sexual orientation, gender and so many other topics can be categorized in many different ways. I loved the discussions that we had about race in sport. I think we had a class that was willing to speak up about the issues while still being respectful and thoughtful to the others in the class. Many of the topics are very controversial, yet I think our class handled them extremely well. My favorite article of the class was probably the one about the fall from grace that Tiger had. They way that his public image fell was just incredible. As I read the article though, I began to notice how private and almost robotic Tiger had become with the media and it makes it easier to understand how this could happen. Overall, I have really enjoyed this class. I will miss coming to it and having these great discussions each week.

Conclusion -Eddie Hodges

I felt that SM 4250 was one of my favorite classes to attend. Dr. Spencer always had the class engaged in a great conversation. It was a great opportunity for me to hear different opinions, about various subjects, from a class full of my peers. I will say I have taken a lot from this class. I have learned that there is a distinction between transgenders and transsexuals. I have also learned how different genders and races are portrayed by the media. The media has a big effect on a player's particular image and it can be tarnished or made better by media depictions. This was one of my favorite classes this semester and I will truly miss coming in class each day to learn and speak about different aspects of sports. Thank you Dr. Spencer for creating such a good class atmosphere and making it appealing to come to class each session.

Conclusion- Evan Sechler

Upon signing up for this class I was not really sure what to expect. I just knew that it was another required class. That being said, Sport and Gender turned out to be much more interesting and enjoyable than I originally expected. Every day I looked forward to going to class, and I cannot say the same about a lot of my classes. The main reason I enjoyed the class so much is because we covered a lot of topics that are rarely talked about in other classes, and it was nice being able to hear several people’s opinions and their experiences in relation to those topics. Also, I was previously unaware of many of the issues surrounding race, gender, and religion that were discussed in class. As a future sport manager, I not only realize that these issues do exist, but that they are also very significant and, in some ways, completely changing the world of sport. Also, although I absolutely despise presenting, our final group project was actually very interesting. It was nice being able to go out, gather our own information, and formulate our own opinions on a subject that we had not yet touched on in class.

Conclusion- Brian Kochheiser

Sport and gender was a much more interesting and informative class than I had anticipated it to be at the beginning of the semester. Growing up, I was taught the importance of diversity and inclusion because of the fairly diverse area that I lived in. I thought that my experiences and education in high school and college thus far had given me great knowledge about sport and gender topics. While that is true, this class dove even deeper into the issues that society is still facing and how it impacts sports. I thought that all of the sections were interesting, but because I am interested in working in collegiate athletics and ultimately becoming the AD at a University, I found Title IX to be the most useful. The budgeting assignment was a lot of fun and it forced be to think outside of the box which will be useful in my future career. I'm glad that we were able to research topics further in depth at the end of the semester because diversity in the NHL was interest of mine. I played hockey all throughout my youth, so I was interested to learn more about the diversity in the NHL and the steps that it has taken in recent years. At first, I was skeptical about the blogs because I'm not always confident in expressing my thoughts to the public, but this semester has proved to me that I have valid thoughts and opinions and the blogs have given me confidence to share those more in other settings. Overall, this was a fantastic class that always made me think in other perspectives and I definitely learned a lot because of it. This class had great conversations throughout the semester and was one of the more fun class environments that I have been in at BGSU.  

Homosexuality in Sport - Britney, Stacy, Taylor, Jude

Throughout the semester, in class, we talked a lot about how homosexuality is viewed and portrayed in sport. As a group, we all found this topic and the conversations we had in class to be very interesting so we chose it for our group presentation. We decided to break up homosexuality in sport into different parts. They include; management and homosexuality - how should management handle homosexuality in their organization? Female vs. Male - why is it more acceptable for females to come out than males in sport? Endorsements and Financial risks - is it worth the financial risk to come out if you are in professional sport and getting paid to do what you do and be in the media? Locker room culture - how is the atmosphere affected in the locker room if there is a gay or lesbian on the team? Homosexuality in different sports and age groups - is it more acceptable for an athlete to come out if they are in a team sport or individual sport? Or is it more acceptable for them to come out as a college athlete compared to a professional athlete? A tolerance rule - should there be a no tolerance rule in sport for homosexuals? And finally, with a negative connotation in sport, what should be done to change the view point many have of gays in sport? In our presentation we will be talking about many different viewpoints of each question asked. We will talk about people who agree, disagree and who are neutral with every part that is talked about.