United States Sports Academy - "America's Sports University"

The Panhandles, a professional football team known for its toughness and athleticism, was established from workers in the Pennsylvania Railroad shops out of Columbus, Ohio. The Columbus Panhandles had its first documented season in 1901. The team played through the beginning of the 1920’s. Longtime manager and future National Football League commissioner Joseph Carr brought a unique administrative style to the Panhandles, leading the team to historic popularity during his tenure. Relying on the most famous family in pro football history, Carr utilized the Nesser brothers’ physical prowess to win games and their unmatched popularity to fill the stands.

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The relationship between a professional athlete, his or her professional sports team, and a team physician is legally complex and has inherent potential for conflict. Although a physician should always consider an athlete's best interest when determining an athlete's fitness to participate in competitive sport, a physician also has a responsibility to his or her employer to act in the best interest of the team. The dual role of a team physician results in the potential for conflict if a professional sports team and the professional athlete's best interests do not coincide. The workers' compensation co-employee doctrine immunizes a professional sports team from vicarious liability in tort for its team physician's negligence. Recent judicial opinions and legal commentary suggest that the workers' compensation law barring tort suits between a professional athlete and a co-employee team physician for injuries caused within the scope of employment should not ipso facto confer absolute tort immunity for a physician. The argument being made is that if a team physician breaches the ethical and legal duty to provide the standard of care, the co-employee doctrine should not provide a shield from tort liability for harm caused to professional athletes. Physicians must be aware of legal opinions surfacing in the literature so they can understand that their most prudent approach, no matter what the circumstance, is to practice in a manner in which a professional athlete's health interest supersedes all other interests.

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This article presented an empirical analysis of the relationship between the portion of the "Entering Player Pool" (Rookie Cap) for each of the 32 National Football League franchises and that franchise's draft selections. Although the formula for determining each franchise's Rookie Cap is closely guarded by the NFL, the author hypothesized that it should be possible to model the deterministic structure used to calculate franchise spending for each rookie's contract. The OLS-estimated models revealed statistically significant relationships between groups segmented by draft selection order and each franchise's Rookie Cap. The model was verified in an out-of-sample test using the Rookie Cap values for the 2007 NFL season. It was found to have a mean absolute percentage error of 2.1%. The implications of these findings were contrary to language in the NFL Collective Bargaining Agreement, as the majority of rookie contracts are implicitly determined by each franchise's Rookie Cap. The published estimates of each selection's NFL determined cap value will provide useful bargaining information for rookie contracts.

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The National Football League has experienced both expansion and relocation of its franchises in the past decade. It is a dynamic market; the relocation of a NFL franchise is an annual possibility. This study looked at the demographic and economic factors that determine the current locations of NFL teams. The top 50 metropolitan areas were empirically examined to explain why some cities have an NFL team and others do not. These factors included population, per capita income, the number of other sports franchises, and the number of Fortune 500 companies, geographic factors, and television ratings for "Monday Night Football." This model can identify cities for possible expansion and those that would serve as relocation sites in the future. Special attention was paid to the Los Angeles and New Orleans markets.

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The purpose of this study was two-fold: 1) to investigate the coaching certification status for high school athletic leagues' head baseball coaches and 2) to recommend a model high school certification program for head baseball coaches in the State of Hawaii. To meet selection criteria, the participating high schools must compete in both varsity and junior varsity baseball. The population surveyed for this study included all 59 athletic directors from the five athletic leagues within the Hawaii High School Athletic Association (HHSAA). The 14-item survey instrument contained four sections: (1) certifications, (2) experience, (3) professional growth, and (4) education. The results indicated that a small percentage of HHSAA athletic directors required a national coaching certification. Secondary findings indicated that a small percentage of HHSAA athletic directors required previous playing and coaching experiences, attendance at coaching-training seminars, and a high school diploma. Importantly, 95% of HHSAA members required background checks from their head baseball coaches.

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This pre-test/post-test study evaluated college sport management student (N = 21) perceptions of Special Olympics North America curriculum/field experience. Pre-event and post-event values indicate that students had positive perceptions. Significant individual effects were found for General Orientation, Facilities and Safety, and Event Management. The strongest correlate relationships were for General Orientation with Volunteerism (52% predictive), Event Management (50%), and Athletes (53%), and Volunteerism with Event Management (54%) and Athletes (62%). Overall, results indicate that service learning can be implemented successfully into a sport management curriculum, field experience is an effective practical experience, and feedback from students should be used to improve teaching.

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Professional baseball organizations use many types of promotions to increase attendance. The purpose of the study was to determine whether or not different types of promotions effected attendance in professional baseball. Promotions were categorized into price, non-price, and a combination of price and non-price. Attendance and promotion data were collected from four professional baseball organizations located in the Ohio River Area. The results indicated significant increases in attendance in two of the four teams when any promotion was used. Two teams also revealed attendance increases when non-price promotions were present, as well as when combination of price and non-price promotions were employed. Finally, this study supports previous research, which has found higher attendance at games with promotions than games without promotions and when non-price promotions are used rather than price promotions.

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The researcher examined the two major professional golf associations, the Professional Golfer's Association (PGA) and the Ladies Professional Golfer's Association (LPGA), to determine physical characteristics relevant for success. The researcher found that those players born outside of the U.S. consistently earn more money and have lower average scores in the most recent professional season. These results are consistent across both tours. The researcher attempted to uncover individual statistical categories that influence this finding. He found that players born outside of the U.S. have significantly superior putting averages, while there appears to be no significant difference in other categories, such as driving and hitting greens in regulation. The superior performance of players born outside of the U.S. remains after controlling for these statistical areas.

Take A Good Look Around is a compilation of stories and poems surrounding the experiences of the author, James C. Wofford. The book humorously chronicles unique aspects of Wofford's life as a horse trainer, Olympic coach, and avid outdoorsman. It exhibits his talents as a poet; he writes in verse about the conscience of caring for the environment, the disappearance of a loved-one, and the joy and hope brought about by children and animals. In pure Wofford style, he qualifies his text by stating, "I have always been aware that we might not see something, or experience something for a second time, hence the title."