Introduction

My name is Mike Slonoff and I am currently a junior at Bowling Green State University, majoring in Sport Enterprise and minoring in General Business. Throughout the course of my life, sport has always played a major role. Everything in my life has revolved around sports in one way or another, and I intend for this to continue for the rest of my life, hopefully working as a sport agency or in the front office of a pro team. I grew up loving baseball more than anything, playing Little League and traveling after I felt I was good enough. Then one day I became scared of the ball. I do not know exactly how that happenned, but I stood in the batters box absolutely terrified one day, and I never recovered. I finished my season and vowed to never play again.

After my end to baseball around 7th grade I picked up basketball, which truly is my favorite sport. I played traveling from 7th grade through freshman year where I played on the school team, however I quit when I realized short, white, Jewish kids don't play in the NBA. My parents never let me play football till high school, but once freshman year came, I began playing immediately. I randomly became quarterback freshman year, but as sophomore year came rolling around and the coaches realized I couldn't see over the offensive line, I moved to slot receiver which I played through my senior year.

Sport and Gender should be very interesting as is almost all sport management core courses. I hope to get out of this course a better understanding of sport and gender alltogether; whether it be the way male and female athletes view eachother, the way they view themselves, or the way society views the different genders.

If I had the chance to see one male professional athlete play, it would have to be Ray Lewis. With Ray Lewis comes heart, intensity, determination, and more desire to win the game than anyone else on the field. He plays every play like it is his last, even though ultimately he is the one who is ending games for the opposing teams star athletes with his ferocious hits. You can see it in his eyes whenever the cameraman zooms in on him. To Lewis, there is no holding back, whether it be sacrificing his body by filling a gap and taking on a fullback running full speed into him (where ironically it is the fullback who ends up on his back), or meeting the runningback at the line of scrimmage, who will quickly try and find his way to the sidline before he gets popped. He can read the eyes of the already fearful quarterback to intecept a pass, and he causes even more fear to that unlucky reciever who realized that their route is over the middle. EVERYBODY on the field has to pay attention to Ray Lewis. His pregame motivational speeches are always "mic'd up" on ESPN to try and capture the passion in his voice while all of his teammates look up to him for support. This is because he is the best at what he does, and it is all through the hardwork he puts in day after day, to ultimately be the most feared linebacker in the game.

What I'm talking about....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vd3sNvKC_jU

Defining what "sport" really is may be one of the hardest assignments I've ever done. To me, sport is many of things. First of all, it must require physical skill. (So to the question earlier in class, Chess is NOT a sport). Not only must it require physical skill, but there must be competition. If it's not a person you are competing against, you have to be competing against a clock. There has to be a playing surface, (field with boudaries, courts with meaninful lines). Sport must have rules to abide by. It cannot just be a bunch of kids running around aimlessly. And finally, sport must be institutionalized.