>> Dr. Glaros:
Thank you very much.  

I was listening to this talk thing and how are we going to follow this. 

I can't see the connection, but now I can because of the last comment you made, you know, I am not a evolutionary anthropologist, but my, I think my colleagues would say we are in some ways a product of human technology, because there are so much research about the ways in which human evolution is intertwined with tool use.  

So, we are kind of in parts, self-made and prosthetic in that sense, that really provocative because the subject that Craig and I are going to talk about is "Body and Sport in Greek Antiquity and Today" and the first thing I want to say is I'm not a classic specialist, and I'm not a specialist in sports, but I am an Anthropologist who is very much interested in what the body can tell us about the status of the person in society, and so that is my kind of my segue into this subject matter. 

That's something that I'm interested in and I think about continually about what the body and the way the body is conceptualized and talked about and the practices of the body, what do they show us about the status of the person in a particular society.  

And clearly, from everything we can see about the way the body is used and depicted, in Greek culture, in ancient Greek culture, and I would say modern Greek culture, since that's my research interest, is very revealing and can tell us an awful lot about the way in which we bring those ideas forward into contemporary times.  

So, the status of sport in ancient Greece. 

I am borrowing some notions from a classic scholar from up the road in Urbana, David Sandstone, who describe sporting in ancient Greece as the ritual sacrifice of human energy.  

And this is kind of a provocative statement, but I think it is a really useful one and it helps us understand just that incredibly important role that is fore played in ancient Greek society, which has resonances with today, and Craig is going to talk more that.  

We see it in not just the status of the body in sport, but in you know what was at stake, what where people striving for?  

You see here in the picture, these two wrestlers are competing over that cup. 

It's a sacrificial vessel.  

Might this be the origin of the Stanley Cup?  

Sacrificial vessels were a very common form of prize, so we start to see this intertwining of ritual aspects, and sport.  

In other words, sport is not separate from ritual or religious activity; sporting events were at their heart, religious events.  

So, if sport is a ritual sacrifice of human energy, then what's the status of the athlete?  

And one of the things we can say about the athlete in ancient Greece is that he and using the word advisedly, he is an embodiment of virtuosity.  

Virtue is both moral concept, moral words, but also a physical concept, so the physical is meant to reflect the moral, so physical beauty, strength, perfection, both in how you look and how you perform is meant to reflect on your moral worth.  

From a ritual standpoint, the athlete is both sacrificial victim, if sport is a ritual sacrifice that’s a thing sacrificed as bodily energy, blood sweat and tears, and he is the sacrificer. 

So it's this interesting dual position.  

Whoever is the winner, the champion is worthy of being dedicated to the gods.  

And so the bodily signs of the ritual status of the athlete that I'm going to talk about, I am going to talk about three, there are other things that we could say, but three is always a nice number for these kinds of presentations.  

So the first one is nudity.  

The second one anointing with the olive oil, which is such a prominent part of Greek Athletics, and then decoration with crowns, like laurel leaves, olive leaves, and fillets, these woolen bands, you can see in this illustration, I think you can see a little bit, the red color, this athlete here, and you can tell he's the athlete, because he's the nude one, is being decorated with woolen bands and fillets, and we'll talk about the status of that.  

And I do want to say if there are any classic scholars in the room, I would love it if you would chime in because I am about up to here you know in terms of my expertise.  

I don't necessarily have a handle on this.  

Except for the ways in which ancient practices resonate with Modern Greek practices.  

All right so nudity, clearly the word for nudity, the word for naked in Greek [unclear dialogue] give us gymnastics, gymnasium.  

Being naked you know is a characteristic of being an athlete.  

The words are interchangeable because of this tight connection.  

Sandstone speculates that this may be connected to initiation rituals, although he is not entirely sure, and so this line drawing taken from a Greek ceramic shows athletes getting nude, anointing themselves with that olive oil, preparing.  

Nudity then is you know a way of setting off marking yourself as distinctive.  

Athletes applied olive oil before competition, and then they would scrape it off along with all the sweat and the dust, afterwards with this tool called strigil, and that's what this athlete is doing in this picture.  

What's interesting is that Greeks also anointed statues of gods.  

And I hope you can hear when I am using the word anoint and I am using that word deliberately. 

We have a lot of ritual connotations with this word, right?  

It came through Christianity.  

Christian means the anointed one, so this carries over, we have a lot of associations with anointing. 

So if athletes are anointed in this special way, they are marking the body.  

Something special is happening here.  

Now the woolen fillets, what is interesting, here on the right, is an athlete who is wearing woolen bands, red woolen bands. 

Over here it is a little harder to see, but these women are decorating sacrificial bowls with woolen fillets.  

So this is the aspect of the athlete as sacrificial victim. 

That's what is being highlighted.  

Being decorated with the same kind of thing, being drawn into the same context.  

And of course, the crowns of laurel and olive, which are such a symbol of victory, and again, Christian thought borrowed those, right?  

In a lot of different contexts, martyrs as victors, being crowned.  

Again these crowns of vegetation, they could be olive leaves, they could be laurel leaves, these are also ritually important.  

Priests and priestesses would wear these crowns in the context of conducting sacrifice and here you see a victorious athlete offering a burnt sacrifice.  

And here is the wing and goddess. 

Nike we would say. 

I wouldn't say that personally, in Greek pronunciation but that's how we know her winged victory.  

So, again, you see that the athlete is both sacrificial victim, and sacrificer.  

Marked out by bodily signs, nudity, and anointing, special decorations that signify the athletes' ritual status. 

And all of this is to serve a notion that the athlete in both their physical aspect, and their moral conduct, are an embodiment of the highest possible virtue that somebody could reach in society.  

And I think this is a good point, at which to let Craig take over. 

I am going to bring up his slides. 

>> Dr. Craig Eckert:
Thank you.  

>> Dr. Glaros:
What did you call your? 

>> Dr. Eckert:
I think it starts with Greek.

>> Dr. Glaros:
Greek Ideals in Athens? 

>> Dr. Eckert:
Perfect.  

Since I have no technological, I do have some of my students in here know that I don't mess with PowerPoint, I feel very uncomfortable with it, 

>> Dr. Glaros:
You just give me one of these and I'll 

>> Dr. Eckert:
Dr. Glaros is going to bring me and glide me through the presentation, but I'd like to start this one. 

I think this was a perfect way to go off of what Angela was just speaking about.  

How many of you watch sports, you care about sports?  

Ok, perfect.  

How many of you saw the, I am not a Cardinal fan, so I'll have to tell you, my ex-wife was a card, I don't want to go there.  

What's the first thing that happened immediately after the San Francisco Giants won game seven of that playoff game?  

What's one of the first, obviously the players got together and started jumping around, but as the cameras came in and what's one of the first things that happened? 

If you can answer this right, you can come up and get do the rest of the presentation. 

>> Student:
They started lighting cars on fire.

>> Dr. Eckert:
Well, ok, not the people out in the San Francisco. 

Right. How about the player themselves, anyone can think of the first thing, give their first name, there in the back. 

>> Student:
I didn't see it, but did they through their arms up in the air[unclear dialogue]

>> Dr. Eckert:
Sure.  Ok, that's true, and that's kind of ritual, but not really.  

I'm kind of giving a hint.  

Jack, let me have your hat.  

Ok, Adorning with crowns, you watch the super bowl, you watch NBA championship, LeBron James did it immediately upon the Miami Heat, first thing they are doing they are putting on that hat that has NBA Champion. 

It has National League Pennant Winners, right? 

So, I think you can make that extension almost to that crown. 

How about boxing?  

What's one of the first things they do at the end of any championship bout?  

The Belt! Right. 

So we see this parallel to what Angela is putting up there from the Greeks. 

And I know Jack you are getting very nervous that I was going to take that Bulls hat, right?  

But we see that same kind of a thing taking place, right? 

That there is a ritualistic adornment, right, there's putting on that hat, there's putting on that belt that's going to separate the Athlete, the Champion, especially from the non-athlete.  

So I think that's a good way to start it.  

How about if we move, I thought that was a nice kind of introduction into what I was going to be speaking about, and it's going to really fit with one of the, there's one little PowerPoint thing that takes about four minutes, that I am going to beg you to let me show, because if you don't cry you are not human, I'll argue, and I think it really gets at this idea of moral virtue and what sports is supposed to reflect, not what it necessarily does.  

So, let's try, Angela can you click on this one, "How bad" as an example of ritual.  

Perfect. I hope this is going to be Ray Lewis.

>> Video:
There was a young man who wanted to make a lot of money so he went to this guru, right, and told the guru, I want to be on the same level you are on.

>> Dr. Eckert:
Ok, we can click out of this one, it will take too long.  

Can we X out? Yeah.  

How about this one? 

>> Dr. Glaros:

Pump up?  Hornbuckle?

>> Dr. Eckert:
Yeah, yeah, lets go to Pump up.

I think this is the one. 

No, no, that's stealing my thunder.  

Not that pumping up. 

Let's not go there.  Ok.  

This is what I want.  Thank you.  

This is perfect.

[Video Plays]

All right this is perfect. 

Really pay attention. 

All right, this just takes a minute, perfect ending.  

That perfect.  

Angela you can stop there. 

 I really can't take Tim Tebow.  

I don't know why I put that on there, but 

>> Dr. Glaros:
Because he performs the ritual.

>> Dr. Eckert:
The ritual, and now I, that was perfect, I just can't do it, this late in the afternoon, but you saw Ray Lewis right, and Drew Brees, perfect examples. If you went to any football field from Junior football league, right up into the NFL you are going to see that ritualistic performance, right before kickoff. 

You are going to see those athletes, you are going to see it during Calisthenics, and then right before those refs blow the whistle, the kick-off is going to start, you've seen the perfect example of ritual.  

You can see it in baseball, from again, little league, all the way up to the major leagues, where the kids are going to come together around the coach, the players are going to come around the manager, they are going to be chanting, they are going to be you know, pumping their fists, they are going to be doing the whole series of things, and that's from whether we are talking about four year olds, to forty year olds.  

So I thought that was a good depiction of the idea of ritual before a sporting event.  

Ok, I think we've got the Hornbuckle one, we don't need to go, if I could go to our next slide Angela. 

I hope.  

Ok, all right, now, I think this is another thing off of Angela's presentation.  

And it fits with that idea of praise, and the champion, and signification and sports is supposed to have been viewed with some kind of virtue, so if we don't have to, yeah, we can do the Ray Lewis. 

How about that? 

And I'll make a real contrast here.  

[Ray Lewis Video plays]

>> Ray Lewis:
Sometimes God removes you from thinking about games all the time. 

You know, I know this kid that I had been mentoring, Jesus and he felt the pain in the shoulder, he realized he had bone cancer, and I've been helping him out, I've been helping him out as much as I could, and last week, you know, his mother called and said, Jay is really ill. 

Jay is really going through it, and I was like Ok I'm going to get over there as soon as this game is over, you know? 

And I got the call probably [unclear dialogue] and Jay didn't make it.  

You know, this 17-year-old kid.  

So sometimes that's why you have got to sum up the game sometimes.  

You've got to say how important is life? 

 Because this is a 17-year-old kid that was just waiting for me to come to speak to him, but a game pulled me away from that.  

>> Dr. Eckert:
All right. 

That's perfect.  

Stop that right.  

Seventeen-year-old kid that died, but the game took me away from that. 

If we could just go down to the next, 

Ok, let me make the contrast, let me do this.  

Well, here's Ray Lewis, and this is a contemporary picture of him and if you know anything about Ray Lewis and his biography, he's become one of seventeen year NFL, he's going to go into the Hall of Fame, one of the most famous linebackers, certainly of this generation and the history of the NFL.  

But there's been a real conscience attempt to reconstruct his biography. 

Right now he's one of the most sought after motivational speakers.  

I mean you can't help but be riveting when that charisma that he just evokes, the way he plays on the field, but the other side, the reason for having to reconstruct and in view this moral virtue.  

Look what he said, right? 

That we need to start thinking about the worth, I couldn't be there for a seventeen year old kid for whom I've formed a bond, because I had to take part in an NFL game, and the clip I wanted to show, it takes about two minutes, that's why I've got some other things I wanted to show, is Diane Sawyer doing the report.  

Many of you may have forgot by now, at the Superbowl in Atlanta, Ray Lewis was charged as an accessory to a murder, right?  

That he at the very least, without question, he witnessed the murder and did nothing to stop it.  

And he pled out to a lesser charge, and that is completely [unclear dialogue] 

You never hear that as part of his biography, now, right?   

He's found God, he's become a motivational speaker, he's done all the things a PR firm would love, right? 

To clean up his act with very positive results.  

So, I took that clip specifically to show this idea of moral virtue, but reconstructing the athletes profile from convict, potentially convicted murderer, to sought-after public speaker, and motivational person.  

Can we do this one, and then I'll just talk about? 

This is only like a minute, perfect.

[Video Plays]
>> Lance Armstrong:
I want to talk to you about what Livestrong Day means to me. 

October 2 was the day I was diagnosed with cancer, and thrown in the fight of my life.  

I made it through ok, but this day, fifteen years later, cancer was the world's leading cause of death. 

Too many people around the world are fighting for their lives, right this minute, without the resources, treatment and support they need.  

We have to change that.  

Today, Livestrong Day is a challenge, a global day of action, where we stand together, to declare we won't retreat from the fight against cancer.  

It's a day when we wear yellow to show the strength of our community and to encourage others to join us in the fight.   

Show your support, wear yellow with me on October 2, 

Join the fight at Livestrong.or/livestrongday

>> Dr. Eckert:
Lance Armstrong has raised billions of dollars to the fight against, I took this clip perfectly. 

Why would I take that one, in light of the last week?  

Moral virtue.  

You couldn't, one of the most heroic seven time Tour De’ France champion, one of the most recognized athletes in the world. 

Why would I put him up there for moral virtue?  

Anybody read the paper in the last week?  

Adam?  Excuse me.  

Completely stripped of all his medals.  

He's been fighting USADA, United States Anti-Doping Agency, whose alleged that he's taken part in all kinds of using banned substances, procedures that would enhance his performance, he's denied, he's denied, he's denied, he's denied, spent millions of dollars fighting the case, and about three weeks ago, he just said I'm going to stop fighting. 

And now a whole series of his teammates have come forward and said they were complicit, he definitely doped, he asked them to dope with him, and he asked them to hide what he did.  

The moral virtue, and then the fall of the athlete.  

All right I took Ray Lewis, and Lance Armstrong, as a perfect example. 

On one hand, embodying virtue, and on the other hand, the demise.  

Right?   

This one, we don't need to clip, if you, more NCAA division one Champ, victories than anyone, until about a year ago, right, and then some of those victories were stripped and then three people, one person, already put away, and two people who still await trial, for essentially helping to, at least institutionally sanction the rape of boys.  

So, you know, one of the most respected, iconic, sports figures virtue, gave millions of dollars to Penn State, the Library is named after Joe Paterno, the height again of moral virtue, always speaking about the positive role of education in athletics, and his whole image is now tarnished. 

Who’s going to associate the word virtue with Joe Paterno, rightly or wrongly in light of his behavior and the potential of good still to be found in the courts of the complicity and allowing the using of Penn State as an institution where this kind of behavior could be sanctioned, could be taking place, and fostered. 

>> Dr. Glaros:
Lance Armstrong is even more apt example because it was the status of his body that wrecked his virtue, because his body was found to be full of chemicals that he'd put there.  

>> Dr. Eckert:
Right, right. Perfect.  

Perfect point. 

Oh can we just go to that clip that John, again with the idea of crowning and being recognized.  
[video plays] 
We can go really far, I think. 

There's the hat, already has it.  

Game isn't even seconds over, already had his NFL Superbowl champion hat on, Michael Strahand, the hat already on, there you go, right, holding the medal, as it were, like the crowning, Perfect, that's good Angela, right there. 

And we don't need to show that one, it’s just the one I quizzed you on, but you did poorly on. 

Knowing that the giants put on their hats immediately. 

Ok, we'll go to the next slide. 

I'm begging, you've got to; you can spare me four minutes.  

It's worth it. 

I just hope you've got a handkerchief, that's all I'll tell you. 

Angela, they are not walking out, so we're going to do it.  

>> Video:
Imagine being a teenage girl, thinking about the day you'll get your driver's license, going to see movies with your friends, playing sports you love, now imagine that all changes because of a degenerative and untreatable disease.  

That's exactly what happened to a young woman I met recently, but thanks to an ordinary four-legged friend, she's

>> Dr. Eckert:
Just think of the word virtue.

>>Video:
Back to doing what she loves.  

Sixteen-year-old Sammy Stoner loves running with her dog, Chloe.  

But Sammy and Chloe aren't any ordinary running partners.  

Chloe is Sammy's guide dog.  

Sammy, a high school cross-country athlete is blind.  

How long have you been running. 

I've been running since I was in 8th grade when before my vision started going bad.  

For months she and her family didn't know what was causing the decline.  

It was a pretty tough time. I think it was tough on Sammy; it was definitely tough on us. 

She was diagnosed with Stargardt's disease.  

It's an inherited condition that causes central vision loss, and renders its sufferer's legally blind.  

Losing her sight has been so trying for someone so young.  

If there was one thing that you could see just one more time, and have a good look at one more time, what would that be?   

Probably my family's faces. 

It's kind of tough not being able to see their face, or my face; it's terrible not knowing what you look like.  

>> Dr. Eckert:
You know, in a bigger depiction of this, for E60-3 for ESPN, she said she's never really seen herself in a mirror.  

>> Video:
I mean that's something every teenager looks forward to.  

Running is still an option. 

If you love something enough, then you'll find a way to do it, even if you do have struggles with it.  

And Sammy doesn't just run, she runs cross-country, through the woods for miles on end.  

That's where Chloe came in.  

Since Sammy got her last summer, they've been training non-stop, learning to move together, and build up Chloe's endurance.  

It's hard enough to get a person to be dedicated to running. 

Yeah, I can't imagine what it would require with a puppy, nonetheless.  

It's been a huge learning experience but she really is doing a great job.  

The state initially wouldn't let Sammy and Chloe run on the team.  

But the school fought for her, and won.  

We devised a plan where she could possible run in the competitive situation, in the same event.  

Meanwhile, Chloe was fitting right in on the team.  

Watch as she takes part in the pre-race ritual.  

>> Dr. Eckert:
Ritual, right?

>> Video:
We have 48 runners on the team and then came Chloe, so we are a family of 49 runners.  Here Chloe.  

And those she’s all work on the course, when the harness does come off, she changes, her demeanor changes.  

She is one playful pup. 

You are irresistible.  

Finally after all of their hard work, the time came for Sammy and Chloe to run their race.  [Unclear dialogue] 

That day, Sammy ran her personal best.  

That's the best she's ever run.  

And in the end, this inspiring teen and her pup achieved their goal, and crossed the finish line together.  

She just faces every day with the most positive attitude we could ever hope for.  

I am really happy we can be the inspiration with Chloe, because we really can do anything.


>> Dr. Eckert:
That's good, Angela.
 
I'm sorry, I am still choked. 

I'm like a ridiculously sensitive male.  

I hate it.  

When you watch the extended version, my oldest daughter is a graduate student, came in and goes dad what the hell is the matter, I was like sobbing, where I just couldn't even get.  

If you see this is what I wanted to put in for virtue.  

When you do a more focused interview with the parents, and something that this is more like a feel good story, the parents share with them their daughter never finished anything other than last, in every race that she ran in high school.  

And you see them saying that, and their are starting to like break down, but you can feel and see the pride that they have in their daughter, as the coach saying, running her personal best.  

And to me that depicts more the virtue that is in sports, right?  

Where the competition so often is from within, to see how far is a woman that is legally blind , who was able to use that dog and strive each time out to do better and better, to where she can achieve a personal best.  

But yet, finish last, and I think that's an interesting kind of dichotomy, but to me it captures the real virtue in sports. 

The competition in itself, with yourself.  

Cool. Thank you. 

I'm glad you guys didn't cry.  

Well, virtue in sports.  Virtue.  

Let's go to this one, this is a good one.  

>> Video:
Tiger Woods, the most famous golfer in the world, one of the most famous people in the world.  

One car accident, here's what we know about it.  

It happened here in Windermere 

>> Dr. Eckert: 
And you can tell this is an old clip, right?  

And I did it on purpose.  

>> Video:
and it hit a tree.  

He was semi-conscience, or unconscious for a number of minutes.  

His wife used a golf club to bash in the back window to rescue him.  

One of the things we do know, there's an awful lot we don't know. 

And we interviewed the chief of police here in Windermere FL, to get his take on what happened.  

He was on the ground semi-unconscious and had lacerations on upper and lower lip, so our first response was to render first aid to him.  

We certainly don't know what happened, the hospitals says it a minor injury, injuries were just seen on his mouth.  

Why do you think he was semi-conscience or unconscious?  

You know, I don't know the officers there say he was semi-unconscious and out of it for several minutes, but he did have blood coming out of his mouth, but the officers also said it did not look life-threatening, the injuries.  

The car was drivable, so why did his wife have to bash it in with a golf club?  

From our understanding, she explained to the officers the doors were locked and she could not get in 

>> Dr. Eckert:
[snickers] yeah ok.  

>> Video:
So she used the golf club to smash the windows to gain entry.  

She had a golf club with her at the time.  

I don't know where the golf club came from.  

>> Dr. Eckert:
She carries a nine iron. 

Everyone does.  

>> Video:
I certainly don't want to put words in your mouth, but does this sound a little unusual or suspicious, this case?  

It sounds unusual, but like I said, we are not an investigative agency, so you know we were first responders on a mutual way to help him out.  

And we didn't know it was Tiger Woods, we just heard there was a male down.  

There is currently a lot more investigating to do. 

In charge of the investigation now is the Florida Highway Patrol, because this happened in an unincorporated part of Orange County, Florida, not actually within the town limits of Windermere.  

>> Dr. Eckert:
That's fine, Angela.  

And the reason I think you can guess, the reason I took this one, the three of the most recognized athletes in the world, Michael Jordan, Muhammad Ali, and Tiger Woods, and I couldn’t find this image, but I wanted to get, but it's a famous Christmas card of Tiger Woods, his then what now ex-wife, his two children, and then I can't remember if it is one or two golden retrievers, and it's like an idyllic, you couldn’t get a better Christmas card perfect smiles, idyllic family, and then I just wanted to juxtapose it with a golf club going through the back window, kind of the fall from grace.  

The putting athletes up on a pedestal, almost god-like, and then finding out that sometimes the Emperor has no clothes.  

I'm not going to, this is malice in the palace, a riot breaks out, I wish, I don't want to take up a lot of time, but the first one is, you know, it only runs about a minute or two, can I just show it real quick?  

It's black and white, which I like. I don't know if you remember black and white.  

Some of you out there I think 

>> Video:
We played Houston. 

It was a hell of a team. 

We played against Houston, they had the phyical play, we had the speed.  

There was a lot of lip service that was going on. I know I never had a lip service that [unclear dialogue] the game was uneventful. 

I think I remember the second half or something a ball goes off,

>> Dr. Eckert:
This will be real quick. I promise we'll stop 

>> Video:
I rebounded, me, Kevin, and Kareem, went for a rebound.  

The ball was long, and Houston was running on a fast break, we are coming down on a fast break,  John Lukes has the ball, Rudy's coming one way, I'm coming the other, I foul Kevin, trying to get [unclear dialogue] I grab his hip, and try to propel myself in front of him, to catch up to the guys that were going out on court.  

Which wasn't out of the ordinary,  we've all done it, I've done it a thousand times, well, he elbows me, with is left elbow in the face.  

The elbows not to hurt, it's meant to get off. 

So when he turned around and I thought he was going to say I'm sorry, but he it me like this, then I said, you, well that’s not a mistake, so then we start swinging on each other, 

the instinct for any player who see an incident like that 

>> Dr. Eckert:
Just watch. I promise you, it's like another thirty seconds. 

>>Video
to stop the fight, so that's where I, he pushes Kareem away, now Rudy of course the caption of the Rockets, was in one lane, he is running towards Jabar and Kevin, and to calm Kevin down, 

>> Dr. Eckert:
Now, you've got to watch right here. 

>> Video
backing up, looks over his shoulder, he turned and saw Rudy running toward him, and basic instinct is to turn this way, 

He stops, plants and I saw the punch coming, and Rudy was running, and saw the punch coming also, but through his hands up to protect him, of course, the punch goes over it, 

>> Dr. Eckert:
Now, you can stop it right there.  

If you don't, Kareem Abjul-Jabar compares it to hearing a grapefruit just being completely smashed and Rudy Tom Jonovich's career was never, broke so many, he had to have major plastic surgeries, and it effectively ended his career.  

If you saw his head whiplash, right it hit, and this is wooden gym floor, not like today where they are cushioned and stuff. 

And again, the idea of heroism, and virtue and how to set square with an incident like that right out, and I'll explain at the end why I keep doing this.  

I think we only have one more, oh the athletic body let's do Chris, no let's do Mr. Olympian. 

Yeah let's do that. 

Because I think this fits with, nope that won't do it; I've got the wrong one there.  

All right, lets do Amanda Baird.  

We'll do her. 

Yeah, this'll be good. 

Does everyone know who Amanda Baird is?  

She broke Olympic swimmer, really came to notoriety I believe in the 96 Olympics, fourteen-year-old amazing gold medal winner.  

Well why do you have these up there?  

OK, the body is temple. 

But to me in a sociology class, it always raises the image, the issue and I really enjoyed, I am always amazed at some of the opinions women have of is she being, are women athletes taken seriously for the athletic prowess, or is it that they are using their athletic prowess to pedal themselves and market themselves in terms of potential careers as models etc. 

Amanda Baird raised some notoriety because she was one of the first swimmers to accept a playboy centerfold and adamantly said that she believed that she was being a positive role model for young women, she was proud of her body, and had no problem whatsoever. 

She understood that while people could criticize her, but nonetheless, she did it.  I think I must have messed up my files, because I had one of male body builders, any of you have ever seen a body building competition.  

What do the guys have?  Oil. 

They literally oil their bodies, so I thought it would have been a perfect thing.  

Somehow I got Mohammad Ali in an oil clip, I don't know how I messed that one up, so I apologize for my lack of technological sophistication.  

All right, let's go to the, I think I have one more.  

Mind and body. 

Ok. And you always hear this thing about I promise I'll bring this to a conclusion here, we hear about this idea of mind and body, and the Greeks thinking these things should be on the same level, and again, I defer to any, you people have forgotten more than I may know about Greek, or the Greeks, or Greek ideas of sports, but many Greek philosophers were actually critical of athletic figures in that they said they overdid the cultivation of their bodies, and did not do enough to be cultivating their minds. 

 So I thought a perfect example here, and we don't have to show the clip, of maybe the Greek ideal was Andrew Luck right who stayed in school for, got his degree at Stanford, was someone being thought about for a Rhodes scholarship, received numerous awards academic all American, right kind of fitting the ideal of that harmony between mind and body.  

Now, obviously, this is the exception, especially the division one sports level, but it kind of embodies that ideal of mind and body going hand in hand.  

I think we may have one more. 

Oh, and then the final thing is, and this was definitely true of the Olympic games in ancient Greece, the athletes were supposed to reflect positively on the particular city states that they represented.  

I think we find a parallel certainly in modern day Olympics, so that we, I just took these still shots, there's no YouTube, I think you all know that Brandy Chestain, and that's not the typical picture we see. 

The typical picture is usually Brandy Chestain, doing what? 

Right. Pulling her shirt off and revealing your Nike sports bra, and that's the iconic picture. 

But to me, the more important one was this is after the US women and who helped bring women's soccer right to the forefront after a victory running around with the American Flag, and we see that this in almost any victorious any athlete who is victorious in the Olympics, grabbing that flag, running the track, getting up on the pedestal, being crowned with the medal. 

And then I thought another good iconic picture was the dream team with Michael Jordan, Scotty Pippen, Larry Bird, Clyde Drexel, you see them adorning themselves, now this is interesting though from a sociological point of view, because they are draping themselves in the American Flag, also to hide the logo of Adidas, because Michael Jordan is a Nike Sponsor, and that is how he got the rest of the team to agree to put the flag around him, right, so it wasn't just to evoke nationalism, it was so that he kept on the good side of Nike.  

As their principle spokesperson.  

I don't think, do I have one more?  

Ok I just wanted to conclude this way.   

And I appreciate it, can I get a little hand for Angela, because I couldn't have done that.  

Thank you. I really do appreciate that. 

I just wanted to conclude this way.  

The reason I kept doing these parallels is I had a student one time in my sociology sports class go, “Dr. Eckert do you ever talk about anything positive about sports?” and it really struck me.  

The question has always been with me, and I had to answer, and I go I feel like we take the positive for granted.  

We take that idea of virtue, we take the idea of sports building character, we take those kinds of things for granted, and we don't I think critically assess but isn't there a down side to some of this right?  

So, I think anytime I give a talk about sports, I come off as if I am not, I am very much, I think there is so many positive things about sports, but I think it's always important to look at that contrast between that ideal of what we think sports are about, versus the reality that we see when we subject sports to a sociological lens.  

We look at it a little more critically so I wanted to thank Angela very much, I really want to thank my former student Chris Duncan for putting these slides, but I am changing his grade.  

That Muhammad Ali slide got in there, I'm going to change the grade.