UPB Professors Present Papers
Two University of Pittsburgh at Bradford professors presented papers at the 38th annual convention of the North American Society for Sport History.
Dr. Rick Knott, assistant professor of health and physical education, presented a paper titled “‘Improvements Come too Late’: A Historical Examination of the Contradictory Roles of Sanctioning Bodies in Automobile Racing.”
Dr. Keary Rouff, assistant professor of sport and recreation management, presented a paper titled “1st and 50: The Impact of the American Football League on the Current Day NFL.”
Knott’s paper is an examination of the contradictory roles of sanctioning bodies as they seek to reconcile the quest for speed and advancements in technology against the need for safety, the whole time recognizing the economic realities of participating in an expensive sport.
Knott said he has received a lot of interest in his work on motorsports because few scholars are studying them.
At previous conferences, he has looked at gender bias in racing as well as safety concerns.
Knott is the director of the health and physical education program at Pitt-Bradford and has more than 20 years’ experience in teaching and program development in the health and physical education field.
Rouff’s paper about the AFL’s impact on today’s NFL was written for the 50th anniversary of the founding of the AFL. Rouff traced the league’s beginnings from a meeting of rogue owners who didn’t want to play by the NFL’s expansion rules.
The AFL, he argues, was a more fan-friendly, egalitarian league with cheerleaders, half-time shows, mascots and publicity novelty items like a mini jet car at New York Jets games, War Paint the horse at Kansas City Chiefs games and Flipper the dolphin in a tank at Miami Dolphins games.
Other vestiges of the league are player names on jerseys, the two-point conversion and revenue-sharing agreements for television contracts. Eventually, the owners of the AFL challenged the NFL to a challenge of each league’s champion, creating the Super Bowl.
In 1970, the two leagues merged to become today’s NFL.
One of the AFL’s most important contributions was bringing more African-American players into the league at the positions where they could play their best, Rouff said, noting that the NFL had unspoken team guidelines for the number of minority players.
Jillian Kreitzer, an elementary education major from Horseheads, N.Y., helped Rouff research the paper.
Rouff will appear on WESB’s Sports Forum at 12:30 p.m. Aug. 20 to discuss the AFL, which included the Buffalo Bills.
Rouff will present another paper at the Resort and Commercial Recreation Association’s conference Nov. 7-10 in Bend, Ore. The paper examines the effects of the economic downturn on golf courses in Northwestern Pennsylvania and Southwestern New York.
With the assistance of two students, Mallory Stewart, a sport and recreation management major from Port Allegany, and Andrew Lipps, a sport and recreation management major from Conneaut, Ohio, Rouff surveyed 30 courses in the Twin Tiers to determine how the recession affected their 2009 season.
While studies performed by Golf Digest and Business Weekly focusing on the industry showed a profound effect on golf clubs, Rouff said he found a lesser effect locally.
He hypothesized that the clubs saw less of a drop in membership and revenue because they had not seen the large gain in membership and revenue that more urban courses benefitted from during “boom years.”
Rouff is the director of the sport and recreation management program, and has taught at Pitt-Bradford eight years. Previously, he was a fitness center director and physical education instructor at Alfred (N.Y.) State College.
Dr. Rick Knott, assistant professor of health and physical education, presented a paper titled “‘Improvements Come too Late’: A Historical Examination of the Contradictory Roles of Sanctioning Bodies in Automobile Racing.”
Dr. Keary Rouff, assistant professor of sport and recreation management, presented a paper titled “1st and 50: The Impact of the American Football League on the Current Day NFL.”
Knott’s paper is an examination of the contradictory roles of sanctioning bodies as they seek to reconcile the quest for speed and advancements in technology against the need for safety, the whole time recognizing the economic realities of participating in an expensive sport.Knott said he has received a lot of interest in his work on motorsports because few scholars are studying them.
At previous conferences, he has looked at gender bias in racing as well as safety concerns.
Knott is the director of the health and physical education program at Pitt-Bradford and has more than 20 years’ experience in teaching and program development in the health and physical education field.
Rouff’s paper about the AFL’s impact on today’s NFL was written for the 50th anniversary of the founding of the AFL. Rouff traced the league’s beginnings from a meeting of rogue owners who didn’t want to play by the NFL’s expansion rules.The AFL, he argues, was a more fan-friendly, egalitarian league with cheerleaders, half-time shows, mascots and publicity novelty items like a mini jet car at New York Jets games, War Paint the horse at Kansas City Chiefs games and Flipper the dolphin in a tank at Miami Dolphins games.
Other vestiges of the league are player names on jerseys, the two-point conversion and revenue-sharing agreements for television contracts. Eventually, the owners of the AFL challenged the NFL to a challenge of each league’s champion, creating the Super Bowl.
In 1970, the two leagues merged to become today’s NFL.
One of the AFL’s most important contributions was bringing more African-American players into the league at the positions where they could play their best, Rouff said, noting that the NFL had unspoken team guidelines for the number of minority players.
Jillian Kreitzer, an elementary education major from Horseheads, N.Y., helped Rouff research the paper.
Rouff will appear on WESB’s Sports Forum at 12:30 p.m. Aug. 20 to discuss the AFL, which included the Buffalo Bills.
Rouff will present another paper at the Resort and Commercial Recreation Association’s conference Nov. 7-10 in Bend, Ore. The paper examines the effects of the economic downturn on golf courses in Northwestern Pennsylvania and Southwestern New York.
With the assistance of two students, Mallory Stewart, a sport and recreation management major from Port Allegany, and Andrew Lipps, a sport and recreation management major from Conneaut, Ohio, Rouff surveyed 30 courses in the Twin Tiers to determine how the recession affected their 2009 season.
While studies performed by Golf Digest and Business Weekly focusing on the industry showed a profound effect on golf clubs, Rouff said he found a lesser effect locally.
He hypothesized that the clubs saw less of a drop in membership and revenue because they had not seen the large gain in membership and revenue that more urban courses benefitted from during “boom years.”
Rouff is the director of the sport and recreation management program, and has taught at Pitt-Bradford eight years. Previously, he was a fitness center director and physical education instructor at Alfred (N.Y.) State College.
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