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SVU’s Sport Performance Major Receives Standing Ovation at Nike New York Headquarters

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Professor John Armstrong (left) speaks at the Sports Major Collective meeting (PC: Richard Bah)

On June 25, Professor of Philosophy John Armstrong traveled to Nike’s New York City headquarters for the first meeting of the Sports Major Collective. Armstrong presented Southern Virginia University’s new Sport Performance major, the first of its kind in the country, to an audience of nearly 150 college professors, administrators, coaches, and athletes. 

“There’s been this sense across higher education that we’ve got to find a way to credit student-athletes for what they’re really learning and doing,” said VP of Athletics and Strategic Growth James Ballstaedt, who attended along with VP of Advancement and Development Deidra Dryden. “So when Professor Armstrong stood up and they announced that SVU had approved the degree, the whole room just lit up. People started cheering, because that’s what many of them have been trying to do.”

At the event were attendees from approximately 50 higher education institutions across the country, many in various stages of creating sport performance majors for their schools. Armstrong spoke in the first panel of the day, laying out Southern Virginia University’s approach to the major. 

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From left to right: Mark Woychick (Boise State), Erianne Weight (UNC Chapel Hill), Eric Carter (Lyndsey Wilson), John Armstrong (Southern Virginia), Lou Matz (Pacific), and David Hollander (NYU). (PC: Richard Bah)

“Athletes test their powers in contests that are not only physical, but also deeply social and moral,” said Armstrong after the event. “They develop courage, self-control, and justice, and they do it in real time, under pressure, and in front of an audience. We’re the first school to require athletic competition as part of a college major. It’s not just exercise science. Our program is truly interdisciplinary.”

In his remarks during the panel, Armstrong drew a connection between ancient philosophy and modern athletics, arguing that sports can help students grow in reason, virtue, and self-mastery—qualities long considered central to a liberal arts education.

“A central purpose of higher education is to prepare the next generation of society’s leaders. Republics like the United States, where the people rule themselves, need many virtuous leaders,” said Armstrong. “Self-rule requires mastery of the one true liberal art, what ancients called knowledge of how to live in accordance with reason, or wisdom.”

“Competing well requires physical virtues such as strength, speed, and agility, and moral virtues such as courage, self-control, and justice,” continued Armstrong. “Moral virtues involve reason’s control of powerful impulses. Competing well also requires wise strategy. The sport performance major at Southern Virginia University will emphasize these virtues and the joy that accompanies fine performance.”

The event was created by David Hollander, an NYU professor and author of “How Basketball Can Save the World,” and Nike’s Vice President of Communications for North America, John Jowers. Its purpose was to build momentum for the creation of sport performance majors nationwide. 

Speakers included NBA player Cam Johnson, Paralympian Katie Kubiak, former NFL quarterback Christian Ponder, Kentucky’s lieutenant governor Jacqueline Coleman, and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Erianne Weight, Director of the Center for Research in Intercollegiate Athletics.