Robin Hardin

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Professor at University of Tennessee at Knoxville

Muscular Christianity is widely regarded as a leading contributor to the development of contemporary sport culture in the United States. Sport historians and sociologists have recognized muscular Christianity as a "hegemonic influence on modern sport culture" (Meyer, et al., 2020, p. 171) but the implications of this insight have not been thoroughl...

Voluntary occupational turnover is rampant within the economy and, thus, a timely line of inquiry within sport management. However, sport management literature has primarily explored turnover intentions rather than the realized experience of voluntary occupational turnover. Thus, the purpose of this study was to understand sport management employee...

Mental health is an emerging area of interest in sport, but there is a paucity of educational initiatives in sport management curricula to train the next generation of sport managers to address the mental health needs of athletes, a type of knowledge that the mental health literature operationalizes as mental health literacy. One goal of accreditin...

The high rates of depression, anxiety, suicide, and other mental health disorders among collegiate student-athletes have resulted in the need for appropriate mental health services. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has released a best practices guide for mental health in college sport that includes licensed psychologists (LP), li...

Social workers are beginning to be hired in collegiate athletic departments to meet the holistic needs of student-athletes. The limited research that has examined social work practice in sport has not explicitly explored ways in which social work values manifest in practice. The current study explored how the values of the social work profession ar...

As the topic of diversity, equity, and inclusion continues to be of growing importance across all businesses, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Sport provides a comprehensive examination of DEI issues across the sport industry. This text’s emphasis on application and critical thinking will guide students in developing their ability to effectively...

Internships provide professional preparation for aspiring sport management professionals, because they allow for professional and personal growth, as well as for being exposed to a professional work environment. Unfortunately, part of the exposure to a professional work environment also means being subjected to its negative aspects, which include s...

The National Collegiate Athletic Association passed legislation in 2014 to allow for unlimited meals and snacks for college athletes. This policy change created a need for full-time registered dietitians (RDs) to ensure student-athletes are properly fueled and monitor their dietary habits. RDs are now considered to be a key member of the college at...

The provision of holistic care for athletes often involves interprofessional teams with specialists to support athletic performance and overall wellness. Yet, regarding psychological support, some have advocated for a single professional to attain both a certified mental performance consultant (CMPC) credential and any type of mental health license...

There has been increased attention to mental health programing in collegiate athletics. Social workers are one type of professional that can provide mental health care in the collegiate athletics, but there is limited research on social work practice in a sport setting. Thus, the purpose of this research was to explore the experiences of licensed s...

Women competing on the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) Tour recently began wearing clothing that diverted from historic norms. Some LPGA stakeholders found the attire to be distasteful, resulting in the implementation of a dress code dictating what participants could wear. LPGA members and outside stakeholders were somewhat taken aback...

Athletic transition has been explored in sport management and sport psychology literature primarily focusing on transitioning into collegiate athletics, voluntary and involuntary transitions out of collegiate sport, and transitioning out of professional sport. This study compared NCAA Division I and III collegiate athletes’ perceptions regarding th...

The sports world’s near universal moratorium in response to the COVID-19 pandemic was abrupt and unprecedented. From professional leagues to youth sports, doors were closed to competitions and events to help stop the spread of the coronavirus. The hiatus began at one of the busiest times on the calendar for sport, with the National Basketball Assoc...

The Senior Woman Administrator (SWA) designation was established by the NCAA to increase involvement of women in the management of collegiate athletics. However, research has found SWAs may not be afforded opportunities needed for further career advancement. This study explored the perceptions of NCAA Division I SWAs through role congruity theory....

Sport participation for women and girls is at an all-time high in the United States, but women are still widely underrepresented in leadership positions and coaching (Acosta & Carpenter, 2014). Women hold approximately 50% of head coaching positions of women’s teams in the National Collegiate Athletic Association, and only 18% of the head coaching...

Women continue to struggle to reach senior-level leadership positions in collegiate sports, and ethnic minorities face the challenges due to their ethnicity as well. This research examined the experiences and challenges of ethnic minority women who are collegiate athletic directors at predominantly White institutions (PWIs). Semistructured intervie...

The sport industry is ripe for issues of sexual harassment/assault due to the high value placed on masculine characteristics and the power differential between male leaders/coaches and female subordinates/athletes. This culture permeates sport organizations, as issues of sexual harassment/assault committed by athletes and coaches/administrators are...

Stickball amongst the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians is a sporting tradition that precedes written records. Historical and academic texts have focused on men’s participation in the sport. However, Cherokee women participated in their own stickball games as recent as a decade ago, and stories exist of women playing stickball in the late nineteenth...

Eleven current and former male college student-athletes were interviewed about their experiences with female head coaches. Three themes emerged from the data: (a) Give Her a Chance, (b) A Coach is a Coach, and (c) Gendering of the Female Coach. The mixed-gender environment of the sports in which these athletes participated (e.g. track and field, sw...

Research in the area of athletic identity has grown immensely since it was first brought forward in academic work nearly 20 years ago. The ideas of athletic identity have expanded into the areas of relating to injury and rehabilitation, transitioning into collegiate athletics, transitioning out of collegiate athletics, professional careers in sport...

Objective: Student football managers have demands on their time that may pose barriers to meeting recommended current physical activity (PA) guidelines. The study sought to assess the amount of PA obtained by student football managers at a NCAA Division I Football university. Participants: Subjects were student football managers (n = 14) with da...

The culture of sport has historically reinforced hegemonic notions of gender. Both intercollegiate and professional sports in the United States are male-dominated in employment numbers and leadership positions. This raises concerns about the professional work environment women will encounter in their careers. Thus, the purpose of this study was to...

Women's participation in collegiate sport has increased dramatically since the passage of Title IX, but there has not been a corresponding increase in the percentage of women in administrative positions. Women have, however, been successful obtaining leadership positions in conference offices, as more than 30% of National Collegiate Athletic Associ...

Sexual harassment and sexism in the workplace is the unwanted sexual attention and discrimination based on sex or gender of employees by their colleagues or superiors. Male-dominated organizations and professions have been found to possess cultures susceptible to high rates of sexual harassment and sexism. In addition, these organizations and profe...

Sexual harassment and incivility in the workplace are the unwanted sexual attention and bullying of employees by their superior. There are times, however, when the roles are reversed and the superior is the target of such behavior. Contrapower harassment refers to subordinate incivility and/or sexual attention directed toward a superior. The focus...

Ten female student-athletes in their third or fourth year of eligibility at an NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) institution participated in an in-depth, semi-structured interview in order to gain a deeper understanding their transitioning experience. A better understanding of those experiences will enable administrators, coaches, sup...

Sport is a space possessing a permissive rape culture due to its masculine culture, and male-dominated professions have higher levels of sexual harassment and incivility compared to those industries that are gender equal or female-dominated. This research examined sport management students’ education and training on sexual harassment and sexual ass...

Contrapower harassment occurs when a person in a position of authority (e.g., faculty member) experiences incivility or sexual harassment from a subordinate (e.g., student). Sport has long been considered a male-domain, and this is true in the sport management academic setting as well. This creates an environment where contrapower harassment can oc...

The number of women working and participating in intercollegiate athletics has steadily increased the past four decades. This has led for a need to develop women as leaders within collegiate athletics and one way of doing this is through mentoring. Mentoring provides guidance in regard to both the professional development and psychosocial support....

Universities across the United States have reported consistently high rates of alcohol use and abuse among students during the past 20 years. The college student alcohol consumption level is considered an important public health concern. The increase in problematic drinking seems to be campus wide, but there is an understudied at-risk demographic—c...

Tucked away in the Smoky Mountains of western North Carolina on the Cherokee Indian Reservation is a living tradition that predates the “discovery” of America: the game of stickball. Researchers have reported on the sport and the complex rituals that surround it since the early-twentieth century. Often referred to as the “little brother of war,” it...

The News-Sentinel Open presented by Pilot is an event on the Web.com Tour. The Web.com Tour began in 1990 with the name of the Ben Hogan Tour and has transitioned through several title sponsors, taking its current name in June 2012. The tour is the developmental tour for the PGA Tour and the primary means for professional golfers to earn playing pr...

While 11% of all college students are reported to have a learning disability (National Center for Education Statistics, 2016), that percentage may be considerably higher when looking at National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I college athletes. Farrey (2009) reported as many as 54% of athletes on three revenue-producing teams at o...

More than 460,000 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) student–athletes compete in twenty-three sports each year. These student–athletes receive a spectrum of services that include academic support to medical care. This paper examines the role and function of sport chaplains who work in a collegiate (colleges and university) athletics in...

This study examined academic advisors’ perceptions of student-athletes and factors influencing those perceptions. The importance of this research is because unfavorable perceptions of student- athletes by academic advisors can lead to negative experiences for both groups. Findings indicated increasing both eligibility requirement knowledge and athl...

This study examined the experiences and challenges of 10 female Division I athletic directors. Four themes emerged from the interviews: (a) lack of female role models; (b) females are not qualified to manage football programs; (c) scrutiny about (lack of) ability and experience, and (d) benefits of intercollegiate coaching experience. The findings...

The purpose of this study is two-fold: to examine the effects of the dimensions of service quality on perceived service quality, and to investigate the mediating effect of perceived service quality on the relationship between the dimensions of service quality and the level of consumer satisfaction.

This study examined points of attachment (POA), or how sports fans experience multiple types of identification beyond team allegiance (e.g., identification with players, coaches, levels of sport, the sport itself, and university/region) at different levels of fandom. More specifically, high school, collegiate (i.e., National Collegiate Athletic Ass...

A mixed-methods approach was used to examine the perceptions and prevalence of open homosexuality in intercollegiate sport in the United States. Universityhosted biographies of NCAA Bowl Championship Series (BCS) head coaches were coded to determine the frequency of head coaches listing a wife, husband, and same-sex partner (Calhoun, LaVoi, & Johns...

Service learning in higher education links college campuses with the community using unique engagement opportunities. The purpose of this case study was to: (a) measure student job satisfaction in the hands on portion of a service learning course that links course work with a week-long outdoor therapeutic recreation camp and (b) determine whether t...

Context: Research has suggested that the prevalence of young women with eating disorders (EDs) is increasing, but determining the exact prevalence of EDs within the female student-athlete (FS-A) population is difficult. Looking at certain traits may help us to identify their level of susceptibility to developing an ED. Objective: To determine th...

This study explored the content US Paralympic athletes posted to Twitter during the 2012 London Paralympic Summer Games. Goffman's (1959) self-presentation concept provided a foundation for describing the Twitter activity of the athletes through frontstage and backstage performances. Data were collected from Twitter accounts of 76 US Paralympic ath...

The athletic transition of freshman student-athletes receives a plethora of media attention but there is also an academic transition that takes place. This research focuses on the academic transition of freshman football student-athletes at a Division I-Football Bowl Subdivision institution. Three themes were constructed from the interviews: (a) ti...

Experiential learning is a critical component to a college education in the area of sport management as students must enter the workforce with hands-on industry experience. One experiential learning tool is a cocurricular club that offers volunteer work experience for sport management majors. The University of Tennessee’s Partners in Sports is an e...

Fantasy sport is an online sport activity utilizing sport communication outlets in multiple ways. With nearly 35 million fantasy sport participants, many sport media companies such as ESPN, CBS Sports, and Yahoo! Sports have strengthened their online presence by creating and hosting fantasy sport Web sites. Fantasy sport is developed, controlled, a...

The growth of the Web has had a tremendous impact on how information is disseminated and shared about sports. Research has shown that consumers use media to satisfy a variety of needs and desires, has examined online sport media consumption, and the use of online sport media. But there has been no examination of the motivating factors behind subscr...

The appointment of sport chaplains in public colleges or universities can be controversial and contested as in a recent case at Iowa State University. Some scholarly attention has been paid to the relationship between sport and religion, but studies on sport chaplains are just recently emerging. Through textual analysis of media coverage and promot...

Fantasy sport joins competition, sport knowledge, and socialization into one interactive sport activity. This research specifically focuses on the socialization aspects of the activity. This analysis addresses overall satisfaction in fantasy sport, future intentions to return to the activity, and reasons why fantasy sport users (FSUs) do or do not...

This research examined the motivation aspects of a large and growing phenomenon that is fantasy sport. Through the lens of the uses and gratifications approach and using mixed methods research, motivations of the fantasy sport user were analysed. Qualitative online focus groups and a quantitative survey were administered to develop, validate, and e...

The number of international student-athletes participating in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has nearly doubled from 8,945 in 2001–02 to 16,440 in 2007–08 (DeHass, 2009). As a result of such dramatic growth in the number of student-athletes participating in NCAA athletics, it is important to understand the level of satisfaction...

This paper examines the role and function of collegiate sport chaplains. Very little research has been done on this subject. To date there have been only two scholarly papers written on the subject. The core elements of the collegiate sport chaplains' work centers around encouraging; praying for spiritual guidance; responding to emergencies; being...

The pole vault was considered the ultimate test of physical ability and daring before the advent of modern extreme sports such as skateboarding, snowboarding, and mountain biking. The inherent risks of the pole vault have been well documented. The National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research reported in 2007 that the catastrophic injury r...

Sports organisations must continuously assess how better to meet or exceed consumer expectations and perceptions of their experience in order to maintain and increase the number of spectators and loyal fans attending their sporting events. This study aims to enhance our understanding of which characteristics of a service attribute will best define...

For minor-league hockey to attract new customers, it is important to explore attendance motivation. Given the controversy over the role of violence in attracting spectators, this study included violence among other traditional motives in addressing why spectators are attracted to attend minor league hockey. Specifically, spectators' motives were ex...

The purpose of this study was to segment spectators based on emotional attachment toward team, universi-ty, coach, and player, and to examine whether different groups of people classified by emotional attachment demonstrate different interrelationships between motives and behavioral intentions in attending sporting events. The results revealed that...

Golf became part of the American landscape in the 1920s, both literally and figuratively. Many factors contributed to the tremendous growth of the game, including urbanization and increased leisure time. This article shows how national, mass-circulation magazines also contributed to that growth. How media frame an issue influences how the public pe...