From Mr. Tom Healey '77, Moderator of Saint Ignatius' Notre Dame Club and a 34-year member of the Theology Department for Cleveland's Jesuit Preparatory School. Posted By Mr. Eddie Dwyer.

On Wednesday, October 5 at 7 p.m., Annie Coleman, Associate Professor of American Studies at Notre Dame, will present the 2016 Hesburgh Lecture on The Role of Sports in American Culture at the Breen Center for the Performing Arts on the Saint Ignatius campus.

Dr. Coleman’s undergraduate degree is from Williams College – a school more known for its semester-end tradition of an eight-hour trivia competition than it is for the sporting exploits of the Ephs (with their school mascot of a purple cow). Her move to the University of Colorado for her graduate studies provided the perfect setting for her to focus her research on the American West and, in particular, its relationship to the skiing industry.

Her book Ski Style: Sport and Culture in the Rockies earned an honorable mention award from the North American Society for Sport History in 2004. Her focus on the influence of the skiing industry on the culture and environment of Colorado has not kept her from acclimatizing herself to the sports culture of Indiana, as shown in the topic of her 2011 monograph “Making Time and Place at the Indy 500.”

Her talk on Wednesday evening will focus on sports as the place where art, identity and labor intersect. She will tie together topics as disparate as the early 20th century notion of sport as leisure activity and the recent focus on athlete health brought about by the NFL concussion crisis. Her ultimate question in all of this is: What can we learn from the role that sports have played throughout the last century or so of American history?

The 7 p.m. lecture is being hosted by the Saint Ignatius Notre Dame Club and is sponsored by the Notre Dame Club of Cleveland. After the talk there will be a reception with the chance to speak one-on-one with Dr. Coleman while enjoying a beverage and some tasty deserts. The event is open to the public and admission is free.

A.M.D.G.