Tenth International Conference on Sport & Society

Abstract

Around the world, religion takes many forms that vary greatly in practices, beliefs, and doctrine. In fact, defining the term “religion” is a difficult task in encompassing a multitude of faiths. In western society, various cultural practices emulate the religious nature of various classic religions. Sport is a peculiar example that holds the interests of millions. However, the way sport is experienced as a fan differs greatly from the way sport is experienced as an athlete. I argue that to an athlete, sports functions as a placeholder for religion in modern-day America. By exploring various functions of religion, as defined by Winston King in the Encyclopedia of Religion (1959), it is clear that sport offers the same components as religion. However, as scholars such as Price and Chidester have found, the sport does not function completely as a religion for fans. I finish with a discussion of why sport in the eyes of a fan fails to meet the requirements for sport acting as religion; using King’s definition, it becomes clear that sport, for fans, fails to offer the same type of traditionalism and sacred experiences as found in religion, as well as the experience of sport for an athlete.