There is a taken-for-granted acceptance that sports stars have responsibilities as ‘role models’, yet the concept of a ‘role model’ is unclear. The present study addressed the choice of ‘role models’ amongst elite young British rugby league players, and the reasons for their choices. During the summer of 2002 under-13 and under-14 participants of regional training camps (N = 291) completed a questionnaire survey. Almost all indicated that they had a ‘favourite player’ - though some were not current rugby league players. The most frequently cited were all senior international players, and many had on-field leadership experience. Analysis of the reasons for the choices revealed important general dimensions of technical competence, decision-making, physical characteristics, (explicit reference to) ‘role models’ and temperament. These provided the basis for a preliminary explanatory model. This particular cohort of young players demonstrated broad consensus and were able to make clear judgements through nuanced understandings of the game.
Anscombe, E. (1958) ‘On Brute Facts’ , Analysis18: 69-72 .
2.
Bandura, A. (1973) Aggression: A Social Learning Analysis. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall .
3.
Bandura, A. (1977) Social Learning Theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall .
4.
BBC Radio 5 (2001) Five Live: Breakfast (12 Nov.).
5.
Best, G. and Wright, G. (1981) Where do I Go from Here? George Best - An Autobiography. London: Queen Anne Press .
6.
Biskup, C. and Pfister, G. (1999) ‘“I Would Like to be Like her/him”: Are Athletes “Role Models” for Boys and Girls’ , European Physical Education Review5(3): 200-215 .
7.
Botham, I. (1994) Botham: My Autobiography. Don’t Tell Kath... London: Collins Willow .
8.
Carr, S. and Weigand, D. (2001) ‘Parental, Peer, Teacher and Sporting Hero Influence on the Goal Orientations of Children in Physical Education’ , European Physical Education Review7(3): 305-328 .
9.
Cashmore, E. (2002) Beckham. Cambridge: Polity Press .
10.
Coakley, J.J. (2001) Sport in Society: Issues and Controversies, 7th edn.New York: McGraw-Hill .
11.
Cohen, L. and Manion, L. (2000) Research Methods in Education, 5th edn.London: Routledge .
12.
Creedon, P.J. (ed.) (1994) Women, Media, and Sport Challenging Gender Values. London: Sage .
13.
Duda, J.L. , Olson, L.K. and Templin, T.J. (1991) ‘The Relationship of Task and Ego Orientation to Sportsmanship Attitudes and the Perceived Legitimacy of Injurious Acts’ , Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport62(1): 79-87 .
14.
Fine, G.A. and Sandstrom, K.L. (1988) Knowing Children. London: Sage .
15.
Giulianotti, R. and Gerrard (2001) ‘Evil Genie or Pure Genius; the (Im)moral Football and Public Career of Paul “Gazza” Gascoigne’, in D. Andrews and S. Jackson (eds) Sports Stars: The Cultural Politics of Sporting Celebrities, pp. 124-137. London: Routledge .
16.
Hadley, A. (2001) Codes of Misconduct. Bury: Milo Books .
17.
Hargreaves, J. (1993) ‘Bodies Matter! Images of Sport and Female Sexualisation’, in C. Bracken-ridge (ed.) Body Matters: Leisure Images and Lifestyles, pp. 60-66. Eastbourne: Leisure Studies Association .
18.
Hennessey, J. (2000) The Eye of the Hurricane: Alex Higgins Story. Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing .
19.
Holt, R. (1990) Sport and the British: A Modern History. Oxford: Oxford University Press .
20.
Holt, R. , Mangan, J.A. and Lanfranchi, P. (eds) (1996) European Heroes Myth, Identity, Sport. London: Frank Cass .
21.
Horne, J. , Tomlinson, A. and Whannel, G. (1999) Understanding Sport: An Introduction to the Sociological and Cultural Analysis of Sport. London: E. & F.N. Spon .
22.
Jarvis, M. (1999) Sport Psychology. London: Routledge .
23.
Jones, C. and McNamee, M.J. (2000) ‘Moral Reasoning, Moral Action and the Moral Atmosphere of Sport: Some Critical Remarks on the Limitations of the Prevailing Paradigm’ , Sport, Education and Society5(3): 131-148 .
24.
Lines, G. (1997) ‘Media and Sporting Interests of Young People’, in G. McFee and A. Tomlinson (eds) Education, Sport and Leisure: Connections and Controversies, pp. 167-177. Aachen: Meyer & Meyer .
25.
Lines, G. (2001) ‘Villains, Fools or Heroes? Sports Stars as “Role Models” for Young People’ , Leisure Studies20: 285-303 .
26.
McGuigan, P. and Hewitt, P. (1997) The Greatest Footballer You Never Saw: The Robin Friday Story. London: Mainstream Publishing .
27.
Macionis, J.J. (2001) Sociology. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall .
28.
McNamee, M. (2001) Sporting Conduct: A Survey of Sports Spectators’ Perceptions of the Values and Norms of Selected Professional Sports. London: UK Sport . Available from URL: http://www.uksport.gov.uk/images/uploaded/sportingconduct.pdf
29.
McNamee, M. , Jones, C. and Duda, J. (2003) ‘Psychology, Ethics and Sport: Back to an Aristotelian Museum of Normalcy’ , International Journal of Sport and Health Sciences1(1): 15-29 .
30.
May, J. (2003) ‘Untarnished Golden Boy’. Available from URL: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/l/liverpool/2676601.stm
31.
Morgan, W.J. (1994) Leftist Theories of Sport: A Critique and Reconstruction. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press .
32.
Morison, M. (1986) Methods in Sociology. London: Longman .
33.
Neuman, W.L. (2000) Social Research Methods - Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches, 4th edn.Boston: Allyn & Bacon .
Rugby Football League (2003) Performance Plan. Available at URL: http://www.rfl.uk.com/Templates/RFLDefault.asp?modeID=Content&uID=75
36.
Sheridan, H. (2003) ‘Conceptualizing “Fair Play”: A Review of the Literature’ , European Physical Education Review9(2): 165-186 .
37.
Silverman, D. (1993) Interpreting Qualitative Data. London: Sage .
38.
Sport England (2003) What we do: World Class. Available at URL: http://www.sportengland.org/whatwedo/world_class/class.htm%23figures
39.
Stangor, C. (1998) Research Methods for the Behavioural Sciences. New York: Houghton Mifflin Co.
40.
Steen, R. (1994) The Mavericks. Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing .
41.
talkSPORT Radio (2002) The No Nonsense Sports Breakfast (15 Nov.).
42.
Thomas, J.R. and Nelson, J.K. (2001) Research Methods in Physical Activity, 4th edn.Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics .
43.
Tomlinson, A. (1999) The Game’s Up: Essays in the Cultural Analysis of Sport, Leisure and Popular Culture. Aldershot: Ashgate .
44.
Tomlinson, A. and Lines, G. (1996) ‘Gender, Consumption and the “Popular Media” Interests of 14/15 Year Olds’, in J. O’Neill , E. Murdoch and S. Fleming (eds) Physical Education, Sport and Leisure: A Collection of Working Papers, pp. 57-76. Eastbourne: Chelsea School Research Centre .
45.
Veal, A.J. (1997) Research Methods for Leisure and Tourism: a Practical Guide. Harlow: Longman/ILAM Leisure Management Series .
46.
Warne, S. and Ray, M. (1997) Shane Warne: My Own Story. London: Bookman .
47.
Weinberg, R.S. and Gould, D (1999) Foundations of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 2nd edn.Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics .
48.
Weisberg, H.F. and Bowen, B.D. (1977) An Introduction to Survey Research and Data Analysis. San Francisco: W.H. Freeman .
49.
Whannel, G. (1998) ‘Individual Sports and Collective Identities in Media Sport’, in M. Roche (ed.) Sport, Popular Culture and Identity, pp. 23-36. Aachen: Meyer & Meyer .
50.
Whannel, G. (2002) Media Sports Stars: Masculinities and Moralities. London: Routledge .
51.
Worthington, F. , Wells, S. and Cooper, N. (1994) One Hump or Two? The Frank Worthington Story. Leicester: ACL & Polar Publishing .
