Sports and Games are a significant part of Play.  One recreation activity is common to persons of all ages, races, nationalities, and times. The love of play as expressed through sports and games is universal. To the young child play is not just play; it is serious business, dominating much of his time and energy, shaping his personality and his social behavior, and contributing to the development of his overall personal growth.

Play Is Universal And Ageless.  It is much the same today as it was in the earliest civilizations. To play is to experience freedom, to step out of the realm of reality into a world that has its own direction and meaning. Play is limited, always having a beginning and an ending. Play grows out of our customs and beliefs, and out of our very natural urge for physical activity.

Play Encourages Wholesome Personal Expression, and as an aid in developmental communication, it is helpful in fostering good interpersonal relationships. This positive role of play is evident not only at the local level but also on the international scene as evidenced in the Olympic Games. In communication with others through play, we create a feeling of being "apart together" with them. It is these feelings that move us into a world of our own making - a world that becomes creative and real and a living experience.

As The Child Develops Physically, Mentally, And socially, there is an increase in the complexity of the games he plays. The earlier "playtime" of the child is displaced by the more highly organized games and sports activities of his society.

Games are a significant part of our play. They limit and give direction to our play, and they are usually experienced and shared with other persons. They do not, however, cause an individual to lose his self-identity. In a good game well played, success and failure are so equally balanced that the participants themselves determine the outcome by their application of skills and knowledge aptly learned and practiced.

Sports and Athletics demand more specialization of skills than do other types of games. Generally sports are seasonal and, like games, find their roots deeply embedded in the past. Each sport requires specific skills; however, muscular coordination and emotional stability are prerequisites for the enjoyment of any sport.

The Patterns of Our Daily Living are akin to "game situations."  We live not only as individuals but also as members of a group, team, or even society-at-large.  The playing of this game of life in relationship to others is what the Christ-Like-Life is all about.  It is through these human relationships that we find opportunity to share and live Christ.  The result of this sharing and living will be the evident growth of Christian personality and the development of harmony among individuals and groups.

Greek Influence on Sports and Games.  To understand the importance of sports and games in the lives of a people and the impact of these activities upon a nation's culture, one must know something of Grecian history.

Our gymnasiums and stadiums, our athletics and Olympic games, trace their lineage to Greece. The Greeks were the only truly athletic nation of antiquity. It is not simple coincidence that some of the most notable eras in man's history - that, for instance, which produced the Parthenon - have been eras in which no gap existed between the appreciation of athletic excellence and the appreciation of esthetic excellence. Chief among the forces leading to the remarkable development of athletics among the Greeks was the desire to excel. This incessant pursuit of perfection dominated the Greeks as no other people have been dominated in the history of the world. Nor have any people ever been so fond of competition, which was not restricted to athletics but entered into every aspect of life. Contests were conducted in art, music, drama, poetry, sculpture, and oratory with such magnificent results that all civilized nations today are the richer for their incomparable Grecian heritage.

Individual Excellence Was the Goal of Greek Education and the ideal citizen was the man of wisdom and the man of action. History proves conclusively that when nations overemphasize the development of one aspect of man's nature to the neglect of the whole man, the results have been disastrous. Athens found the golden mean between the equally dangerous extremes of excessive specialization upon development of the physical only and the development of the intellect only. A sound mind in a sound body was the Greeks' national goal, and the means by which the early Greeks sought this goal were designed to promote the well-being both of the individual and of the state. Thus, there was no conflict in Athens between those who looked with favor upon athletics and those who emphasized the importance of the intellect. Plato expressed the Athenian point of view when he stated that the individual who is only an athlete is too crude, too vulgar, too much a savage; and he who is a scholar only is too soft, too effeminate. The ideal citizen is the scholar-athlete, the man of thought and the man of action. ¹

Sports and Games Influence Every Part of One’s Life.  We should conclude, therefore, that sports and games can and do make a definite and positive contribution to a nation's culture and to the qualities and characteristics of its citizens.

The Athletic Spirit.  Another value inherent in sports and games and of importance to the national scene is called "the athletic spirit." "The athletic spirit cannot exist where conditions of life are too soft and luxurious; it cannot exist where conditions are too hard and where all the physical energies are exhausted in a constant struggle with the forces of man or nature. It is found only in physically vigorous and virile nations that put a high value on physical excellence. ²

"America Needs Desperately a Revival of the Athletic Spirit on a nation-wide scale, a renaissance of the athletic ideal that will permeate every aspect of our lives.  Athletics constitute one of the last strongholds of the rugged life in a nation wherein the corrosive effects of luxury and soft living are threatening the welfare of both the individual and the state.  The quest for excellence and the willingness to pay the price of greatness in terms of unremitting toil, self-denial, and self-discipline are almost nonexistent in the lives of many Americans who have accepted the easy option and mediocrity as their standards.

"In the opportunity to cultivate the athletic spirit as it existed in ancient Athens lies one of the most vital of all the challenges to the recreation leader.”³

For the purpose of definition, sports and games include any type of physical or mental game or' contest where a team or an individual places his skills and abilities in opposition to those of his opponents for the purpose of competition and enjoyment, for fellowship with other persons, and for the physical exercise of the body."

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