There were at least 23 deaths in college football in 1905. To try and save the sport and make the game safer, President Theodore Roosevelt called a meeting.

The group that was called together eventually became the NCAA, said Dennis Deninger, a professor of practice in the Department of Sport Management.

The story of how the NCAA was founded will shift into a conversation about the relationship between safety and sports at the “Sport and the Pursuit of Healthiness” multimedia symposium this Friday at 4 p.m. in the Grant Auditorium. Health experts will be brought in to discuss the connection between sports and the potential for injury.

The event includes three videos that were found by Syracuse University students completing an independent study project after taking the SPM 346: “Sport in American Society” course last fall. The students, alongside Deninger, planned the event.

The symposium also includes a panel discussion and a question-and-answer session. It is the third consecutive year in which students and Deninger have collaborated to host an event relating to the impact of sport. Deninger said each of the five students involved was assigned to identify where to find videos.

One of the videos that was found is about the creation of the NCAA and the history of sport, while another is about the efforts being made to make sports safer and the third is about today’s obesity statistics, Deninger said.

Michael Ennis, a sophomore finance and marketing dual major, said the group compiled past videos that were made from the 1800s and 1900s, as well as recent advertising campaigns.

The symposium also includes the results of a survey with information about the decision-making process that parents use to determine which sports their children play, Deninger said. The survey includes results from students and parents from 20 states and three countries.

“We wanted to find out the connection between public health, reporting of traumatic brain injury, reporting of major injuries of sport, what impact is that making on the choices that young people are making,” Deninger said.

Hailey Billitier, a junior sport management major, will read the results of the survey at the symposium, Deninger said.

The survey took a few weeks to create and students came up with preliminary questions that were narrowed down over time, Billitier said.

The symposium also includes a panel discussion with experts such as Brian Rieger, director of the Upstate Medical University Concussion Center; Denny Kellington, head athletic trainer of the SU football team; and other experts from high school and college sports.

Rieger said he wants people to have a better understanding of concussions in sports, and said he hopes people get that from his role in the panel discussion.

“I hope people leave with a better, fact-based understanding of what the research shows or doesn’t show,” he said.

One of the reasons the experts are being brought in is to shed light on the connection between athletic injuries and people ending their commitment to playing sports at a young age, Ennis said.

“We kind of want to connect the pieces of the puzzle,” he said.

Published on April 22, 2015 at 10:31 pm

Contact Rob: rromano@syr.edu