"They Call Me Coach" - Naomi Graves (2012)

Springfield College · April 24, 2012

This video shows Dr. Naomi Graves’ lecture “They Call Me Coach: The Role of the Teacher-Coach in the Stewardship of Humanics,” which she gave on April 24, 2012 at 4 p.m. in the Appleton Auditorium in the Fuller Arts Center. She served as the 2012 Distinguished Professor of Humanics. Her lecture was filmed in two parts files. The first part opens with Dr. Jean Wyld, Springfield College’s vice president for academic affairs and professor of biology, at the podium. She welcomes the audience, describes the history of the Humanics philosophy at Springfield College, and acknowledges the previous Distinguished Professors of Humanics who are in the audience. At 00:05:20, Graves begins her lecture, which focuses on the idea of stewardship within the teacher-coach model. She starts by describing her own history as a teacher-coach, beginning with her arrival on the Springfield College campus as a master’s student. She then describes the unique role and responsibilities of coaches at Springfield College. During her year as Distinguished Professor of Humanics, Graves sought to answer how student-athletes and teacher-coaches steward Humanics, especially in regard to the Spirit-Mind-Body philosophy. In order to do this, she researched the history of teacher-coach stewards at Springfield College, and specifically focuses on Luther Gulick, James Naismith, Amos Alonzo Stagg, and James McCurdy. Graves then discusses her six mentors, who all received the Distinguished Professor of Humanics in the role of teacher-coach: Mimi Murray, Dotty Zenaty, Diane Potter, Herbert Zettl, Charles Silvia, and Joel Dearing. As part of her project, Graves asked each of the twenty-six intercollegiate athletic teams to complete a “Top Ten List” video showing how they integrate the Humanics philosophy (based on David Letterman's List of Top 10). At 00:22:49, she shows a video that splices together highlights from each team’s video, as well as the top two teams’ videos. In the second video, Wyld thanks Graves for her work and presents her with the Distinguished Professor of Humanics pin. Finally, Wyld announces the 2012-2013 Distinguished Professor of Humanics, Dr. Charles Redington, and presents him with a plaque. The last two minutes are blank.