The University of Victoria has a rarity tonight — a free, public lecture about sports.
Tom Hawthorn will present the Harvey S. Southam Lecture, titled In Defence of Sports Writing, at 7 p.m. in lecture hall A240 in the Human and Social Development Building at UVic.
“I’m going to tell the audience right at the start that they will be home in time to watch the Canucks blow another third-period lead,” chuckled Hawthorn, who has covered sports for the Times Colonist, Province, National Post and Globe and Mail.
The Southams, one of Canada’s most notable publishing families, donated $250,000 to UVic in honour of the late Harvey Southam to establish a third-year journalism and non-fiction course. It is to be taught for one semester each year by a journalist of national repute.
Each visiting lecturer is required to give a free public lecture, and Hawthorn’s contribution marks the first time in its seven-year history that the Southam journalism course has been about sports and sports writing. Fifty-five students have registered to take the course.
“How many times in school does a teacher ever get to say: ‘Class, your homework is to watch the Super Bowl and Winter Olympics,’ ” said Hawthorn.
“We’ve just spent two great classes discussing the Seahawks and Richard Sherman,” said Hawthorn, who in his newspaper career covered the Summer Olympics, Grey Cups, Stanley Cups, the Indy 500 and the Victoria Shamrocks.
“Even people who don’t follow sports should read the sports pages because sport tells us a lot about ourselves as a society.”
For instance, the Super Bowl embodies much about America in general.
“All the human emotions and issues — race, politics, gender — are chronicled in the sports pages,” said Hawthorn. “It was the positive writing and accounts in the newspaper sports pages about Jackie Robinson that played a role in integrating baseball.”
No matter the scale — whether it’s the Seahawks or the Shamrocks — people in a community or region tend to talk about the games.
“We have a shared communication through sports,” said Hawthorn.
The Sochi Winter Olympics will provide plenty of fodder for Hawthorn’s course over the next few weeks.
“Protests and politics have always been a part of the Games,” he said.
“Victoria has such a strong connection to the Olympics in terms of the number of athletes it produces — but not the Winter version.”
So Hawthorn has dipped into the Island’s Summer Games depth, with multi-medalist triathlete Simon Whitfield scheduled to talk to the class about the Olympics.
“It’s a dream course to teach,” said Hawthorn.
Twitter.com/tc_vicsports
