The Sport Psychologzst, 1995, 9, 391-405 O 1995 Human Kinetics Publishers, Inc.

Sport Psychology: The Griffith Era, 1920-1940

Daniel Gould and Sean Pick University of North Carolina at Greensboro

This review examines the development of sport psychology in the years 1920 to 1940, with particular emphasis on Coleman Griff~th. Griffith was the most active person in the field in this era and was the first North American to devote a significant portion of his or her career to research, teaching, and service in sport psychology. The approach Griffith took in conceptualizing and studying sport psychology will also be emphasized. In essence, the most lasting legacy of Griffith is the research to practice orientation he epitomized that provides an excellent model for contemporary sport psychologists to emulate.

In another article in this issue, Davis, Huss, and Becker (1995) have shown that the work of Norman Triplett and others in the years from 1895 to 1919 is noteworthy, because this work demonstrates that interest in sport psychology dates back to the turn of the century in North America. Yet neither Triplett nor any of the other individuals who examined sport psychology topics in these early years devoted a significant portion of his or her career to working in the field. It was not until the 1920s that someone devoted a significant portion of his career to research, teaching, and service in sport psychology. That individual was Coleman Roberts Griffith, who has been appropriately called the father of American sport psychology (Kroll & Lewis, 1969). Griffith is important not only because of his historical significance but also because of his orientation to studying the field. His orientation, which emphasized the integration of research and practice, was an excellent one and should be emulated by contemporary sport psychologists.

This review has three purposes. First, general developments in sport psychology between the years of 1920 and 1940 will be examined. Second, the career of Coleman Griffith will be discussed. Third, lessons that can be learned from Grifflth and the orientation he took to working in the field will be identified, as well as how these lessons relate to contemporary research and practice in sport psychology.

Developments in Sport Psychology: 1920-1940

As will be documented later in this manuscript, Coleman Griffith and his students were the major contributors to sport psychology between the years 1920 to 1940. Apart from

Gould is with the rt- Science at the Univmity of at Greensboro, Greensboro, Pick was an undergraduate

in psychology and is now an alumnus of the University.

391

392 Could and Pick

the work of Grifith, developments in sport psychology during this period were in many ways similar to those in the &rly years (1895 to 1919). Isolated individuals showed interest in the area, but few researchers developed systematic series of studies in sport psychology or developed courses or graduate programs in the area.

For example, in 1927 Elmer Beny of Harvard University wrote The Philosophy of Athletics, Coaching, Character, With the Psychology of Athletic Coaching, which included an extensive section on the psychology of coaching. This work was largely social philosophi- cal and made little reference to sport psychology as a science. In addition, no additional books or manuscripts followed.

C. Ragsdale of the University of Wisconsin wrote The Psychology of Motor Learning in 1930. It has also been reported that he started a motor learning laboratory at his institution (Vanek & Cratty, 1970). However, no record of publications or presentations coming out of this laboratory was identified.

The only attempt apart from Griffith's work to initiate a systematic research program in sport psychology took place at Stanford University and focused on the measurement of the reaction time of the football line charge (Miles, 1928; Miles & Graves, 1931). Walter Miles was a psychologist who used a multiple chronograph to simultaneously record the reaction of seven linemen to an auditory signal (Miles, 1928). Follow-up articles (Miles, 1931; Miles & Graves, 1931) reported a number of related experiments conducted on Stanford football players. In general, it was found that reaction time was specific to the skill being performed and assessments should closely approximate that skill (Miles, 193 1). Hence, a player with the slowest finger reaction time was not found to have the slowest football charge reaction time. Similarly, a number of other factors (e.g., cadence of and anticipation of signal) that influenced the football line cliarge were discussed. Despite this encouraging line of initial research, however, Miles did not publish any additional sport psychol~gy research.

While Miles focused on what would be labeled motor control issues today, C.H. McCloy and his physical education students at the University of Iowaconducted a systematic series of studies on personality in sport (Wiggins, 1984). These studies (McCloy, 1930; O'Neal, 1936; Richardson, 1936) were all published in the Research Quarterly and focused on whether character could be developed through spoft and physical education participation. Unfortunately, more questions were raised than answered with this research, and McCloy did not continue with this line of investigation. Instead, he turned his attention to ability tests and measurement issues, becoming well known for his work in these areas of physi- cal education.

Although the above work was noteworthy because it reflected continued interest in psychological aspects of sport and physical education, the most important work (both in volume and quality) in this era was conducted by Coleman Griffith. And it is because of Grifith's pervasive influence that this era bears his name. The remainder of this manuscript will focus on Griffith and his work.

Coleman Griffith: America's First Sport Psychologist

In 1970 Walter Kroll and Guy Lewis published their classic article "America's First Sport Psychologist," which identified and discussed the seminal works of Coleman Roberts Griffith (see Figure 1). Prior to this time the contributions of Griffith had, for the most part, gone unnoticed, with most professionals believing that sport psychology was a totally new field arising in the 1960s. In,this section many of the points made by Kroll and Lewis (1970) will be examined by discussing Griffith and the rise of sport psychology at the

The Griffith Era 393

Figure 1 - Photos of Coleman Griffith as (A) a baseball player at Greenville College, (B) director of the Research in Athletics Laboratory at the University of Illinois, and (C) a lifelong active outdoorsman.

394 Gould and Pick

University of Illinois. In addition, we will add to the knowledge base on Griffith by tracing his academic lineage.

Grifith, Sport Psychology, and the University of Illinois

Prior to 1925, sport psychology was more of a hobby than a field as no one individual committed a major portion of his or her career to the area on a full-time basis, and few systematic lines of research were conducted. This all changed in 1925.

On September 15, 1925, the board of trustees of the University of Illinois approved Mr. George Huff's proposal that a Research in Athletics Laboratory be established under the directorship of a young psychologist, Coleman Griffith. Although Griffith was selected to direct the laboratory, it was George Huff, the Head of the Department of Physical Welfare, who f is t initiated the idea (Griffith, 1930). As Griffith (1930) indicated,

In the Spring of 1925, Mr. George Huff. . . revealed a plan which had been seething in his mind for some time and which called for the establishment and adequate endowment of a laboratory for research in athletics. Mr. Huff had in mind a laboratory which would devote itself to problems in psychology and physiology of athletic activity quite independently of any attempt to "create bigger and better athletic teams." It was his idea that athletic competition furnished conditions under which certain problems could be worked out in a way that would serve science and the profession of coaching. It was his belief that greater skills and better mentality in the playing of different games would satisfy the aims of the coaching profession to better advantage than was the case where too much attention was paid to the physical features of competition; but he appeared to be interested also in the contributions that might be made to pure psychological and physiological science. It was his intention that a program of considerable magnitude might be formulated and canied out. (p. 36)

Although the Research in Athletics Laboratory was officially established in 1925, the seeds for this first American sport psychology laboratory were sown much earlier (Kroll & Lewis, 1970). In 1918, as a psychology graduate student, Griffith initiated a series of informal observations into the nature of psychological factors involved in basketball and football.

It was not until Griffith received his PhD in 1920 that he became seriously interested in sport psychology and collected reaction time data on the football field of the University of Illinois. These, as well as other psychological observations, were later incorporated into a special section of an introductory psychology course taught by Griffith. University athletes would only enroll in this section of the course because Griffith taught general principles of psychology through athletic examples and analogies. However, as time passed, the course underwent considerable revision and was reformulated and called the Psychology of Athletics. Griffith (1930) indicated that the second course differed from its predecessor for the following reasons:

Instead of confining itself to the illustration of psychological facts and principles by drawing upon athletics . . . the new course sought to make a serious psychological analysis of all phases of athletic competition, to review the literature already available which bore upon such problems as skill, learning, habit, attention, vision, emotion, and reaction time, and again, wherever possible, such new knowledge as time and the facilities warranted. (pp. 35-36)

The Griffith Era 395

It was a combination of these initial efforts by Griffith that impressed George Huff and provided a catalyst for his conception of a Research in Athletics Laboratory.

The Board of Trustees approved of the "Research in Athletics" project, and the laboratory took shape after Mr. Huff secured financial backing for it from the athletic association. The laboratory was housed in a new gymnasium at the university (which was renamed the George Huff Gymnasium in 1937) and consisted of two rooms. One room was 500 square feet and was used as an animal laboratory (where a rat colony was kept and used for learning experiments), a physiology laboratory, and a workshop. A second room (550 square feet) was used for conducting psychoIogical research (Griffith, 1930).

In addition to Dr. Griffith, a technician was also employed in the laboratory to construct any needed apparatus (K.J. McCristal, personal communication, fall 1975). Ex- amples of laboratory equipment developed by the technician included the following: appara- tus for reaction time to muscular load; test of baseball ingenuity; test of muscular tension and realization; tests of four different types of serial reaction times; tests for steadiness, muscular coordination, and learning ability; tests for reaction time to light, sound, and pressure; test for measuring flexibility of coordination; test for measurement of muscular sense; and test of mental alertness (Kroll & Lewis, 1970). Griffith indicated that to the best of his knowledge, the Illinois laboratory was the second laboratory in the world devoted specifically to sport psychology research. The other laboratory to which Griffith referred was one of several laboratories within the Institute of Physical Education in Leipzig and Berlin, Germany (Griffith, 1930).

At about the same time the Research In Athletics Laboratory was being developed, Griffith outlined what he felt were the functions of the sport psychologist. Consequently, in 1925 Griffith wrote his classic paper "Psychology and Its Relation to Athletic Competition" published in the American Physical Education Review. In it Grifith proposed that the task of the sport psychologist was threefold and included the following:

1. Teach young and inexperienced coaches what psychological principles were used effectively by more experienced, highly successful coaches. In essence, the sport psychologist was to observe the best coaches of the day and record the principles that they consciously or unconsciously followed in developing an athletic team.

2. Adapt the information already gained in the field of psychology to sport. Thus, the sport psychologist should apply what is known in general psychology on such topics as perception, memory, emotion, and personality to the athletic context.

3. Use the scientific method and experimental laboratory to discover new facts and principles that would aid the practitioner in the field. By conducting both basic and applied research, sport psychologists should systematically and carefully identify "the principles that are used in competition, that is not of muscles only but of alert minds as well" (Griffith, 1925, p. 55).

Utilizing his well-equipped laboratory and implementing his clearly delineated philos- ophy of the role of the sport psychologist Griffith began the first sport psychological research program in the United States. The laboratory became a center for four types of systematic observation and research:

g of records from different practice fields, cases beifig used immediately in helping athletes to increase skill

396 Gould and Pick

2. The observations of shifting moods and temperaments of athletes when apparatus failed to do so. It was important that coaches understand personality traits, conse- quently analysis of games from a psychological angle was stressed.

3. The surveying of athletic aptitude and athletic talent. A strong relationship was found between quickness, powers of attention, alertness, reaction speed, coordination and mental ability. Through tests of this type a start was made toward a vocational guidance service for future coaches.

4. The solving of special psychological and physiological problems for which purpose large sums of money were spent to the procurement of necessary equipment. (Seidler, 1948, p. 55)

Typical examples of specific research conducted were reflected in Griffith's vita and in the University of Illinois Annual Reports of 1930 and 1931 (Huff, 1930, ,1931). The following examples of projects from the Research in Athletics Laboratory show that Griffith and his students concentrated the bulk of their experimental research efforts on the areas of learning athletic skills, psychomotor skills, and personality variables (Kroll & Lewis, 1970):

Effect of physical exercise on rate of learning Effect of fear on muscular coordination of gymnasts Methods of acquiring basketball shooting skills Effects of emotions and anxiety on learning Methods of teaching football Psychological hunches and jinxes Effect of will power on performance Sense of balance as a measure of athletic skill Effect of tap dancing and other forms of gymnastics instruction on basic motor rhythms The psychology of pep sessions Sleep in athletes Relation between exercises, learning, and resistance to disease

Although much of Griffith's work was experimental and although he was a strong proponent of empirically based research, Griffith was also receptive to using other methods of inquiry. He felt psychology was too young a science to answer all the questions asked of it. In 1928, for instance he wrote,

There are a great many problems that cannot now even be experimented upon for we do not know how to formulate proper methods. Many of the questions asked of psychologists by people on the street carmot be answered because the science is still in its youth. We have a great many opinions about some mental facts; but we are almost as afraid of these opinions as we are of the opinions people get from tradition and from hearsay. (Griffith, 1928, p. ix-x).

Recognizing the limitations of experimentation, then, Griffith on many occasions took to the field to systematically observe, interview, and film athletes. One of Griffith's most famous interviews took place in 1924 when he interviewed future hall-of-fame football player Harold "Red" Grange, clearly the best player of his time. In that year, Grange scored four touchdown runs on four carries in the first 12 minutes of the Illinois-Michigan game. Griffith interviewed Grange as to the conscious involvement that takes place during

The Griffith Era 397

broken-field running. Grange responded that he was unable to recall any details of the touchdown runs, and Griffith took Grange's responses as partial support for the notion that athletic responses become automated (Kroll & Lewis, 1970). In fact, the only detail Grange could recall after one of his touchdown runs was that a Michigan player had a hole in his sock.

Griffith did not confine his interviews only to high-caliber athletes. He also corres- ponded with the leading coaches of the day in attempts to gain insight into how psychological factors are involved in motivating and training athletic teams. Perhaps Griffith's most notable correspondence occurred with legendary Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne in 1925 when they discussed the most appropriate ways to motivate a team. Through a series of correspondences with Rockne, Griffith was able to gain insight into the role of "optimizing" motivation in athletic teams as Rockne identified the problem of having teams overmotivated or too keyed up.

Overall, Griffith's research productivity was tremendous for his day, as he published over 40 articles of both a basic and an applied nature (with over half of these articles specifically dealing with sport psychology) from 1919 to 1931. More impressive than the quantitative aspects of Griffith's productivity, however, were the qualitative contents of these manuscripts. Kroll and Lewis (1970) indicated that Griffith's articles "appeared in the most prestigious journals in psychology and education" (p. 3). Similarly, E.G. Boring (1950), the noted historian of psychology, designated Griffith as one of a select number of psychologists having the potential to influence the field of psychology as a whole.

Griffith wrote a number of books on general psychology, educational psychology, and applied psychology. However, the texts written by Griffith that are of most interest to sport psychologists are his two classics: The Psychology of Coaching, published in 1926, and The Psychology of Athletics, published in 1928. The Psychology of Athletics was more academic and outlined how psychological facts and principles were related to the physical and mental nature of athletic performance. In contrast, The Psychology of Coaching focused on increasing the effectiveness of coaching methods. The following is a list of the table of contents from Psychology of Athletics (1928):

1. The General Problem 2. Making the Most of Your Eyes 3. How to Hear Signals 4. The Sixth Sense or the Muscular Sense 5. Attention and the Psychology of Strategy 6. Habit, Memory, Leanring and Forgetting 7. Planning the Practice Periods 8. The Psychology of the "Heady" Player 9. How to Use Feelings and Emotions

10. Personality and Will Power

12. Play, Work, and Fatigue 13. Athletic Ideas and Traditions: What Are They and How Are They Developed 14. The Rewards of Whole-Hearted Competition 15. The Psychology of Crowds and of Cheerleading

e following is a list of the table of contents from Psychology of Caoching (1926):

g the Practice Session

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3. How to Present Material Effectively 4. Planning the Season's Campaign 5. Playing the Game 6. The Jinx and How to Handle It 7. The "Yellow Streak" and How to Conquer It 8. Morale 9. Personality and Will Power

10. The Personal Touch in Coaching

Between the years of 1925 and 1931, sport psychology flourished at Illinois under the direction of an outstanding psychologist and in a well-financed and well-equipped laboratory. Yet, in 1932 the first sport psychology laboratory in the United States closed. The athletic association, which had provided the strong financial base for the program, felt the economic reality of the Great Depression and was forced to drop sports such as soccer. Because of such economic strife, the Research in Athletics Laboratory was forced to close as well. Consequently, in 1932 Coleman Griffith resigned his position as director of the laboratory and focused his attention on his duties as a professor in Educational Psychology (throughout the years of the Research in Athletics Laboratory, Griffith also held an appoint- ment in the Educational Psychology Department) and later in 1932 became the head of the Bureau of Institutional Research for the University. Sport psychology had not heard the last of Coleman Griffith, however.

Despite the abrupt ending of the Research in Athletics Laboratory, Griffith remained interested in the psychological aspects of sport. For example, the University of Illinois archives contains 18 chapters of an unpublished text authored by Griffith and Robert C. Zuppke, the head football coach at the University of Illinois. It was in 1938, however, that Griffith initiated one of his largest research projects in sport psychology. This was the year he was hired by Philip Wrigley to be the sport psychologist for the Chicago Cubs baseball team. Thus, in 1938 Griffith was supplied with $1,500 of laboratory and filming equipment to conduct tests and observations on every player on the team from spring training until the close of the season.

Player ability, baseball skill learning, personality, leadership, and social psychological factors influencing performance were examined in a series of extensive studies on each player, with the results being summarized in a lengthy unpublished report. Especially interesting were his psychological profiles of such baseball greats as "Dizzy" Dean. According to Griffith's son, Wayland (personal communication, August 1994), Griffith's work with the Cubs went well, as the team had a very successful season, winning their division. In fact, one pitcher, Bill Lee, was so thankful for the help Griffith provided him on the psychology of fooling batters that at the completion of the season he bought Griffith a new set of golf clubs in appreciation of his efforts. More importantly, Griffith was offered a full-time consulting position with the Cubs.

Griffith elected not to accept the offer from the Cubs, in part because of a concern with disrupting his son's high school education. Hence, the completion of the 1938 Cubs' report marked the end of Coleman Robert Griffith's productive research and service efforts in sport psychology.

Coleman Grifith: The Psychologist

Coleman Griffith was born May 22, 1893, in Guthrie Center, Iowa. He was not an only child as previously reported (Kroll& Lewis, 1970). Rather, he was the f i t of four children. Griffith received his AB from Greenville College in Illinois in 1915, where he met his

The Griffith Era 399

future wife, Mary Louise Coleman. While at Greenville, Griffith was very active in athletics, as well as in a wide variety of extracumcular activities.' An inspection of the university newspaper, Vista, in the years 1912-1916, for instance, showed that Griffith was the freshman class president, president of the literary society, and a member of the male quartet. Some of his many athletic interests and accomplishments included numerous intramural tennis and handball championships, a member of his class baseball and basketball teams and the organizer of numerous gymnastics events. It is not surprising, then, that after his graduation in 1916 he accepted a faculty post at Greenville, serving as the physical director and an instructor of education and German. He even edited a gymnasium manual for the college.

In 1917 Griffith continued his education at the University of Illinois, receiving his PhD in psychology in 1920. He chose as the topic of his dissertation the study of Organic and Mental Effects of Repeated Bodily Rotation (Griffith, 1920). Most likely his interest in this topic was influenced by the work on similar topics by his advisor, Madison Bentley, during World War I.

In 1927 Griffith studied at the University of Berlin as one of the first recipients of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship (Kroll & Lewis, 1970). Interestingly, while studying in Berlin, Griffith enrolled in Albert Einstein's philosophy seminar and on at least once occasion was invited to sail with Einstein (W. Griffith, personal communication, August 1994). Although no tangible evidence was found to support a direct link between Griffith and the Institute of Physical Education in Leipzig and Berlin, Germany, we suspect that an important one existed. It is likely that such a relationship existed for three reasons. First, Griffith's academic mentors all had connections to Wilhelm Wundt's psychology laboratory in Leipzig. Hence, Griffith would have contacts at that University. Second, Griffith identified his Illinois Research in Athletics Laboratory as the second of its type in the world, refemng to the Institute of Physical Culture laboratory in Leipzig and Berlin as the first. And, third, the German lab had three psychologists (R.W. Schulte, N. Sippel, and F. Geise) who were all very active authors and researchers studying topics similar to those pursued by Griffith (Vanek & Cratty, 1970). Although these arguments are plausible, no research articles or correspondence could be found to support the connection between Griffith and the Institute of Physical Education.

Griffith's academic lineage was outstanding and can be seen in Figure 2. His major professor at Illinois was Madison Bentley who was one of the most influential experimental psychologists of his time (Dallenbach, 1956). In turn, Bentley was mentored as an undergrad- uate by Hany Wolfe of the University of Nebraska and received his PhD under the direction of Edward Titchener of Comell, the dean of experimental psychology in America (Boring, 1927). Both Wolfe and Titchener received their doctorates in Leipzig under the direction of Wilhelm Wundt. Wundt is considered the individual most responsible for scientific psychology and is also considered the father of experimental and physiological psychology (Feldman, 1932). Given the lineage of such mentors, Griffith was well trained to establish sport psychology in America.

In terms of his own mentoring of students, Griffith was described as a "prophet without disciples" beeause none of his students went on to pursm careers in sport psychology

from the fact that na graduate degree in education existed at of minois until 1942. However, Griffifh d as many as eight mas nts through the College of Education. Thfee

ucted into the Greenvale College Athletic Hall of Fame.

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Wilhelm Wundt University of Leipzig

Harry Wolfe PhD Leipzig (1886)

University of Nebraska

Edward Titchener PhD Leipzig (1 892) Cornell University

Madison Bentley PhD Come11 (1898) University of Illinois

I Coleman Grifith

PhD University of Illinois (1920)

Figure 2 - Academic heritage of Coleman Griffith.

of these individuals went on to have important influences on physical education. K.J. McCristal went on to teach at Michigan State University and later became dean at the University of Illinois. C.O. Jackson spent his career teaching at the University of Illinois and edited the journal The Physical Educator for 23 years. Finally, Thomas K. Cureton, one of the leading exercise physiologists of his time, credited Griffith with sponsoring his master's thesis before physical education was recognized as a graduate major.

In addition to his work in sport psychology, Griffith made major contributions to other areas of psychology as well. After the Research in Athletics Laboratory closed, he headed the Bureau of Institutional Research, which had the purpose of surveying "the social needs of the state of Illinois and the nation and fill the timetable with courses that produce men and women fitted to fill the needs already surveyed" ("First U.S. Sport Psychologist," 1991, p. 8). During this time he published a number of books used throughout the psychological and educational psychology fields: An Introduction to Applied Psychology (1934); Introduction to Educational Psychology (1935); Psychology Applied to Teaching and Learning (1939); and Principles of Systematic Psychology (1943). Griffith held his Bureau post until 1944 when he was named provost of the university. His service as provost ended in 1953, and in 1956 he became head of the National Education Association's newly established Office of Statistical Information, which was designed to set up programs to collect statistical data to be used for long-range educational planning purposes. After his retirement from Illinois in 1962, Griffith worked for the Oregon State System of Higher Education. Griffith died in his sleep at the age of 72 in 1966.

While Griffith had a very successful career, it was not without controversy. For example, the circumstances surrounding the closing of the Research in Athletics Laboratory are somewhat unclear. While the dominant opinion is that the lab closed because of the economic depression of the 1930s, Kroll (1971) indicated that a reliable source from the

The Griffith Era 401

Illinois campus in 1932 suggested that a contributing reason for the closing of the Research in Athletics Laboratory was a loss of support from Robert Zuppke, the football coach. According to this source, Zuppke failed to see any improvement in the play of his teams as a result of Griffith's research efforts. This might also explain why the Griffith and Zuppke football psychology coaching book was never completed, even though over 18 chapters had been written, It is also of interest to note that if this account is correct, Zuppke's criteria for evaluating the success of Griffith's research would have differed from those of George Huff, who envisioned the lab and its research to contribute to a better understanding of human behavior in sport and in general, independent of creating more successful athletic teams.

A second controversial issue arose when Grifith served as the provost of the university ("First U.S. Sport Psychologist," 1991). Griffith resigned from his position in 1953 in the aftermath of scandal in which the board of trustees fired University President George Stoddard. Apparently Stoddard had publicly criticized a University of Illinois physiologist, Andrew Ivy, who claimed to develop a miracle- cure for cancer-a drug called Kreboizen. Stoddard agreed with the American Medical Association and other groups that were skeptical of the effectiveness of the drug and wanted the university to have nothing to do with Ivy. The board disagreed with Stoddard's position on this and many other politically "hot" issues and released him from his duties. Griffith, who was personally very close to Stoddard, differed with the board's decision and resigned (W. Griffith personal communication, August 1994).

The Legacy of Coleman Griffith

Although Griffith and his work are extremely interesting from a historical perspective, Griffith had little direct effect on the growth of research and practice in sport psychology. During the 1920s and 1930s, sport was not seen as a major area of importance for the parent discipline of psychology, and physical education graduate programs were only beginning to emerge (Kroll, 1971). In fact, the Department of Physical Welfare that sponsored the Research in Athletics Laboratory did not even offer graduate degrees. Hence, higher education in the 1920s and 1930s was not ready for GriFfith's sport psychology.

Although the times may not have been ready for Griffith's sport psychology in the 1920s and 1930s, it is our contention that an understanding of Grifith and his work is very important for contemporary sport psychologists. Many of Griffith's ideas and his general orientation are applicable to sport psychology today. Some of the more important lessons that can be learned from him are outlined below.

Delineation of Functions of the Field

Observational and interview studies of outstanding coaches and athletes is a growing area of sport psychology today. Interestingly, however, almost 70 years ago Griffith (1925) spoke of the importance of this type of research in outlining the functions of the field. In particular, he felt sport psychologists should systematically observe the best coaches of the day and identify the principles they use; and pass what they learn onto fledgling coaches. In addition, Griffith recommended that sport psycho2ogists have a responsibility to apply what has been learned in the general field of psychology to sports. As Griffith pointed out, there is much to be learned from gene& psychology, and as sport psychologists we must keep abreast of developments in psychotogyat large. Lastly, Griffith encouraged the use of scientifically based methods to answer problems faced by those involved in sport.

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Using Griffith's functions of the field, then, is an excellent and fruitful way to conceptualize sport psychology today.

Receptivity to Multiple Ways of Studying Sport Psychology

Griffith was trained in experimental psychology and was theoretically driven and method- ologically rigorous in his orientation. However, he did not seem to be constrained by a sole focus on an experimentally based laboratory research. He added to his laboratoxy research with field investigations and experiments and with systematic observations of and interviews with athletes and coaches. As previously stated, Griffith interviewed coaches such as Knute Rockne and athletes such as Red Grange and conducted research using both animal and human subjects. One of Griffith's most interesting field studies involved fear and confidence in trapeze performers where he manipulated the quality of the person doing the "catching" on release moves. For Griffith, then, one method was not enough-different methods needed to be used in different situations and to answer different questions. More- over, for the field to advance, multiple methods had to be employed. Today's sport psychologist would do well to heed this advice.

Advancing Both Research and Practice

One of the most impressive characteristics of Griffith's work was the equal emphasis he placed on conducting original research and using sport psychology knowledge to improve professional practice. This equal emphasis can be seen not only in his two sport psychology books-ne aimed at an academic understanding of the field and the other coaching practices-but also in his record of publications. He was just as likely to publish in an appIied outlet such as the Athletic Journal or highly regarded research journals like the Journal of Experimental Psychology and The American Physical Education Review (the predecessor of the Research Quarterty for Exercise and Sport). Moreover, unlike many of today's researchers Griffith did not appear to view one of these types of publications as better than the others. Rather, he viewed them as important but different types of contributions to the field. Given the research-to-practice schism that is often so apparent in contemporary sport psychology today, we would all do well to adopt Griffith's orientation on this matter.

Contributions to Psychology and Sport

Griffith saw sport psychology both as a way to further knowledge of human behavior (using sport as a laboratory for developing a better understanding of human behavior in general) and as a means of facilitating the performance and experiences of those involved in these activities. Sport psychology has the potential to serve these same two functions today. That is, it can develop its own unique knowledge specific to the context of sport while at the same time developing more general knowledge that can contribute to the understanding of psychology at large.

Positive. but Realistic. Expectations for the Field

Anyone who reads Griffith's work will quickly learn of his enthusiasm for spoft psychology and its potential to make athletics a better place for all involved. At the same time, howeva, Griffith was very candid in his remarks about the role of sport psychology in revolutionizing sport and coaching. For example, Griffith (1925) stated that

The Griffith Era * 403

a great many people have the idea that the psychologist is a sort of magician who is ready, for a price, to sell his services to one individual or one group. . . . It is supposed that he is merely waiting until he can jump into an athletic field, tell the old-time successful coach that he is all wrong and begin, then, to expound his own magical and fanciful theories as to proper methods of coaching, the way to conquer overconfidence, the best forms of strategy and so on. This, of course, is also far from the truth. (pp. 193-194)

The psychologist is not proposing any revolutionary changes in the world of athletics. . . . All that we ask is that we be forgiven for our vague and technical vocabulary, and that we be given a chance to work out slowly and carefully the principles that are used in competition that is not of muscles only, but of alert minds as well. (p. 199)

Similarly, in his 1928 book Griffith stated,

But a word of caution! The importance of the relations between psychology and athletic competition must not be over-estimated. Of late years the word "psychology'' has come to be a word to conjure with. The rapid development of the science and the publicity which certain kinds of psychological work have had has done the science no good. We should not expect too much from psychology, for it is not the kind of patent medicine that will cure all ills, and fulfill all promises. (Griffith, 1928, p. ix)

We would all do well to heed Griffith's remarks in the area, as it is not uncommon for some members of our field to oversell their research and consulting sewices and make unrealistic claims of their effectiveness. We must remember that while we can certainly help athletes better achieve their goals in sport, the athlete is the one who actually performs and delivers the goods. Sport psychologists are but one of a number of professionals such as coaches, athletic trainers, and strength coaches who assist in this process. Moreover, as is the case with coaches, as sport psychologists we do our best work when we facilitate progress in athletes so that they independently monitor their own behavior and achieve self-control.

Focus on Performance Enhancement and Personal Growth

Although much of Griffith's research focused on facilitating the acquisition and performance of athletic skills, he was equally committed to personal development through sport. For example, in 1931 he published an article entitled "Character Through Physical Education" in which he emphasized the importance that sport participation could play in the moral education of children. Similarly, in 1928 Griffith wrote,

ere exercise of the body . . . [does] not meet the call that is upon us for the evelopment of human personalities. To speak of "physical training" makes us

guilty i f a serious understatement of the facts. . . . Physical training, organized play, and vigorous competition concern a person, and they,lead to growth in certain of the most desirable qualities of that person. This is their justification, ( M ~ t h , 1928 ...

-ix)

Hence, Griffith was concerned not only with what made Dizzy Dean, R&d Grange, or

404 Gould and Pick

Knute Rockne great but also with how sport psychology could be used to facilitate the development of all those engaged in sport.

Recognition That Knowledge Knows No liztemationaI Borders

As a Guggenheim fellow, Griffith recognized the importance of keeping abreast of sport psychological developments in other countries. In fact, his own work was probably influ- enced by individuals working in Germany. This is a far cry from contemporary American sport psychology. In trips abroad, the first author has realized how little American sport psychologists know of important developments in Europe. This lack of knowledge is easy to understand because of the large size of our continent, because the United States has more sport psychologists than any other country in the world, and because most of our computerized literature searchers fail to tap the European and Austro-Asian material. The fact still remains, however, that the development of sport psychology can be hampered by not taking advantage of advances being made in other parts of the world. Coleman Griffith was certainly not hampered by such geographic or national boundaries.

Conclusion

Bronowski (1973) has shown that many of the world's great scientists were not recognized as such until long after their work had been completed. Given the infancy of sport psychology at the time Griffith worked, his specific research findings had little, if any, long-lasting effect on the field. However, his orientation and approach to sport psychology was years ahead of his time. For this reason, we implore contemporary sport psychologists to not only appreciate and applaud Griffith for his initial efforts in our field, but to learn from his legacy and adopt many of the elements he used to approach research, teaching, and consulting in sport psychology.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank David Wiggins, Eileen Udry, Robin Vealey, and Maureen Weiss for their helpful comments on drafts of this manuscript. A special thanks is also given to Dr. Wayland Griffith, a distinguished scholar in his own right, for allowing the first author to interview him relative to his father's career as a sport psychologist and personal demeanor. Finally, the contributions of Jack Trager, Athletic Director, and Jane Hopkins, Director of the Library, at Greenville College in providing information on GriKith's undergraduate education and teaching position are most appreciated, as are the efforts of Maynard Brichford, Director of the University of Illinois Archives, for his efforts in assisting the authors in obtaining information on Griffith's career at Illinois.