Sport history professor ties ancient Greece to modern-day sports

If you take a sport history class with Professor James Thompson, don't expect a rehash of sports records. Don't be blown away by lectures about tyrannical governments, either.

Thompson, professor of kinesiology and practical expert on Greek sport history, says students always are surprised by his lectures on democracy and readings of Homer, an ancient Greek poet.

"Sometimes I'm standing in front of the class and I'm saying, 'I know they didn't expect this,' " said a grinning Thompson.

The 33-year employee of Penn State knows the advantages of increased knowledge.

As a student at Buffalo University in New York, Thompson remembers well the anti-physical education attitudes he faced. And he has a solution for it.

"When you really understand and appreciate," Thompson said, "you become a better spokesperson for your profession."

Upon graduating from Buffalo University with a degree in physical education, Thompson applied to Penn State for graduate schooling. He obtained his doctorate soon after.

After completing his dissertation, Sports, Athletics, and Gymnastics in Ancient Greece, Thompson became the first Penn State doctorate graduate with an emphasis in sport history.

Thompson's interest in Greek sport history, though, did not stem from studying at the university level alone. It's also a combination of his Greek heritage and a lifetime in sports.

Although limited to playing racquetball now, Thompson played basketball as an undergraduate student.

That's just a little known fact students can pick up in class, though. Thompson said he likes to include personal tidbits like that when he notices students nodding off, which can occasionally happen when Thompson rattles off the name of every Greek warrior from Homer's Iliad or Odyssey.

Unusual lecture methods are not the only thing that sets Thompson apart. When he decided students were too over-laden with scientific courses, he worked to give students more balance.

A three-credit study tour in Greece was Thompson's answer. The tours, approved in the late 1970s, give Thompson and his students the chance to visit archeological sites and tour museums. It gave kinesiology students the needed break.

The study tours' success have since given rise to The Athens Program, the only regular-semester study program that sends students and University professors abroad.

"It's actually University Park Campus extended to the South Mediterranean," Thompson said.

The father of the program, Thompson says only positive things about his two trips to Greece with The Athens Program.

"I've had a lot of highs here," he said. "Those two have to rank up near the tops."

Thompson especially likes the close-knit interaction between students and professors and thinks that's why Greece study programs are so special.

"At The Athens Program experience," he said, "it's not only every day taking the bus together -- you do everything together."

But students don't need to travel to the Mediterranean to feel close to Thompson. Justin Pigza (senior-journalism), a student of Thompson's for three semesters, said Thompson really personalizes his classes.

"He's just a really down to earth guy," Pigza said. "He wants to make everyone feel comfortable."

If personal anecdotes and Ancient Greek sites don't keep students interested, Thompson livens lectures in other ways. The ancient sport expert often begins class talking with students about the latest basketball game.

His methods don't stop there, either.

"He supplemented everything with stories," said Kristina Havas (junior-nutrition). "It was probably the best class I've ever had."

Havas, who toured Greece last spring, fondly remembers Thompson dressed in shoulder and leg pads and holding a garbage can lid. Struggling to move, let alone run, Thompson and his class decided Homer exaggerated the feats of Greek warriors, who supposedly dressed in armor and ran several miles just to engage in combat.

Although Thompson, even dressed like an ancient warrior, cannot disprove anything Homer wrote, he does bring an unorthodox but enthusiastic style to the classroom.

And he makes a place for himself alongside the narrators of ancient Greek history, as well.