It is a pleasure and honor to serve as special editor for the first ever Festschrift published by the Journal of the Philosophy of Sport. My long association and friendship with Bob Simon makes this an even more enjoyable duty.
The idea for the Festschrift emerged from JPS Board meetings at the International Association for the Philosophy of Sport meetings in Brazil during the fall of 2014. J. S. Russell, then editor of the Journal, was responsible for promoting the project along with current editor, Paul Gaffney, and other individuals on the Board. We agreed that this honor would not become a regular feature of the Journal, but rather would be reserved for rare occasions and very special people – people like Bob Simon!
I am grateful to the other authors in this volume for their enthusiastic endorsement of this project and their ready willingness to contribute an article. These individuals (Gunnar Breivik, Nicholas Dixon, Leslie Francis, Sigmund Loland, Bill Morgan, J. S. Russell, Pam Sailors, Angela Schneider, and Cesar Torres) constitute a virtual ‘who’s who’ of sport philosophers. I am very hopeful you will enjoy reading our articles.
Finally, I’m sure my fellow contributors would agree with me that no Festschrift or other tribute can adequately capture the remarkable influence that Bob Simon has had on our field. We have followed his lead on many issues; we have argued with him on others; we have proposed alternate answers. But most import of all, we have not ignored him.
When all is said and done, that may be the most flattering tribute that any of us can hope to receive as we continue with our research in the philosophy of sport.
Department of Kinesiology, Penn State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA
[email protected]
October, 2015