Dr. Victor H. Mancini, Professor Emeritus at Ithaca College, passed away on January 7, 2023, at the age of 83 after a long battle with cancer. He was born in 1939 in Weehawken, NJ. Following high school, he went and joined the United States Army, where he served as a Physical Fitness Instructor and Rocket Assembly Specialist. In 1963, Professor Mancini graduated from the University of Rhode Island with a Bachelor of Science, majoring in Physical Education with minors in Biology and English. A standout football player, he played professional football with the Providence Steam Rollers of the Atlantic Coast Football League, winning a championship.
In 1964, he earned a Master of Science degree from Springfield College, where he also served as an Assistant football coach. From 1964 to 1966, he worked at Delone Catholic High School in McSherrytown, PA. He was the Chair of the Physical Education Department in addition to teaching health and physical education classes and serving as head coach in football, wrestling, and golf. In 1967, Professor Mancini returned to Springfield College as an Assistant Professor in the Division of Health, Physical Education and Recreation, while also serving as Football Coach. During that time, he also pursued a doctoral degree at Boston University under the tutelage of John Cheffers. He was awarded his Doctorate in Education from Boston University in 1974.
That year, together with his wife Jo-Ann, whom he married in 1964 and their son Lee, Victor joined the physical education faculty at Ithaca College and remained there in various capacities until his retirement in 2004.
Ithaca College is a master’s degree-only institution. Yet, Victor mentored and directed master’s theses of well over 60 students, many of which were published. Between 1970 and 1990 research on physical education teaching and Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE) was dominated by the use of direct systematic observation methodology. With only a handful of doctoral programs in Sport Pedagogy/PETE at that time, and a standard teaching load of four courses each semester, he was instrumental in helping put a fledgling Sport Pedagogy movement on kinesiology’s map of sub-disciplines. Arguably, he was the most prolific disseminator of research projects in which the Cheffers’ Adaptation of Flanders’ Interaction Analysis System (CAFIAS) systematic observation tool was used. And, given his passion for sport coaching, Victor also developed a line of research on sport coach and athletes’ behavior using CAFIAS.
Several of his protégées went on to pursue their doctoral degree and have put their stamp on Sport Pedagogy, PETE and K-12 physical education, including Tim Brusseau (University of Utah), George DeMarco (University of Dayton), Linda Griffin (University of Massachusetts-Amherst), Kevin Mercier (Adelphi University), Michelle Moosburger (Springfield College), Kathy Pinkham (Needham Public Schools), Paul Schempp (University of Georgia), Hans van der Mars (Arizona State University), and Jennifer Walton-Fisette (Kent State University). Vic generously shared his knowledge of sport pedagogy with Drs. Craig Fisher, Patricia Frye and Deb Wuest, his Ithaca College colleagues. They often were collaborators on his students’ research theses.
“Video Vic” as he was affectionately known among his students, did field-based research on PETE and sport coaching. He really was a forerunner in using video technology in all his research. Later on, Victor also incorporated the use of the then increasingly popular Academic Learning Time – Physical Education (ALT-PE) observation tool to expand our understanding of teaching and student learning further. The research record that he built reflects how Victor deftly bridged research and practice in that he was always focused on helping the teachers and coaches with whom he and his graduate students worked.
In later years, Victor went and took on more administrative positions in the Department of Health Promotion and Human Movement, serving as Graduate Program Chair and Department Chair. His leadership in PETE contributed to him being selected as Ithaca College’s first-ever Director of Teacher Education.
The above is indicative of how Victor was a teacher educator and researcher with a true blue-collar work ethic. His colleagues at IC will attest that he generally was the last to leave the HPER’s Hill Center building and first to arrive; colleagues would find him in the Curriculum and Methods Lab already busy coding the videotapes. Following his retirement, the National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE), recognized his contributions to the field with the Curriculum and Instruction Academy Emeritus Award.
Victor cared deeply about his graduate and undergraduate students. Always generous with his time, he offered advice on life, school, and sports outside of class time hours. His son Lee described Victor as always showing great empathy and compassion for his students. He developed lifelong bonds with many his former students, staying in touch with many of them in the decades to follow. Several of his graduate protégées noted how he was like a “father.”
Early leaders in the physical education curriculum and instruction and Sport Pedagogy arena in the second half of the 20th century such as Bill Anderson, Linda Bain, Kate Barrett, John Cheffers, Chuck Corbin, Ann Jewett, Larry Locke, and Daryl Siedentop may have been the main headliners for the field in the second half of the 20th century. But Victor Mancini rightfully was an equal to this esteemed group. A careful perusal of the early sport pedagogy/PETE research literature will show that Professor Victor Mancini’s name was as prominent in it and on conference programs as any of his peers. It is not hyperbole to note that Victor H. Mancini personifies the expression of “They don’t make ‘em like they used to.” His professional and personal influence reaches far and wide and will live on in those who benefitted from his never-ending teaching and mentoring.