Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Stevens Noted for Contributions to P.E., Title IX, Olympics
Former U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), who died Monday night in a plane crash in southwest Alaska, made significant contributions to the sports and fitness industries. He helped foster passage of Title IX legislation in 1972; authored the Amateur Sports Act in 1978, which brought centralized control of sports to the U.S. Olympic Committee and created national governing bodies to run individual sports; and was considered the founding father of the Carol M. White Physical Education Program (PEP), which provides federal money to school districts and community-based organizations for physical education and innovative physical-activity methods. Stevens also was a member of the National Association for Sport and Physical Education's Hall of Fame.
“He helped to restructure the U.S. Olympic movement in a way that has contributed to the success of our athletes at the Olympic Games,” said United States Olympic Committee Chief Executive Officer Scott Blackmun in a prepared statement. “Senator Ted Stevens probably had as much to do with promoting sports and fitness for all Americans as any legislator in our history,” added Larry Franklin, the current chairman of the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association and the president of Franklin Sports.
Stevens is the second major P.E. proponent to die in the past four months. Phil Lawler — the architect of a revolutionary P.E. program that incorporated high-tech fitness equipment and detailed health-risk assessments — lost his battle with cancer in April.
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