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Robert L. Simon ’63 has something important in common with Tiger Woods, Hall of Fame baseball player Cal Ripken Jr., Los Angeles Lakers coach Phil Jackson, Duke and U.S. National Team men’s basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski, Penn State football coach Joe Paterno, and Emmy Award-winning sportscaster Bob Costas – all have been named among the 100 Most Influential Sports Educators in America by the Institute for International Sport.
The list honors “individuals and organizations who have creatively and effectively used sport in the very best way — as a means to educate and shape positive values.”
Simon is Marjorie and Robert W. McEwen Professor of Philosophy at Hamilton College, where he has been a member of the faculty for nearly 40 years. An expert on ethics and social values in sports, he is the author of Fair Play (Westview Press), now in its fourth edition, and a past president of the Philosophic Society for the Study of Sport (now the International Association for the Philosophy of Sport).
This year, NCAA President Myles Brand named Simon to the advisory and editorial board for the NCAA Scholarly Colloquium on College Sports. The purpose of the colloquium is to promote research of the highest quality focusing on intercollegiate athletics and their influence on university and cultural life.
A past Rockefeller Foundation and National Endowment for the Humanities fellow, Simon is the recipient of numerous teaching awards at Hamilton and a member of the editorial board for the Journal of the Philosophy of Sport. From 1986 to 2000, he was the successful coach of the Hamilton men’s golf team.