On his first visit to England in 1883 for the purpose of investigating the British educational system, Baron Pierre de Coubertin discovered to his surprise that many of the impressions he had since reading Tom Brown’s School Days as a teenager, were, in fact, confirmed.  His research affirmed what he had anticipated for years, that school sports—sport in education—could be effectively deployed to build character in students and help prepare them for future roles as responsible citizens in their countries.  Today’s quote comes from his reflections on his first visit to a British college from his 1908 memoir, “The 21 Year Campaign.”

“I had read many years before in the Journal de la Jeunesse, where in 1875 a translation-adaptation made by J. Girardin had appeared of the famous English book Tom Brown's School Days. I saw from then on this unforeseen and hidden thing: "sports pedagogy"; there was a whole plan of moral training hidden under the guise of school sports.”