" Work Hard and Be Kind”

Abstract

Coinciding with the upsurgence of the Black Lives Matter Movement in the Summer of 2020, collegiate and professional sports teams have exhibited increased involvement in social issues. Existing research primarily analyzes the platform and visibility that athletes have to promote social agendas, but there is a gap in knowledge regarding how a sports team forms a collective identity around a social movement. This study seeks to fill this gap in research by utilizing qualitative surveying and interviewing to examine how Boston College athletes engage in the Black Lives Matter Movement. Processes of grounded theory and inductive analysis are used to understand how the Boston College Women’s Rowing Team values contribute to the team’s shared mental model to fulfill the conditions of social movement emergence and further promote team value adoption and team success. Evaluation of student-athletes across different Boston College teams through this study also offers insights to the controversy over sports teams engaging in social issues.