News Release

Former NFL player to address and panel to discuss
"The Challenge of Ethics in Sports" Wednesday (Sept. 20)

CHAPEL HILL - Joe Ehrmann, a former National Football League player who is now a football coach at Gilman School in Baltimore, will give a free talk on "The Challenge of Ethics in Sports" Sept. 20 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Parade magazine once called Ehrmann "the most important coach in America." He will speak at 7:30 pm in Fetzer Gym 109. A panel discussion will follow his talk.

Ehrmann is a former defensive lineman for the Baltimore Colts (now the Indianapolis Colts) and a 13-year veteran of the NFL. His life and coaching philosophy are the subject of a best-selling book by Jeffrey Marx, "Season of Life: A Football Star, a Boy, a Journey to Manhood (2003)."

In the book, Marx describes Ehrmann's innovative coaching philosophy at Gilman, an independent boy's school. Ehrmann's football program, called "Building Men for Others," helps young athletes avoid damaging stereotypes of masculinity, such as aggressiveness and competitiveness, and cultivate strong relationships in their lives.

"Masculinity ought to be defined in terms of relationships," Ehrmann says, "and taught in terms of the capacity to love and be loved."|

Jan Boxill, director of UNC's Parr Center for Ethics and public address announcer for the women's basketball team, will moderate the two-hour panel discussion to follow. The discussion is designed to showcase a broad range of diversity and ethical issues in sports.

Panelists include William Friday, president emeritus of the University of North Carolina system; Rosalind Fuse-Hall, executive assistant to the chancellor at North Carolina Central University; Richard Baddour, athletics director at UNC; Kathleen K. Smith, professor of biology and faculty athletics representative at Duke University; Joseph Dailey, UNC football player; and Charlotte Smith, UNC assistant women's basketball coach and a former women's basketball player at Carolina.

The lecture and panel discussion are sponsored by UNC's Parr Center for Ethics, department of athletics, department of exercise and sport science, Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs and sport clubs. For more information, visit http://parrcenter.unc.edu.

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Photo URL: http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/visiting/Ehrmann_Joe.jpg

Parr Center for Ethics contacts: Jan Boxill, (919) 962-3317; Carlo Robustelli, (919) 843-5640
News Services contacts: Karen Moon, (919) 962-8595; Lisa Katz, (919) 962-2093