Institute for International Sport

The Institute for International Sport was founded in 1986 by Daniel E. Doyle, Jr. The basic concept of the Institute was rooted in Doyle's overseas experiences in the 60's and 70's. While traveling in Europe as a prep basketball player in 1968, and visiting Cuba as the head men's basketball coach of Trinity College in 1979, Doyle saw the power of sport as a medium to foster friendship and goodwill.

As a student at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, Doyle drafted a position paper that outlined what is now the Institute for International Sport (IIS). After sharing his idea with several universities, including the University of Rhode Island (URI), Doyle convinced then URI president Edward D. Eddy and then Rhode Island Governor Edward DiPrete that URI should be the home of the Institute. On July 1, 1986 the IIS officially opened in a one-room office and Doyle's dream became a reality.

As it approaches its 25th anniversary on July 1, 2011, the Institute for International Sport remains guided by international leaders in the academic, business, government and athletic communities. The IIS has fostered an extraordinary number of global friendships through sport, culture and education, connecting tens of thousands of people. As the Institute continues to grow in the 21st Century, the organization's mission remains the same:

Mission Statement

To promote and improve relations among nations, particularly in nations experiencing internal conflict;
To encourage individual growth and the development of human potential in young scholars throughout the world;
To develop global awareness in future world leaders;
To use sport and the arts as mediums of peace;
To develop a large network of Scholar-Athlete Games graduates who act as peace brokers in their respective communities and countries;
To promote ethical behavior, good sportsmanship and good sports parenting on an international basis;
To facilitate, among Institute alumni, a humanitarian approach in their actions as they develop as leaders;
To provide parents and sports educators with sound ideas they can employ when raising and teaching children who play sports.

Summit/Games Timeline

On October 28, 2009, the Institute for International Sport hosted a historic World Youth Peace Summit launch dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria. General Colin Powell served as the keynote speaker. General Powell opened his brilliant speech by stating, “This is an historic night.”

And it was!

View the Institute's extraordinary World Youth Peace Summit/World Scholar-Athlete Games calendar, including a number of lead-up events that will be held in 2010.

Sports Corps and Belfast United
(The two initial programs that led to the
World Scholar-Athlete Games)

The initial program of the IIS was Sports Corps, launched in September of 1987, when the Institute sent Sports Corps volunteers to Ireland, Burundi and Czechoslovakia. Sport Corps volunteers worked with impoverished youth, setting up a variety of sports education initiatives. Expanding on the Sports Corps model, Belfast United was launched in 1989. Designed to act as a medium for cross-religious communication in Northern Ireland, Belfast United brought together equal numbers of Protestant and Catholic youth. Over the course of this decade long program, Belfast United had over 1,500 young men and women participate. When the peace accord in Northern Ireland was signed, a number of Northern Ireland political and educational figures pointed to Belfast United as one of the most meaningful programs that helped bring about the truce.

The Sports Corps and Belfast United model further expanded to include more than 190 countries around the globe, as the Institute launched the World Scholar-Athlete Games during the early nineties. In February of 1990, Doyle traveled to the London School of Education to present the plan for the World Scholar-Athlete Games (WSAG). In February of 1992, the WSAG was officially announced at a major press conference in Washington, D.C. by Senator Bill Bradley, the first Chair of the WSAG. At the press conference, Senator Bradley predicted that the WSAG would become, "A very important part of international sports, in a manner similar to the International Special Olympics." The first WSAG was held from June 20 - July 1, 1993. A total of 108 countries and all 50 states sent delegations. The success of the inaugural WSAG has led to other Scholar-Athlete Games (SAG) around the world, including the 2006 World Scholar-Athlete Games which welcomed delegations from 157 countries, and featured speakers such as former President Bill Clinton and former Senator George Mitchell, and the 2008 United States Scholar-Athlete Games, at which General Colin Powell delivered the keynote address.

Two Historic Events in 2011: The World Youth Peace Summit and The World Scholar-Athlete Games

“Extraordinary! I wish there had been a Scholar-Athlete Games program during my youth.”
-President Bill Clinton, in his 2006 keynote address at the World Scholar-Athlete Games

In 2011, the 5th World Scholar-Athlete Games will be held on the campus of the University of Connecticut in Storrs, CT. On Day IV of the 2011 World Scholar-Athlete Games, alumni from previous Scholar-Athlete Games, and others nominated by organizations such as the United Nations and the Peace Corps, will join the current Games’ participants for the highly anticipated World Youth Peace Summit. The Summit, which will be held in conjunction with the Institute’s 25th anniversary, will take place on the UConn campus, and throughout the Greater Hartford, Connecticut area. Each Summit participant is expected to develop a Pathways to Peace initiative for his or her home community or country. At the conclusion of the Summit, the Institute will open the Office of Social Entrepreneurship to support the implementation of Pathways to Peace initiatives worldwide.

The prosperity of the IIS has continued with the development of numerous other programs, such as National Sportsmanship Day, the Center for Sports Parenting, Hall of Fame Press, The 100 Most Influential Sports Educators in America and the Renaissance Games.

Our vision of the future was forged at the very early stages of the Institute for International Sport. At the first Institute Board of Trustees meeting in July, 1986, Dan Doyle presented the concept of the World Scholar-Athlete Games. By 1989, Dan and the board decided to move forward with the inaugural 1993 World Scholar-Athlete Games. The objective of the Games was not merely a short-term event, but an ongoing program that would form the basis of a global network of scholar-athletes and scholar-artists committed to the highest ideals of sport and the arts – and with a broader commitment to world peace.

Our vision is the creation of a global peace movement that will involve tens of thousands of people around the world who share a love of sport and/or the arts – and who share a passion for world peace. The vision encompasses not just the idealistic notion of peace, but positive action in the form of literally thousands of Pathways to Peace projects that will be created during the World Youth Peace Summit, initiated following the Summit, and, with the help of our office of Social Entrepreneurship, administered for generations to come.