The Sporting Statues Project records and researches statues of sportsmen and women around the world. Since 2010 we have published academic papers and magazine articles, and collected information on over 600 statues. The project is the work of:
Dr Chris Stride: Chris is a Senior Lecturer and Applied Statistician at the Institute of Work Psychology, University of Sheffield, and also runs a statistical training and consultancy service. He has published across a wide range of social science disciplines, even dipping his toe into the pure sciences and humanities from time-to-time, and is particularly interested in the use of statistical methods to support and add rigour to research in areas where advanced quantitative analysis would typically be considered an anathema. His favourite statue is Bob Stokoe at Sunderland FC.
Ffion Thomas: Ffion has been part of The Sporting Statues Project at the University of Sheffield since its inception in 2010, and has presented various papers on the topic, including at the annual conferences of the British Society of Sports History, the North American Society for Sport History and the Design History Society. She received the poster prize at the 2011 New England Symposium on Statistics in Sports held at Harvard University, Massachusetts. She received her undergraduate degree in English Literature from the University of Sheffield in June 2010, and in January 2013 commenced a Ph.D at the International Football Institute at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) on the use of nostalgia in the visual culture of football.
Dr John Wilson: John is a Human Resources consultant, with links to University of Sheffield and University of Oxford, and research interests in work, education and sport. He is actively involved in a campaign to raise the awareness of Sheffield as the birthplace of football through a sculptural tribute.
The project was inspired by a chat between John, who had taken a large number of photos of UK football statues, and was interested in the background behind them, and Chris, who as a statistician, football fan and avid collector of things, was then keen to find out exactly how many there were. Ffion, who had previously worked with Chris on a number of other projects, was recruited almost immediately to the team, who then set out to catalogue the UK's football statues, with the aim of perhaps a magazine or journal article...
