Western creates new research chair named for Special Olympics founder, alumnus

Western University's newest health sciences research chair is named for Special Olympics founder Frank J. Hayden, who is also a Western alumnus.

The Dr. Frank J. Hayden Chair in Sport and Social Impact will research the social impact of sport and physical activity for those with intellectual and developmental disabilities, according to a news release issued today.

A lump sum of $3 million from both Western University and the Special Olympics Canada Foundation, Special Olympics Canada and its provincial/territorial chapters will ensure that the position "will exist for a long time," according to Frank Hayden.

"There's great potential for not just raising Special Olympics, but all physical activity for people with intellectual disabilities, to a new level," said Hayden, now 88. 

Hayden earned an undergraduate degree in physical education from Western in 1955. His interest in intellectual disabilities began when he was wrapping up his doctorate degree at the University of Illinois, and was offered a job doing research on the subject.

"I scoured the libraries at the University of Illinois, found there was nothing done [on children with intellectual disabilities,] he said. 

At the time, Hayden said the children he worked with had about half the level of fitness as those without intellectual disabilities, which many parents assumed was a link to their disability. 

Hayden disagreed.

"I looked at their lifestyle. Nobody played with them in the neighbourhood, there was no after-school activity, they taxied to school and taxied home, at least the schools where we looked at them," said Hayden. "I thought it has nothing to do with IQ and whatnot, and I'll see if I can change this."

Hayden said he developed physical activity programs that closed the fitness gap between children with and without intellectual disabilities by about half within the space of one school year. But Hayden said he believed sport was what would really make a difference.

"I said sport is the answer," he said. "That's where you get the motivation, the reward system, the advancement, skill training and whatnot. Really, we have to get them into sport in a broad way."

That led Hayden to develop the first international Special Olympics Summer Games in 1968 for the Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation, drawing 1,000 athletes. The first Canadian Special Olympics was held the next year in Toronto, Hayden said. 

Today, Special Olympics exists in 172 countries and has more than 45,000 athletes in Canada, according to a Western news release.

Although the years have proven that people with intellectual disabilities can succeed in sport and physical activity, Hayden said there's still work to do—something he hopes will be accomplished by the new research chair.

"How do we capitalize and make that broader... Look at how to make the experience even better than it is and how to get it extended to more people," he said.

"Sport offers a variety of benefits. We're trying to get all of that for the segment of the population that we deal with."