ABSTRACT
I finish with James, inevitably, because that is where I came in. The piece happened because Richard Giulianotti, the wonderfully-named and gifted Scots sports sociologist, was at the University of New England on exchange while I was there as the Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research and International). He talked about his projects, including one to consider leading sociologists’ work and its application to sports culture, and asked if I would write on James. Strictly speaking, I suggested, neither James nor I were sociologists but Richard’s response was that everyone thought we were and was reason enough to carry on. I had written a remembrance at James’s death but this required a clinical reassessment, and it came at a time good for me (while the article appeared in 2004 it was completed some time earlier).
