The Agon Motif and the Concept of Movement Culture

At a symposium on 12 June 2009 on “Homo Movens: International symposium on movement culture” at the occasion of my ‘rite of passage’ to the emeritus status at the KU Leuven, John W. Loy, co-authored by W. Robert Morford, presented a paper on “The agon motif: A study of the contest element in sport”. I am very glad that this excellent paper will finally be published as it was not included in “The making of sport history: Disciplines, identities and the historiography of sport” (Delheye 2014), which appeared five years later as a so called “…crystallization of the international symposium.” (p. XVII). Moreover, some of these contributions were severely criticized by Allen Guttmann (2014).

In this introduction, I will try to clarify the concepts of ‘ludodiversity’ and ‘movement culture’, which I have often had the chance to discuss with John Loy personally. We did – of course – not always agree but this kind of ‘joking relationship’ with John Loy was and still is for me a “… joy forever”!