Inclusive Sports

In the summer of 2013, we (Dan and Scott) met with Gary Baker, a former Central Michigan University (CMU) staff member then working at Rowan University in New Jersey, to discuss how to bring meaningful inclusion to the CMU campus through Special Olympics. (At the time, Dan was a staff member at Special Olympics Michigan (SOMI), and Scott was working as CMU’s assistant director of intramural sports.) Within that hour, the idea for Unified Intramural Sports leagues was born. It would grow into a program spanning hundreds of college campuses and reaching thousands of Unified participants.

At the meeting, Baker shared his experience running a successful Special Olympics Unified Sports® program at Rowan. The club brought together Rowan students and Special Olympics athletes from the community for days of play. I (Scott), wanted to advance the model by running Unified Sports as an intramural league alongside the traditional intramural programming with CMU students. The concept was simple: bring together CMU students with local Special Olympics athletes in a four-week league with playoffs and a championship night on campus fields. The concept of Unified Sports had been around for many years, but never as part of an intramural program.

In order for CMU to truly embrace everything that Unified Sports offers, it was important that it was positioned as a part of the intramural program as a whole and not something separate. Intramurals were a huge part of my (Scott’s) college experience–a place where I grew so much personally, and a place where I made lifelong friends. I wanted our Unified participants to have the same opportunity I had. The only way to do this was to play on the same fields with the same referees and the same recognitions as all the other CMU teams.

Our first goal was to create buy-in from both students and our local Special Olympics program. The challenge was to gain their trust while also educating them on what the program would look like. It was a true hybrid program, because we wanted it to look and feel like a traditional intramural offering on campus, and also wanted to honor what Unified Sports are all about by using sport to bring people together to create inclusion and friendships.

Both CMU and SOMI enlisted the help of student leaders to organize, recruit, and prepare for the Unified Intramural League. I (Ben) was one of those students.

Working as a SOMI intern, I knew Unified Sports had the power to bring people together and create lasting friendships, both on and off the field. Seeing CMU students and Special Olympics athletes connect, laugh, and support each other throughout the league showed how strong those bonds can become.

The first step was to assess students and athletes through a series of scored skills and drills. From there, I used the results to create similarly skilled teams for the rest of the season.

When we brought the group together for assessment day, there was a clear divide– students on one side, athletes on the other. As soon as the drills started, so did the magic. There was laughter, a little smack talk, and plenty of interaction amongst all players. When we brought everyone together after drills, the two groups were intermingled. We knew then that we were onto something special.

After a successful regular season, the four teams competed in the playoffs, with a championship night. The “big game” could not have had a more fitting ending. It finished in a regulation tie and went to penalty kicks. The two teams swapped goals, coming down to the very last kick by Nathan Hill, which he made in the upper left corner to win the championship. The entire team rushed him in celebration; It was a beautiful ending. We could not dream of a more perfect ending. I think we knew then that this league was already something bigger.

On championship night, under the lights and next to cornfields, there was an excitement and joy from the teams that some of us had never felt before. It was an excitement shared by every player on each team that competed that night. Only one team got the championship t-shirts that night, yet somehow everyone went home a winner. I (Scott) remember taking a photo of the championship team, and before I could lower my phone, the students and athletes were already asking, ‘What Unified sport is next?’

Later, a team from Special Olympics North America called, wanting to learn more about the league and how it was organized. They invited me (Dan) onto a few leadership calls to share more about how it came together. We were soon talking about partnerships with the National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association (NIRSA).

As CMU expanded offerings, word spread throughout Special Olympics about our intramural program. The timing was perfect. Stan Shingles, then vice president at CMU who oversaw University Recreation, was to be named president of NIRSA the following year. As a long-time games committee member at the SOMI State Summer Games, Stan was an important player in opening the doors for Special Olympics to promote to member schools in NIRSA.

With Shingles’s leadership and Special Olympics North America’s relationship with colleges across the United States, Special Olympics formed a partnership with NIRSA. Special Olympics began attending NIRSA conferences and had a seat at the table. Upon finalizing a partnership at the 2015 Special Olympics World Games in Los Angeles, NIRSA created a Unified Division at its National Basketball Championships. In the first year, we had four teams in attendance at The Ohio State University, including CMU, which lost to Alabama in the championship. It was an eye-opening experience for our athletes and students, offering them something to strive for.

Going to NIRSA nationals was a huge accomplishment for the Unified teams at CMU, allowing them to compete against the top-level competition at an amazing facility, with highly skilled officials. It was a unique sports experience for those students and athletes that was not available before Unified Intramurals were offered.

In addition to the partnership with Special Olympics and NIRSA, we were expanding to new campuses across the state, including Michigan State University. It was a confidence boost to work with other schools to get them on board. We quickly expanded to more than a dozen campuses, offering Unified Intramurals and hosting our first Unified collegiate basketball tournament.

Word spread among campus partners, NIRSA, and Special Olympics programs about our growth. It was exciting to hear of more success stories, but also to see how Unified Sports were talked about in the NIRSA setting. In the first few years of the partnership with NIRSA, many campus partners wondered why Special Olympics was at conferences or tournaments, or what Unified Sports were. As familiarity grew, people came to Special Olympics asking how they could start it and sharing what they had done on campus. Students who were part of traditional intramural teams at the national championships went from asking what the Unified Division was to saying, “This is Unified Sports.”

The entire experience went far beyond the game—it fostered understanding and camaraderie that made our campus a more inclusive and welcoming place for everyone.

It’s been an incredible journey to see a simple idea become a reality and ultimately spark a movement that has continued across the United States for 13 years. It’s a movement that shows no signs of stopping.

To be a small part of such a powerful movement has been an honor, and there are so many people who have made a difference in the lives of students on campus and athletes. The movement is finding new ways to evolve and to continue to create inclusive environments on campuses nationwide. We’re grateful for all those who have made it happen.