History
The Scott McCain & Leslie McCain Centre for Sport, Business and Health at Saint Mary’s University was originally established as a Senate鈥慳pproved research centre in May 2010 under the direction of Dr. Colin Howell. At that time, it was called the Centre for the Study of Sport & Health. In 2023, the centre received a $3-million gift from Scott McCain and Leslie McLean to expand its current capacity and to include the area of sport business in its mandate.
We have a history of hosting conferences and speaker series, welcoming visiting scholars and research associates, organizing community events, contributing to educational development on campus, and providing development opportunities for student-athletes at Saint Mary’s University.
Our research projects have addressed a range of themes in sport, and a number of projects having been funded by the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRCC). Through these projects, we have addressed topics such as mental resiliency, student-athlete wellbeing, and gender and sexuality in sport. We also regularly engage in community-oriented research initiatives at the local, national and international levels, including work with various sporting bodies such as Sport Nova Scotia and sport heritage societies such as Canada’s Sport Hall of Fame.
Within the university, we have been especially committed to involving students in our activities, from taking on experiential learning and SMUWorks students to the development of a Here for Peers student mentoring program. We have also contributed heavily to the Healthy Teams project and the Student Athlete Mental Health Initiative.
