In Memoriam - James Keating

James W. Keating 1924-2005 Professor took definition of play seriously 

As a professor of philosophy at DePaul University, Dr. James Keating maintained that competitive athletes did not play sports. Rather, he wrote and spoke tirelessly in the 1950s and 1960s that any athlete or team that was trying to achieve a goal could not use the term "play" in the context of competitive sports. "His philosophy of play was that professionals don't play ball. Play is exclusively for fun," said Gerald Kreyche, professor emeritus and former chairman of the Philosophy Department at DePaul University. "Every time you put play in the service of a goal other than pure fun you are prostituting the nature of fun. The purest form of play is found in little children. They play and they let go."

Dr. Keating was invited to share his ideas before the International Olympic Committee several times, said his son, Patrick. "It's obvious on the surface, but it was somewhat controversial at the time [when] ... the amateur movement was far more entrenched the cultural psyche than today," his son said. Dr. Keating also helped lead the charge to change DePaul's curriculum from the usual scholastic approach to more contemporary existentialist philosophies. "There was a philosopher, Jean-Paul Sartre, who was very prominent in European philosophy shortly after World War II," Kreyche said. "It was from him that Keating took off on his own ideas."

Dr. Keating, 81, of Manteno, formerly of Forest Park, Florida, and Chicago, died Monday, Dec. 5, of complications of Alzheimer's disease and pneumonia in Provena St. Mary Hospital, Kankakee. Born in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Dr. Keating, an only child, was raised in Kingston, Pa., where he graduated from high school. He started his higher education at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pa., but his studies were interrupted when he joined the Army Air Forces in 1943. He was a cryptographer in India during World War II. After the war he continued his studies at Catholic University in Washington, D.C., where he earned his bachelor's, master's and doctorate degrees in philosophy. He married his wife, Ann, in the early 1950s, and they divorced in the 1970s. The couple moved to the campus of Lewis College, now Lewis University in Romeoville, when he became a professor of philosophy. In 1956 he was named dean of students. Four years later he was president of the college for a year. "My dad wanted to be a scholar more than an administrator," his son said. The next year he joined DePaul. He was a member of its athletic board in the 1970s and was its NCAA representative. Other survivors include his daughters, Carol Klockowski, Paula Schumacker and Marianne Prince, and nine grandchildren. Services have been held.

Chicago Tribune, January 31, 2006, pg. 5