Sermon Blog
A Virtuous Education in Sport
January 17, 2026
What battle was to men before the modern era, sport is to men today. In both, it is commonly held that men become virtuous simply by enlisting. But war is responsible for some of the worst atrocities in history and sport is home to heroes and cheaters alike. Rather, war and sport offer opportunities for virtue and even inspire it, but we all need leaders to model and teach it. At St. John Henry Newman’s Oratory School, sport, and specifically cricket, became a training ground for virtue because virtue was considered a treasure worth acquiring.
Cricket had an especially strong hold on the boys of the Oratory School. In the third issue of The Oratory School Magazine, two full pages are dedicated to “Cricket Prospects,” an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the team, including suggestions for improvement and a game schedule. Cricket offered the opportunity to grow in virtue because it inspired them to greatness. The author of the article hopes the team will “finish the season with a record of which they can be proud, and to which in future days they can look back with pleasure.” It was serious business, judging by the author’s tone in this stinging assessment of a previous cricket captain in an article on the “History of Oratory Cricket”:
The XI [name for the cricket team] in 1890 was a very good one, which is proved by the fact that the results came out well in spite of bad Captaincy. The practices were left to themselves, and the games of a sleepy description, such as must be the case when the captain takes no interest in them . . . one who, forgetting that he had a duty towards his team and his School, only considered himself and his own inclinations.
Sports, and especially cricket, were evidently a matter of the boys’ personal pride and the school’s honor, and as such they became an opportunity for the boys to learn to lead a team, follow a captain and work with others, take responsibility for one’s role and duties, etc. In the article on school captains mentioned earlier, much of which could be applied to the captains of their sports teams and other leadership positions, the author expects a captain to be “steady, energetic, though not a busy-body, firm, though not officious, circumspect, studious, uniformly good-tempered, self-sacrificing, prudent, genial and kind. He must consider himself the servant of all.”
The boys understood that sports, and cricket in particular, had an important role to play in the education of virtue. And this mattered to them because they had been given a love of virtue by their teachers and mentors. The boys were even guided morally by the school dame, the matron who was responsible for managing the boys and their needs in many different areas: “Her duties went beyond these and her remit included helping her charges grow in virtue and good habits; if she noticed anything faulty in a boy’s dealing with his friends, or in other small matters, she would try to help him out of it.”
As the author of “Cricket Prospects” states, “No small part of an English boy’s education is gained in the cricket field. Character is better than knowledge, and the cricket field is a great place for the formation of character.” In the seventh issue, the editor quotes another article praising the self-reliance taught by cricket, and then supplements with his perspective: “there are boys now who abuse cricket by giving themselves too much to it, but I think they are exceptions, and the rule is that a well-ordered devotion to cricket acts favourably on study, and, what is more important, develops and forms excellence of character.”
It’s likely that Newman would have endorsed such an article and perspective, even if the students’ pursuit of glory on the field could at times verge on obsession. Even so, the risk that cricket could become too important to the boys, could overshadow studies and other important endeavors, distressed Newman, but it was the risk that allowed them to grow in so many other ways.
In contemporary society, success and material gain are the prizes held most highly by many of the athletes we esteem. Virtue doesn’t have the same appeal. But as the great Catholic author G.K. Chesterton pointed out, because of our society’s decadence, it’s possible for another perspective to take hold: “The act of defending any of the cardinal virtues has today all the exhilaration of a vice.”
Like St. John Henry Newman, his Oratory teachers and other school leaders, we can make virtue attractive. Rather, we can help students to discover its attractiveness. It is our duty to demonstrate this to our students and others in our care. The pursuit of virtue is the pursuit of happiness, which when shown, can open the hearts of even those who are antagonistic to religion.
References
- The Oratory School Magazine
- Shrimpton, Paul. A Catholic Eton?
- Chesterton, G.K. The Defendant
