Students cheering from the sidelines while their peers rehearse techniques employed in medieval European jousting can be heard. A few pupils are dressed as knights, while others as squires, heralds, or members of the nobility. As the horses carrying the knights, four of them are working hard. One person keeps score. Rival teams have inscribed shields, and the knights have hats that identify them as members of the Gold or Silver squad. Today is the day of the EXS 197 Joust, when students studying the Philosophy and History of Physical Education and Sport will get a taste of what knights in training go through.
Dr. Nancy Kane ('13), who was studying medieval training techniques for her upcoming textbook, History and Philosophy of Physical Education and Sport (Cognella, 2020), came up with the idea for the event because she wanted to bring history to life. For every chapter, the book incorporates kinesthetic exercises and research to provide students with an exciting means of connecting with the past and expanding their comprehension. Jeremy Pekarek, Archivist and Instructional Services Librarian at the Memorial Library Delta Collection, helped Kane with her research by providing access to Joseph Strutt's book, The Sports and Pastimes of the People of England (1801), in its 1898 SUNY Cortland edition. "It's not the same as holding the book, experiencing its textures, and closely examining the words and engravings as opposed to reading it online," remarks Kane, whose students had previously visited Pekarek to learn about Cortland's archives.
During the students' jousting day, they will practice tilting jousting lances—which are made of recycled bamboo poles with pillows on top—to spear rings, striking a target or a squire, and ultimately engaging in single combat against an opponent while "horseback." According to Strutt's book, the different activities are practiced against a quintain, which might refer to a variety of objects, including posts or squires brandishing shields. Strutt points out that Charles du Fresne, sierur du Cange (1610-1688), a French scholar, suggested that the Florentines in Italy called the act of tilting at rings "correr alla quintana." Quintains may also be used as targets for rings. According to Vegetius' book De re militari, Strutt also acknowledges the existence of ancient Roman military training, in which squires and knights practiced ad palum (against the pole) using a tree trunk. After a while, targets and shields were added, and youths continued to enjoy tilting for rings for generations after the last games were forgotten.
Kane replicated the training methods and modified them for use in a contemporary classroom using the pictures from Strutt's first chapter in Book III. The engraver and historian Strutt derived his fifty images from Les Etablissmentz des Chevalierie, an early fourteenth-century manuscript held in the Royal Library. Since many of my students are majoring in physical education, I want them to learn about some of the ways that history can be brought to life and how they may incorporate it into their future teaching to give their students even more excitement and diversity. I like that the event is multidisciplinary," Kane continues. According to Strutt, quintain pastimes also include literary and performing arts elements. When Orlando says, "My better parts are all thrown down/And the thing that here stands up/Is but a quintain, a mere lifeless block," Shakespeare, for instance, alludes to it in As You Like It (I, ii). Kane plays the Queen song "We Will Rock You," which was included in the 2001 Heath Ledger movie A Knight's Tale, to enthuse and motivate the participants throughout the joust.
Kane has already used her historical studies to other projects. As the Trumansburg Conservatory of Fine Arts' Director of Dance, she successfully developed and taught a class titled Rough and Tumble to entice young males to participate in the program. German gymnastics, stage fighting, and parkour or freerunning served as its foundation. She has experience teaching armed and unarmed stage fighting to Cortland performing arts students, as well as varsity football and gymnastics team players. She is an accomplished actor and combatant in the Society of American Fight Directors.
Scorecards were employed for the first time in sports history during jousts, when the winner of the day is finally declared by the class scorekeeper. Sir Ethan Irons ('21) extends an invitation to the whole Gold team, in keeping with traditional chivalry, to take a picture with their shortbread cookie prizes—which are given instead of a feast. Later, as a keepsake, Kane will print and deliver copies of the team portrait to every member. According to Campus Priorities, "Transformational Education is a part of life at Cortland, as well as love it when we can weave together different aspects of learning into memorable events!" exclaims Kane. Her kids seem to agree based on the looks on their faces in the picture.
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