Deane A. Lamont

Professional Overview

Deane Lamont was born in the United Kingdom, receiving his secondary education at the Gordon’s School in England and Hermitage Academy in Scotland. Professor Lamont received his doctoral degree from the University of California at Berkeley and has been at Saint Mary’s College since 1995. His scholarly interests focus on the sociohistorical aspects of health, exercise and sport. Professor Lamont has published his research in various academic journals, including the Journal of Sport History, the Californian Journal of Health Promotion, the Journal of the West, and the Journal of Olympic History. His first book, America’s “Healthiest” City: A History of Early Oakland, California was published in 2010. In 2017, his book chapter “Oakland’s Nineteenth-Century Parks and Resorts: ‘Lungs of the City,’ Commercial Sporting Venues, and Instruments of Civic Boosterism” was published in the University of Arkansas Press’ sport history anthology San Francisco Bay Area Sports: Golden Gate Athletics, Recreation and Community. He has presented his scholarship at numerous regional, national, and international academic conferences and professional meetings. Professor Lamont teaches his home department’s introductory course and the upper division classes Sport History and Sport and Social Justice, and he has been a seminar leader in the Saint Mary’s College Collegiate Seminar Program for over 25 years. For the last decade, Professor Lamont has taken January Term classes to Türkiye, Greece, and Italy to retrace the steps of Homer’s heroes and visit ancient Olympia and the other archaeological sites used for ancient Greek athletics and Roman sport. Lamont has been the undergraduate chair of Kinesiology, directed its graduate program, and served as a Senator on the Saint Mary’s College Academic Senate. He is currently at work on his second book that has the provisional title: Sons of the Great Migration: Black Student Athletes at post-World War II San Francisco Bay Area Colleges. Professor Lamont maintains a healthy personal lifestyle through golf, various types of cardiovascular exercises, and SCUBA, but, alas, no longer competitive in soccer or rugby. He enjoys international travel with his wife and is a passionate supporter of Manchester United. Professor Lamont is an active volunteer in his local community. He was a head coach in the De La Salle High School soccer program from 2012-2022 and led the men’s club soccer team at Saint Mary’s College from 2012-18. He has also mentored aspiring, at-risk prospective first-generation college students in Richmond, California, through the College is Real Foundation. Professor Lamont organized the campus event Behind the Swoosh: Sweatshops and Social Justice in 2010, represented Saint Mary’s College at the International Lasallian University Leadership Program in Rome in 2017, the Sport at the Service of Humanity Conference at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles in 2018, and in 2022 he organized a campus ceremony to recognize the 50th anniversary of Black Gael basketball athletes bravely protesting racial injustices during the civil rights era. In 2024, he taught in the inaugural Saint Mary’s College Summer Academy for high school students preparing for college entry.