The purpose of this study was to replicate and extend the previous work of Amorose and Horn (2001) by examining the levels of interest/enjoyment of scholarship and non-scholarship athletes at a Historically Black College (HBCU). Male and female athletes (N=227) from a mid-major Division I HBCU completed a demographic questionnaire and the Sports-Oriented version of the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory (IMI) at a pre-season athletic department student body meeting. Cronbach alpha coefficients for each of the IMI subscales were found to be reliable (alpha > .70). The results of the one-way ANOVA yielded no significant findings in interest/enjoyment among scholarship status (F (2, 113) = 0.28, p >.05) and grade classification (F (3, 207) = 1.44, p > .05) for the student-athletes. Additionally, no significant finding was reported for gender (p > .05). However, a significant finding in interest/enjoyment for team sport type (p< .05) and revenue sport type (p< .05) was revealed using an independent samples t-test. Specifically, team sport athletes reported greater enjoyment than individual sport athletes and revenue-sport athletes (namely, football, basketball) enjoyed their sport experience more than non-revenue sport athletes. Findings partially supported earlier work. Team sport athletes and revenue sport athletes greater enjoyment may have resulted from the greater recognition received through the opportunity to play in larger venues and exposure of larger media markets.
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