According to the Dominant American Sport Creed there are seven basic categories that reflect the dominant value orientations in sport.
Character refers to one's virtue or how one lives by a set of moral values.
In England during the mid-1800's a tradition arose that profoundly influenced sporting practice in the United States. Sports played by British students from private secondary boarding schools gradually became valued by the school principals more for the qualities of social character they were presumed to develop than for the physical exercise they provided. On the playing fields boys could prove themselves as potential leaders through moral courage, team work, and sport. The notion that school sports developed character mainly related to the expansion of the British Empire, which required self confident soldiers, administrators and businessmen capable of handling the physical and psychological demands of their occupations. Graduates of the British private boarding schools became leaders of life government, the military, domestic industry, commerce-throughout the British Empire.