Shirl J. Hoffman is Professor Emeritus of Kinesiology at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. After taking his BS from The King's College (NY)he began his career as a physical education and college basketball coach. Following completion of graduate work at Teachers College, Columbia University (MA, Ed.D.) he served as professor at University of Nebraska at Omaha and 13 years at the University of Pittsburgh. He was appointed head of the department of exercise and sport science (now kinesiology) at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 1985. He his scholarship covers an extraordinarily broad range of topics including motor learning and performance, sociology of sports, and sport philosophy, appearing in such journals as: Journal of Motor Behavior, Perceptual and Motor Skills, Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sports, Journal of Physical Education, Recreation and Dance, Quest, The Journal of Sport Philosophy, and The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Chronicle of Kinesiology and Physical Education in Higher Education and Journal of Sport Behavior. He has lectured to such diverse groups as The Canadian Psychomotor and Sport Psychology Symposium, the Research Consortium of AAHPERD, The North American Society for Sport Psychology and Physical Activity, the International Congress on Physical Education, the Sport Sociology Academy, The National Academy of Kinesiology, The British Sport Psychology Conference and the Fourth European Congress on Sport Psychology.

He is a former editor of Quest and former associate editor of the Chronicle for Physical Education in Higher Education. He was named Distinguished Scholar by National Association for Kinesiology and Physical Education in Higher Education (NAKPEHE)and is a Fellow Emeritus in the National Academy of Kinesiology. He was the charter Executive Director of the American Kinesiology Association, an organization of over 100 college and university departments of kinesiology across the U.S.

His interest in reconciling the ethical parameters of popular sport and the Christian faith spans several decades. He has spoken and written widely on Christian college campuses and has delivered addresses to the National Conference on New Religions and Revitalization Movements, the Joint Conference for the North American Society for Sport Sociology and the International Association for the Philosophy of Sport, The Popular Culture Association, Joint meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion and American Academy of Religion, the Second International Conference on Sport and Religion at St. Olaf College, and the Inaugural International Conference on Sport and Spirituality at York St. John University in England. His work on sport and religion has appeared in Christianity Today, The Nebraska Humanist, The Journal of Philosophy of Sport, Quest, The American Baptist, The Banner, and The Word and World, and in several edited books, including Christianity and Leisure: Issues in a Pluralistic World (2006), Sport and Spirituality,and Theology (2007), Ethics and Transcendence in Sports (2011) and he has spoken on the topic to numerous community interest groups.

He is editor of the first book on the subject (Sport and Religion, Human Kinetics, 1992) and has appeared in nationally televised documentaries on CBS, ("Sport and Ethics") ESPN ("Time to Pray, Time to Play"), Channel 4 in Britain ("Praying to Win") nationally aired broadcasts on NPR ("A Whole New Ballgame") BBC, the Canadian Broadcasting Company ("Inside Track") and over 50 nationally aired talk shows.

Hoffman and his wife, Claude Mourot, reside in Greensboro, North Carolina where he enjoys traveling, and hiking in the near-by mountains.