Story by Kimberly Marselas '00

Terps are Victorious in the Sports Industry

PAY A LITTLE MORE ATTENTION next time you watch your favorite sport on TV or tune in to catch a game on the radio. Chances are, you’ve been witnessing the efforts of some major-league Terps without even knowing it.

Maybe you live in New York and root for the Yankees on the YES Network. Nicole Zussman M.B.A.’94 hires the people who put together the game-day broadcasts and classic sports footage you love.

When the Olympics open in Beijing next summer, watch for USA Field Hockey team members to show up in Under Armour uniforms. That will be thanks to the skillful negotiating tactics of Tori Wellington ’02, who manages the apparel company’s sports marketing west of the Mississippi River.

And if you’re at a Baltimore Ravens game, you’ll surely notice the corporate-sponsored on-field presentations and snappy ads on the electronic signs. You can credit those to Mark Burdett ’81, senior vice president for development and media sales for the NFL team. ­For every Maryland graduate who goes on to play professional sports, the university turns out dozens more who work in sports industries like player representation, advertising sales, sports reporting, marketing and even team ownership. They major in business, journalism, kinesiology and other areas. They may be athletic or simply like to cheer for their hometown teams. But more now than ever, according to kinesiology professor Stephen McDaniel, there is a growing demand for highly trained professionals in sports-related fields.

“Once, these positions were for former athletes and coaches,” says McDaniel, head of a professional studies certificate program in sports management. “Now we’re talking about a need for people with management and business skills.”

Several new programs across the university aim to strengthen our reputation as a leader in training sports specialists. McDaniel’s program is targeted toward professionals looking to shift from other industries into a sports career or those who may already work with youth or student athletes and want to move to a higher level.

The Robert H. Smith School of Business will soon offer undergraduates four courses in sports management that develop skills for a variety of jobs. And the Philip Merrill College of Journalism this year named its first Shirley Povich Professor, demonstrating a renewed commitment to sports reporting.

A History of Excellence

Major League Terps
	Leonard Elmore ’78 President, National Basketball Retired Players Association and ESPN commentator
	Boomer Esiason ’84 Studio analyst for “The NFL Today” on CBS Television; announcer for Westwood One's “Monday Night Football,” playoff and Super Bowl broadcasts
	Jim O’Brien, M.B.A. ’81 Head coach, the NBA’s Indiana Pacers
	Kevin Plank ’97 Founder, Under Armour performance apparel company
	Amanda Shank ’06 Player Marketing Coordinator for PLAYERS INC., the licensing and marketing subsidiary of the NFL Players Association
	Ed Snider ’55 Chairman, Comcast-Spectacor, which owns the NHL’s Philadelphia Flyers and the city’s Wachovia Center
	Pam Ward ’84 ESPNEWS anchor and commentator for NCAA women's basketball, the WNBA and college football

Maryland is already a powerhouse when it comes to sports journalism. There’s an entire crew at ESPN alone. Now deputy editor for ESPN The Magazine, Jon Pessah ’ 74 covered the Duke lacrosse scandal and previously managed a 16,000 word project on steroids in baseball; Tim Kurkjian ’78 is a reporter for the cable channel’s “Baseball Tonight” and a senior writer for the magazine; and Scott Van Pelt is a SportsCenter anchor and lead reporter and host of golf’s grand slam events.

Broadcast graduates are doing play-by-play and delivering the nightly sport reports in small and mid-sized markets across the country. After years as an NFL sideline reporter for CBS sports, Bonnie Bernstein ’92 is now juggling sideline reporting on ABC’s college football games with hosting duties for ESPN’s “NFL Live” and “Jim Rome is Burning.”

Bernstein, who originally wanted to write for Sports Illustrated, says the journalism school provided a well-rounded experience that prepared her for the demands of live TV.

In JOUR360, Bernstein created a sports administration beat and learned how to shoot, edit and operate studio cameras and run a computer graphics board. She also tackled two internships. At WRC-TV in Washington, former Maryland kicker Jess Atkinson took the future network star under his wing as he covered the Redskins; at a local government access channel, Bernstein’s diligence impressed her news director enough to land her on the air.

“When you put that kind of experience on a resume, you’re going to get hired pretty quickly,” she says.

Not all Maryland graduates working in sports journalism earned journalism degrees. Many cut their teeth in the university’s now-defunct radio, television and film department. After that program closed shop, even journalism students had to depend on jobs at The Diamondback, WMUC or internships for sports-specific training.

“In the last decade or two, obviously there has been a major emergence of sports journalism,” says Thomas Kunkel, dean of the Philip Merrill College of Journalism. “So more kids than ever have come to [us] with sports careers in mind, and we just felt it was time for us to start paying it more official attention.”

Bernstein, who worked her way up from a radio gig to become the first-ever female weekday sports anchor in Reno and then an ESPN bureau chief in 1995, says a great education is only the beginning. She suggests students use time in college to build a variety of skills so they’re ready for the unexpected.

“It’s a highly competitive environment at the moment,” Kunkel says. “Everyone wants to be a SportsCenter announcer, but they don’t always stop to count that there are only 12 to 15 sportscasters on the show.”

A Competitive Advantage

On the other hand, a prime location and a stellar Division I athletic department can give students a terrific advantage in a range of sports professions. Washington, D.C., and Baltimore are home to at least 13 major league teams looking for public relations, sales and physical training interns. The nation’s two largest athlete representation firms are in D.C., as is the National Football Players Association.

Burdett began his career as a sales intern at TV station WJLA in D.C. and eventually returned there as executive vice president and station manager in 1995. The station was Washington Redskins’ flagship, and as he worked to extend the relationship with owner Daniel Snyder, Burdett decided to switch sides. He oversaw sales and broadcasting for the team—an experience he likens to “boot camp”—managing advertising across several platforms.

The next season, he moved to the Ravens, now ranked by Forbes magazine as the second-fastest growing brand in the NFL.­­ Burdett oversees a staff of 12, including a 2007 graduate of the Smith School, and says he would hire more Terps in the future. “Maryland people are street smart, uninhibited, un-entitled, smart,” he says, “and very, very sports savvy.”

Connections make Maryland a great place to study sport management, says Phil Evers, associate professor in the Smith School and champion of the new Fellows program.

The print edition of this article included an archival photo of Jim O’Brien ’75 (top), who played basketball for the Terps from 1970-1973. He is not the same Jim O’Brien who coaches the NBA’s Indiana Pacers. That Jim O'Brien spent his college days as a starter for Saint Joseph’s, then served as an assistant coach for Maryland before earning his M.B.A. here in 1981 (bottom). Terp magazine regrets the error.

In courses starting in spring 2008, students will tackle teams, suppliers, sports firms, apparel and equipment retailers, advertising, even basic sports law. Athletic Director Deborah Yow will help teach the introductory course, and the Smith School is busy lining up other participants like Under Armour Founder Kevin Plank ’97 and Lew Strudler, senior director of corporate marketing for Washington Sports & Entertainment. The business school will also work closely with students interested in pursuing post-baccalaureate internships with Yow’s staff.

Wellington says her own connection to Maryland athletics provided key lessons. “If you don’t perform at any point, you can be replaced,” says the standout lacrosse player, who won four national championships as a Terp. “You perform because it’s what is expected of you, it’s what you expect from yourself and you want to perform for your teammates and coaches. All those lessons transcend to the workplace.”

In Texas this fall, Wellington is teaching a college softball team how to play lacrosse, hoping the clinic improves their athleticism and her company’s relationship with the school. As manger for sports marketing, she’s responsible for promoting Under Armour to teams west of the Mississippi. The key connection for her: landing an Under Armour internship as an undergraduate—at a time when the company had just 26 employees. Although there are immediate openings and a growing demand for employees, faculty members say organizations are looking for sports workers with a certain competitive spirit.

“One of the biggest opportunities is for people who are entrepreneurial,” says Evers. “Sport is just a form of entertainment. It really is a challenge to get people who can spend their money on so many things to come watch a game or buy certain apparel.”­ TERP

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