In the world of Sport Management, it is not uncommon to live a life of Super Bowl games, court-side seats and all-access passes to world-class teams, globally-renowned athletes and high-end brands.
Last month, four alumni of the program returned to campus to lead an exciting workshop for current students as part of the annual alumni weekend, sharing their stories of taking the world of sport by the horns, and inspiring a new generation of aspiring Sports Management professionals.
The alumni, whose accomplished roles include working with the LA Chargers, Yahoo! Sports and beyond, returned to campus last month to meet with current students during a donor-sponsored networking event at the College of Education’s H.J. Lutcher Stark Center for Physical Culture and Sports on the fifth floor of the Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium.
During the workshop, the alumni reflected on the benefits of being a part of the Sport Management program and how their time at The University of Texas of Austin impacted their lives, guided them through life’s transitions, and ultimately opened doors for their success.
Dr. Matt Bowers, an alumnus of the Sport Management program himself who now serves as its director and as associate professor of instruction in the Department of Kinesiology and Health Education, said he views his role as a torchbearer for a legacy of COE Longhorns making a profound impact beyond the college and the Forty Acres.
“To be a Longhorn means something – to me, to us – and I take very seriously that we get to play a small-yet-meaningful role in our students’ journey,” Dr. Bowers said.
He said he hopes the program will continue to jumpstart student careers, provide first-hand experiences and encourage stronger alumni and community engagement.
“I want to help our program enter a period of fellowship, community, and connection unlike anything we have pursued to this point,” Dr. Bowers said. “We want alumni integrated back into the program in new and creative ways to help us train and mentor the next generation of sports industry leaders.”
Last month’s event was one of many ways in which Dr. Bowers aims to make this mission for the program a reality. As visiting alumni shared reflections, anecdotes and encouraging words for hopeful students, they also reflected on the impact that their time at Texas and the Sport Management program had on them as they forged their own paths and made their dreams come true.
The event was made possible thanks to the generosity of Longhorn Parent Laurie Wolk who was inspired by her daughter Shawn Rosenblatt, a current Sport Management student actively pursuing a career in the sports industry.
Paige Vinnicombe ’20
Now a lead producer for features and branded content for the Los Angeles Chargers, Vinnicombe said that she felt lost by her sophomore year at UT after a severe injury forced her to medically retire from her athletic career in rowing. But it was the warm welcome and supportive community that she found through the Sport Management program that helped her embrace a new path.
“I think the College of Education played a part in just the steadfast welcoming in every aspect and support,” Vinnicombe said.
Vinnicombe said she had an interest in the creative field, so she began using a GoPro camera to do videos for the rowing team. Soon, she said Dr. Bowers connected her with staff in the Texas Football program, so she reached out to them to express her interest. To her surprise, they invited her to their office and requested work samples and soon she was working as a student with the program doing videography.
Emily Johnson ’17
A freelance creative and content producer, Emily Johnson said she transferred to Texas as an incoming college basketball player from Colorado State University.
After growing up in Georgetown, just 30 miles north of the UT campus, she said she had always bled burnt orange. When she arrived in Austin, she was burnt out from the game and decided to join the Longhorn basketball team as a manager rather than a player. However, it was only a few months before the head coach invited her to join the team as a walk-on athlete.
Johnson, whose mother had also played as a walk-on basketball player, accepted the offer which she said was a full circle moment of fulfilling her legacy. But by the time she was eligible to play with the team a year later, she decided to step away from the game and make a change and embrace her love for creativity and content creation.
“I went full on creative mode which was for me a really smooth transition out of being a player,” Johnson said, adding that she helped with graphics, video production and social media.
In her classes, Johnson said she learned how to apply her lessons to the real world both at the time and for her future career goals as she created marketing schemes for professional teams, worked with brands such as Nike to do activations on campus and completed case studies on where are the most advantageous expansion teams for the professional leagues.
“I think so much about what I did at Texas between the women’s basketball program and the College of Education, that really morphed everything,” Johnson said, adding that she recalls thinking that when an alumnus returned to campus, it was a sign they had succeeded.
Kendall Garriss ’19
Currently a social media editor at Yahoo! Sports, Kendall Garriss said he arrived on campus as a master’s degree student at the College of Education with a dream to work in the world of sports but unsure of where he fit into that ecosystem.
Through attending one of Dr. Bowers’ classes, Garriss said he was introduced to the staff at Texas Athletics and began doing media relations with the organization for two years across several sports including football, women’s soccer, men’s and women’s basketball and baseball.
Garriss, who said he eventually pivoted to social media, said being at Texas and learning useful skills in his classes, participating in real-world learning experiences and the insight he received from the faculty played a huge role in helping him decide where he wanted to take his career after graduation.
“You really felt like the education that you were getting could take you to the next level,” Garris said, “When you left here you are equipped to go into the real world, into the workforce and not feel like you don’t have the skills to make it in the field — that is the big thing I look back on.”
Taylor Brasher ’14
As director of digital and social media at the Southeastern Conference, Taylor Brasher, couldn’t help being reminded him of his time as a COE student as he sat again in the stadium reflecting on the unique opportunity that it was for him to learn here and be naturally embedded in Texas Athletics. He said it was this close relationship with the athletic department that allowed him and his fellow students to work with them or adjacent to them with one of the top brands in college athletics.
“The ability to supplement classes with that real-world experience at the same time as a student was eye-opening,” Brasher said, adding that he began working with the women’s soccer team after receiving a flyer in Dr. Bowers’s class. “I didn’t know what I was going to do and that set my path forward at that time.”
Brasher said he had the opportunity to see every side of college athletics early on, working with Nike inventory, producing scout film, ordering the catering, picking up the catering and helping with laundry. He said it was this that helped him focus on what he wanted to do.
“The campus tagline—what starts here changes the world—that is completely true,” Brasher said, adding that it is nice to look back on the people, the decisions and the opportunities that shaped the last decade of his career. “I like to think there are people on campus who are changing the world in much cooler ways than I am, but this changed my world, personally.”
