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 STRATEGIC
SPORT COMMUNICATION
SECOND EDITION

Paul M. Pedersen, PhD

Indiana University
Bloomington, Indiana

Pamela C. Laucella, PhD

Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis
Indianapolis, Indiana

Edward (Ted) M. Kian, PhD

Oklahoma State University
Stillwater, Oklahoma

Andrea N. Geurin, PhD

Griffith University
Brisbane, Australia
 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Pedersen, Paul Mark, author

Title: Strategic sport communication / Paul M. Pedersen, Pamela C. Laucella,
Edward (Ted) M. Kian, Andrea N. Geurin.
Description: Second edition. | Champaign, IL : Human Kinetics, [2017] |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015039410 | ISBN 9781492525776 (print)
Subjects: LCSH: Sports administration. | Communication in sports.
Classification: LCC GV713 .P43 2017 | DDC 796.06/9--dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015039410

ISBN: 978-1-4925-2577-6 (print)

Copyright © 2017 by Paul M. Pedersen, Pamela C. Laucella, Edward (Ted) M. Kian, and Andrea N. Geurin
Copyright © 2007 by Paul M. Pedersen, Kimberly S. Miloch, and Pamela C. Laucella

All rights reserved. Except for use in a review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in any form or by
any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photo-
copying, and recording, and in any information storage and retrieval system, is forbidden without the written
permission of the publisher.

Permission notices for photos reprinted in this book from other sources can be found on page xiii.

The web addresses cited in this text were current as of May 2016, unless otherwise noted.

Senior Acquisitions Editor: Myles Schrag; Developmental Editor: Melissa J. Zavala; Senior Managing Editor:
Carly S. O’Connor; Copyeditor: Tom Tiller; Proofreader: Sarah Wiseman; Indexer: Alisha Jeddeloh; Permissions
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Human Kinetics
Website: www.HumanKinetics.com
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P.O. Box 5076 57A Price Avenue
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E6734
 Contents
Preface vii
Acknowledgments xi
Photo Credits xiii

Part I Introducing Sport Communication 1

Chapter 1 Study of Sport Communication: Revolutionary
Change, Abundant Opportunities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Growth and Magnitude of the Sport Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Television Contracts and Growth in Sport Franchise Values . . . . . . . . . . 7
Segmentation of the Sport Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Role of Communication in the Sport Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Study of Sport Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Study of Sport Communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Preparing for a Career in Sport Communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Chapter Wrap-Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Chapter 2 Careers in Sport Communication. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Careers in Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Careers in Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Careers in Support Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Careers in Entertainment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Other Career Opportunities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Increasing Your Marketability Through Ancillary Activities . . . . . . . . . . 38
Your Keys to Entering the Field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Chapter Wrap-Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Chapter 3 History and Growth of Sport Communication. . . . . . . . . . 49

Early Eras of Sport Journalism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Golden Age of Sport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Perspective Period . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Transition Years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Pioneering Visions: Pete Rozelle and Roone Arledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Contemporary Sport Communication and Digital Sport
Communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Chapter Wrap-Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

iii
iv Contents

Part II Examining the Strategic Sport Communication

Model (SSCM) 75
Chapter 4 Sport Communication and the SSCM. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Definition of Sport Communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Theoretical Framework of Sport Communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Elements of Sport Communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Popular Theories in Sport Communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Strategic Sport Communication Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Chapter Wrap-Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Chapter 5 Personal Sport Communication. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Forms of Personal Communication in Sport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Interpersonal Sport Communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Elements of the Interpersonal Sport Communication Process . . . . . . . 115
Nonverbal Communication in Sport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Verbal Communication in Sport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Effective Interpersonal Sport Communication: Skill Development . . . 126
Chapter Wrap-Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

Chapter 6 Organizational and Leadership Communication

in Sport. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Organizational Sport Communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Three Organizational Features That Affect Communication . . . . . . . . 142
Forms of Communication in Sport Organizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Leadership Communication in Sport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
Chapter Wrap-Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

Chapter 7 Sport Mass Media: Convergence and Shifting Roles. . . . 169

21st-Century Media Convergence and Corporate Consolidation . . . . 172
Sport Publishing and Print Sport Communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Newspaper Sport Coverage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Wire Services and Technological Advancements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Web Sport Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Sport Magazines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
Sport Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Electronic and Visual Communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Chapter Wrap-Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

Chapter 8 Digital, Mobile, and Social Media in Sport. . . . . . . . . . . . 203

New Sport Media: Interactivity and the Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
Internet Usage in Sport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
Model for Online Sport Communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
New Sport Media and Communication Channels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
Chapter Wrap-Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
 Contents v

Chapter 9 Integrated Marketing Communication in Sport. . . . . . . . 231

Advertising . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
Sponsorship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
Use of Athletes as Endorsers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
Broadcasting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
New Media and Integrated Marketing Communication . . . . . . . . . . . 248
Chapter Wrap-Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248

Chapter 10 Public Relations and Crisis Communication in Sport . . . . 251

Historical Perspectives and Trends in Public Relations . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
Effective Public Relations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
Media Relations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
Community Relations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
Communication During a Crisis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268
Chapter Wrap-Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272

Chapter 11 Sport Communication Research. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275

Practical Research in the Media Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
Academic Research in Sport Communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
Chapter Wrap-Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306

Part III Addressing Issues in Sport Communication 309

Chapter 12 Sociological Aspects of Sport Communication . . . . . . . . 311
Race and Ethnicity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
Mutual Influence of Sociocultural Issues and Sport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
Gender and Sport Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
Nationalism and Sport Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
Current Sociological Issues Affecting Sport Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
Chapter Wrap-Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338

Chapter 13 Legal Issues in Sport Communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341

Barbara Osborne
Constitutional Law Tension: Freedom of the Press Versus
Privacy Rights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344
Constitutional Rights: Freedom of Speech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346
Rapidly Evolving Right of Publicity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347
Copyright and Trademark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354
Gender Issues in Sport Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356
Chapter Wrap-Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360

Bibliography 363
Index 395
About the Authors 407
This Page Intentionally Left Blank
 Preface
T he first edition of Strategic Sport Com-
munication was published a decade
ago. Since then, the field of sport commu-
nication has witnessed a massive trans-
formation, which has brought changes of
a profound and pervasive nature. These
changes involve many facets of the field:
• Economic, as in the $5.7 billion that
ESPN paid in 12-year rights fees for
the College Football Playoff
• P romot iona l, as in t he use of
hashtags (e.g., #PyeongChang2018
and #2020Tokyo) to generate interest
in and interaction during sporting
events
• Technological, as in the use of cloud
computing for information storage,
sharing, and retrieval
• Occupational, as in the creation
of social-media jobs in the sport
industry
• Organizational, as in t he need
to address problematic behavior Organizers of the California International Marathon in Sacra-
recorded via smartphone and gone mento display an event-specific hashtag at the before-event
viral online expo.
• Inter personal, as in parasocial
opportunities for sport fans (e.g., many of
tion now differ vastly from the form they took
the over 200 million social media followers
just a few years ago.
of Cristiano Ronaldo feel a connection with
As a result, even though the first edition of this
the athlete even though for most of them that
textbook was groundbreaking at the time of its
personal relationship is only one-sided)
release, the changes transforming the field of sport
The rapidity of such changes is emphasized communication over the last few years have intro-
by the fact that the first edition of this book did duced new and unique challenges, opportunities,
not even mention a number of phenomena now issues, terms, activities, and even careers. Of
taken for granted—for example, widely used course, many aspects of communication covered
microblogging networks (e.g., Twitter), social in the first edition remain the same as, or similar
networking platforms (e.g., Facebook), smart- to, the way they were a decade ago. For instance,
phone apps (e.g., Snapchat), and now-common the elements of the Strategic Sport Communica-
terminology (e.g., GIF, selfie, meme, emoticon, tion Model (SSCM) still represent the key commu-
big data). The first edition did not even mention nication components in the sport industry today:
the use of hashtags, which, of course, are now interpersonal communication, organizational
commonplace in the sport industry. Suffice it to communication, and mass-mediated communi-
say, then, that many aspects of sport communica- cation. However, though the SSCM components

vii
viii Preface

still apply, sport communica-

tion—which is situated within
the multibillion-dollar sport
industry—has witnessed such
staggering changes and growth
that a second edition of the
book is needed in order to pro-
vide a current examination and
overview of this evolving and
exciting field.
The changes in the field
have not only affected sport
communication professionals,
such as sportswriters, sports
information directors, and
sport broadcasters. They have
also been felt throughout the
sport industry, and the indus-
try’s growth and expansion
have been accompanied by
Aspects of sport communication are displayed in this photo of the FIFA
increased competition, which Women’s World Cup, Canada, 2015.
in turn has increased the need
for individuals who are well
versed in communication practices and manage- profiles were written from interviews conducted
ment principles. More specifically, the ways in by the authors. Sport Communication at Work
which organizations—and sport industry profes- profiles at the beginning of the chapter introduce
sionals, in particular—communicate with both readers to the concepts presented in the chapter.
internal and external publics has been reshaped The Profile of a Sport Communicator profiles pro-
by the development of new technologies and the vide a taste of professional opportunities available
demand for a diverse array of sport products— after students complete their studies.
for example, the latest LeBron James basketball As with the first edition of Strategic Sport Com-
shoe from Nike, the BBC Sport app, tickets to the munication, this new edition serves as a primary
FIFA Women’s World Cup, and premium online resource for academicians and students in sport
subscriptions to ESPN Insider. communication and can also be used as an infor-
These changes have increased the number of mational tool for sport industry professionals. In
sport communication professionals and, more addition, though most students who read this
generally, increased the pressure felt by sport book will major or take courses in sport-related
industry professionals to communicate effectively areas of study (e.g., sport communication, sport
and make wise strategic communication deci- management, sport media, sport journalism,
sions. As a result, courses and specializations in sport studies), this second edition is also useful
sport communication are now part of various for students in interdisciplinary or indirectly
curricula offered by academic units around the related programs, such as new media studies,
world. The students enrolled in these programs— marketing, public relations, organizational com-
whether they are considering a specific sport munication, telecommunications, advertising,
communication career or eyeing work in another digital communication, photojournalism, and
area of the sport industry—can benefit from the management. This edition is accompanied by
expansive approach to sport communication that an instructor guide, test package, and presenta-
characterizes this textbook. In each chapter, you tion package available at www.HumanKinetics
will notice two profiles that highlight profes- .com/St rateg icSpor tCommunicat ion. The
sionals using sport communication. Most of the instructor guide includes chapter outlines, sug-
 Preface ix

gested lecture outlines, and student activities

for the classroom to facilitate learning and
engagement with the materials. The test package
includes a variety of questions that instructors
can use in creating or supplementing tests and
quizzes. Instructors may use the presentation
slides in the presentation package to customize
lecture presentations.
Indeed, because of the multifaceted and inter-
related aspects of sport communication, this
introductory textbook focuses on the full scope,
rather than on just one area, of the discipline.
In other words, it covers the entire field of sport
communication, which includes a wide range of
endeavors—for example, mass-media coverage
of sporting events, marketing communication
strategies of sport entities, interpersonal interac-
tions between sport-industry stakeholders, and
use of social media by sport organizations. As a
result, you will find coverage of topics as diverse
as enhancing your communication skills, man-
aging a website, and coordinating sport media
relations. This macro analysis of sport commu-
nication is accomplished by examining the field
from a wide variety of lenses, ranging from the
personal to the organizational to the external The press conference illustrated in this photo involves
and mass-mediated perspectives. numerous aspects of the Strategic Sport Communica-
The organization of this book enables readers tion Model, which provides the conceptual framework
to build a knowledge base pertaining to current for this book.
trends, industry demands, and professional
opportunities upon which they can pursue a of sport communication jobs and career-prepa-
career in their chosen area of sport communica- ration strategies. Chapter 3 provides a historical
tion. As the book’s authors, we aim for readers to analysis of key eras, personalities, and activities
become thoroughly familiar with—and excited in the field.
about their aspirations in—the field of sport com- After this introduction to the field, the eight
munication. For readers who do not plan to work chapters of part II address the development,
in the field, the book provides an overview of arrangement, and elements of the Strategic Sport
sport communication’s key aspects, its influence, Communication Model (SSCM). Built on commu-
and how knowledge of the field can position them nication theories and the unique structure of sport
to take advantage of opportunities in their own communication (chapter 4), this innovative model
roles as stakeholders in the sport industry—for bridges theory and practice by detailing the three
example, as consumers, managers, advertisers, main components of the field. The first component
or enthusiasts. consists of the personal (chapter 5) and organiza-
Part I includes the book’s first three chapters, tional (chapter 6) processes and aspects of sport
which familiarize readers with the field. Chapter communication. The second component involves
1 defines sport communication and illustrates mediated communication in sport. The chapters
changes and opportunities in the study and covering this component emphasize multimedia
practice of sport communication. Chapter 2 and convergence and are particularly focused on
provides readers with an extensive discussion sport-related mass media (chapter 7) and emerging
x Preface
and social media in sport (chapter 8). The third
component is addressed by three chapters that
cover sport communication services and support
systems. This component includes integrated mar-
keting communication in sport (chapter 9), sport
public relations and crisis communication in sport
(chapter 10), and sport communication research
(chapter 11). The book closes with part III, which
addresses critical sociologi-
cal issues (chapter 12) and
legal aspects (chapter 13) of
the field.
 Acknowledgments
P aul M. Pedersen and Pamela C. Laucella offer a
special note of appreciation for Edward “Ted”
M. Kian and Andrea N. Geurin, our old friends
and new co-authors for this second edition of
Strategic Sport Communication. Their contributions
as part of the authorship team are much appreci-
ated; they not only provide welcome insights but
also represent the replacement for Kimberly S.
Miloch. Kim was a contributor to the book’s first
edition, and her co-authorship helped make the
book a groundbreaking addition to the field. She
is now heavily involved with administration and
leadership at Texas Woman’s University, and the
authors of this second edition remain appreciative
of Kim’s vision for, and work on, the first edition.
Our friend and collaborator has been missed as
a co-author.
As a group, the authorship team of Paul, Pam,
Ted, and Andrea expresses appreciation to the
following individuals who helped us create this
second edition. This textbook would not have hap-
pened without the exceptional support and lead-
ership of Myles Schrag, our acquisitions editor,
who has been with us since the conceptualization
stages of the first edition. Our developmental
editor, Melissa Zavala, and managing editor, Carly
O’Connor, have also been outstanding. We are
indebted to Myles, Melissa, Carly, and the other
dedicated editors and professionals at Human
Kinetics (e.g., Bridget Melton, Holly Albin, Dalene
Reeder, Denise D’Urso, Abigail Gailey). We also
thank Barbara Osborne from the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill for accepting our
invitation to take over the legal chapter and for
making such a high-quality contribution to this
second edition.
In addition, we express our gratitude for the
time and contributions of numerous sport com-
munication practitioners, leaders, and academics
who were interviewed for this second edition.
Their quotes and profiles can be found throughout
the chapters. Thanks also to our colleagues and
administrators at our respective universities—
Indiana University, Indiana University–Purdue
University Indianapolis, Oklahoma State Uni-
versity, and Griffith University—who provided
us with the time, resources, and encouragement
to complete this project. Finally, the following
family members and friends deserve a special
note of thanks for the sacrifices they made and
for their patience and support during our work
on this edition: Elizabeth Brockelman, Patrick
Geurin, Dr. Mo Kian, Martie Kian, David Kian,
Christy Kian, Hayden (the future Grand Slam
champ) Kian, the late Kenneth Laucella, Marie
Laucella, Claudia Montgomery, Brock Pedersen,
Carlie Pedersen, Hallie Pedersen, Jennifer Peder-
sen, Zack Pedersen, and Jeane Varone.
xi
 Photo Credits
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Entertainment
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Nick Woodruff.
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xiii
This Page Intentionally Left Blank
 PART I
Introducing Sport
Communication

S
port is a dynamic, multibillion-dollar industry whose popularity spans the
globe. From neighborhood pickup games to intercollegiate athletics to the
Olympic Games, sport captivates audiences and transcends borders. As
a result, it is experiencing tremendous growth at all levels. This growth, in turn,
has increased the need for individuals who are well versed in communication,
and the discipline of sport communication has emerged as an integral area in
the overall field of sport management. In that context, this textbook defines the
evolving field of sport communication; its role in sport management, journalism,
and communication; and its status as a stand-alone discipline. More specifically,
the book outlines the nature and scope of the discipline as illustrated by the
Strategic Sport Communication Model (SSCM).
Chapter 1 introduces you to the sport industry and the field of sport com-
munication. It begins by examining the industry, the growth and segments
of this broad field, and the specific places that sport management and sport
communication occupy in the sport industry. Because sport-industry careers are
founded on education, the chapter emphasizes the study of sport communica-
tion; it also addresses the content areas, programs, and options available to
students who are interested in learning about the field.
The quest to understand and appreciate the complexity of sport communi-
cation begins with gaining knowledge of the field’s career options. To this end,
chapter 2 details careers in five distinct segments: management, mass media
(e.g., print, electronic, visual), support services (e.g., advertising, public relations),
entertainment (e.g., video gaming, movies, music), and ancillary opportunities.
This chapter provides you with the keys for entering the field, including self-
evaluation, education, networking, experiential learning, and the job search. With
a clear understanding of the available opportunities and suggestions for pursuing
them, you will have a strong foundation on which to expand your knowledge

1
2 Part I

and your educational endeavors. The chapter concludes by describing steps that
you can take to increase your marketability as a sport communicator, as well as
listings of professional organizations that can help you do so.
Chapter 3 covers key historical developments and the growth of sport com-
munication from the 19th century to the present. It discusses sport coverage
in newspapers, magazines, radio, television, and emerging technologies, as
well as the ways in which the sport media interact with other key entities in the
field. Examining the field’s historical development enables you to fully under-
stand sport communication’s skyrocketing growth, the full scope of how the
key changes have occurred, and the opportunities in this expansive and still-
burgeoning field. Therefore, this chapter explores how both technology and
pioneers in sport communication—such as Grantland Rice, Mel Allen, Roone
Arledge, Mary Garber, and Pete Rozelle—have contributed to the founding of
the field as a powerful cultural force. By understanding sport communication’s
history, you can better understand current trends in the field, as well as the vast
opportunities it offers to you.
 CHAPTER 1
Study of
Sport Communication
Revolutionary Change, Abundant Opportunities

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
• To become aware of the magnitude, finances, growth, and segments
of the sport industry
• To learn about the role of sport communication in the sport industry
• To consider the academic aspects of sport management and sport
communication
• To learn about the educational programs available in sport communica-
tion
• To understand the variety and prevalence of sport communication
courses offered in both undergraduate and graduate settings

3
4 Strategic Sport Communication
KEY TERMS
sport administration
sport communication
sport journalism
T his chapter provides a brief examination of
the sport industry as a whole, with a primary
focus on the United States, where the financial
and sociological effects of the sport industry
cannot be overstated. More specifically, it analyzes
the size and segments of the sport industry, as
well as the role and importance of sport commu-
nication in the overall industry. The chapter then
briefly examines the study of sport management
before providing more detail about the emer-
gence of sport communication as a stand-alone
academic discipline. In particular, it examines the
rationale for studying sport communication and
highlights the processes and skills involved in
studying the discipline. The chapter also addresses
higher-education programs, courses, and syllabi
specific to sport communication in light of the
recent increase in academic offerings dedicated
to the discipline.
GROWTH AND MAGNITUDE
OF THE SPORT INDUSTRY
Although sport is already a major global indus-
try, the business of sport continues to expand.
Gray and McEvoy (2005) noted that sport “is
intertwined with practically every aspect of the
economy—from advertising and apparel, to
computer technology and video games, to travel
and tourism” (p. 230). Nearly 30 years ago, the
U.S. gross national sport product—the sum total
of value added with respect to sport over one
year—was estimated at $50 billion (Sandomir,
1988). A decade later, Meek (1997) noted that the
sport industry accounted for about $152 billion
and supported another $259 billion in economic
activity (also referred to as the gross domestic
sport product).
Nearing the first decade of the 21st century, the
size of the annual sport industry in the United
States was estimated at $213 billion by Street &
Smith’s SportsBusiness Journal (Broughton, Lee, &
Nethery, 1999). In addition, Milano and Chel-
sport leadership
sport management
sport media
ladurai (2011) used guidelines from the U.S.
Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic
Analysis to estimate the size of the gross domestic
U.S. sport product at between $168 billion and
$207 billion for 2005. However, sport televi-
sion rights deals have since exploded, and the
sport industry escaped largely unscathed from
the 2007–2008 financial crises that led to the
2008–2012 global economic recession. Most
recently, Plunkett research estimated the annual
global sport industry at $1.5 billion USD in 2014,
including $485 million in the United States alone
(“Sports Industry Overview,” 2014). If that esti-
mate is accurate, then the sport industry in the
United States is seven times larger than the U.S.
movie industry and twice the size of the U.S. auto
industry (Masteralexis, Barr, & Hums, 2015).
More generally, a 2012 study of professional
sport leagues and teams by global management
consulting firm A.T. Kearney valued the overall
sport industry at $480 billion to $620 billion
and concluded that the global sport industry was
growing faster than the gross domestic products of
China, Brazil, India, and Russia (Borland, Kane, &
Burton, 2014). Moreover, sport finance professors
Fried, DeSchriver, and Mondello (2013) pointed
out that many estimates examine only organized
sport for spectators and consumers, thus leav-
ing out major areas of the sport industry (e.g.,
personal golf, fishing trips). Therefore, the actual
size of the sport industry may be even higher than
indicated by the massive figures just noted.
Another major segment of the sport industry—
gambling—may also go unaccounted for in such
projections. In the United States, for example,
more than 99 percent of the estimated $380 bil-
lion wagered on sport in 2012 involved bets that
were placed illegally, according to the National
Gambling Impact Study Commission (Asher,
2012). In addition, the Fantasy Sports Trade Asso-
ciation estimated that some 32 million Americans
spend a total of roughly $11 billion annually just
to play fantasy football (Goff, 2013). With such
 SPORT COMMUNICATION AT WORK

RISING TO THE TOP IN SPORT COMMUNICATION IN

THE DIGITAL AGE
Anthony Slater

If you are reading this book, it is likely that

you aspire to work in or around profes-
sional sports. Reporting on the National
Basketball Association (NBA) often ranks
near the pinnacle of such goals in the
Western World. Accordingly, most of you
would consider Anthony Slater’s life ideal.
In 2013, at the age of 23, Slater become
one of the youngest beat reporters cover-
ing the National Basketball Association
when he was promoted from web editor
of the sports section of NewsOK.com to
multimedia reporter assigned year-round
to cover the Oklahoma City Thunder for
both NewsOK.com and the Oklahoman
daily newspaper. “I love the travel for my
job and the human interaction with ath-
letes and coaches,” said Slater. “I like cov- As part of his job covering the Oklahoma City Thunder,
ering the games, but one of the best parts Anthony Slater regularly travels to venues across North
is that I get to visit all these different cities, America to cover games, like this one between the
Thunder and Indiana Pacers at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in
experience different cultures, and meet
Indianapolis.
people from all types of backgrounds, all
while covering the NBA. No doubt I am wanted to pursue during his high school years or
very fortunate to have this job, especially at my even during his first year at Sonoma State Univer-
age. I hit a little bit of gold and got very lucky.” sity in his hometown of Rohnert Park, California.
In the sport communication profession, how- Then, toward the end of his first year in college—
ever, luck must usually be accompanied by a and in part to share his passion for sport with
strong work ethic and a willingness to work one’s others—Slater started writing about his favorite
way up from the bottom. These two characteris- professional sport leagues for Bleacher Report,
tics have been exemplified by Slater throughout a then-amateur sport fan website that allowed
his young career, and they form a common theme novices to garner experience in sportswriting.
with all of the sport communication profession- (Note: Bleacher Report still features many ama-
als profiled in this textbook. In addition, U.S. teur writers but has also hired some of the top
students preparing for the profession today sport reporters in the country since being pur-
can benefit from the availability of degrees and chased by Time Warner for $175 million in 2012.)
coursework (e.g., in sport media and sport jour- As a sophomore, Slater followed up his expe-
nalism) that were not available at most American rience with Bleacher Report by working for the
universities until recent years. student newspaper, the Sonoma State Star, for
Slater was raised in a small community in which he covered mostly the basketball and base-
Northern California, where he enjoyed activities ball teams at the school’s National Collegiate
typical of American youth, such as playing sport, Athletic Association (NCAA) Division II athletics
watching sport, talking about sport, and reading program. As he describes it, “I started figuring
about sport. However, like many young people in out that I could write about sports pretty well,
the United States, he had no idea what career he knew a lot about sports, and had a lot of fun my

5
 sophomore year, but it was clear that I wasn’t at
the best school for that career.”
After using basic Google searches to educate
himself about potential sport communication
programs, Slater decided to attend Oklahoma
State University (OSU) in order to major in sports
media. There, he took multiple courses that
provided him with theoretical and content knowl-
edge about the sport communication industry
and its various professions (by the way, the larg-
est of those courses assigned the first edition of
this very textbook). “You could tell shortly after
Slater got here that this guy was going to be a
star,” said retired Oklahoma sports media profes-
sor and baseball historian Mike Sowell. “He had
lots of talent, but he also exhibited a great work
ethic and a desire to get better.” Slater also took
practitioner courses, such as electronic sports
reporting and sportswriting, along with other
courses covering mass communication theory
and skills. “It was beneficial to major in sports
media, because the classes centered on stuff that
you need in the future sports environment,” he
said. “Sometimes there can be a stigma on sports
that it’s not real journalism, but the professors
at OSU understood the significance, because
they all worked in the field. They also brought in
great guest speakers from the profession. It was
good to have that specific major in a sportcentric
environment.”
Even more important to his career ascension
were the experiences that Slater found outside of
the classroom. He excelled at the OSU indepen-
dent student newspaper, the Daily O’Collegian
(or O’Colly), where he worked his way up in roles
such as football beat reporter, co-sports editor,
and eventually sports editor. Along the way, he
spent a summer earning college credit while
working as an unpaid sport intern for the sports
department at the Daily Oklahoman in Oklahoma
City. Mike Sherman, sports editor for both the
Daily Oklahoman and NewsOKSports.com, said
that his staff liked Slater’s writing and work ethic
enough to keep him on as a fall intern when he
returned to the Oklahoma State campus in Still-
water for classes—and then to hire him as a web
editor and blogger before he finished his under-
6
graduate degree, something major metropolitan
media outlets the size of the Daily Oklahoman
and NewsOK.com rarely do. A few months after
graduating from OSU, and while continuing to
improve on his skills at the Daily Oklahoman,
Slater was promoted to beat reporter for the
Thunder. “Anthony worked really hard and did so
well for us that we did not want to lose him and
he kept earning promotions,” Sherman said. “He
definitely was on the fast-track more than most
in this field. But he earned that job as Thunder
beat writer and was the best candidate for the
opening. Nothing was given to him.”
In this job, Slater writes all types of basketball
articles, including game stories and previews,
player features, statistical analyses, breaking-
news stories, player transaction reports, and
game-film breakdowns. He also does regular
podcasts, shoots video with his phone at
coaches’ press conferences, goes on camera
to discuss the Thunder for videos uploaded to
NewsOKSports.com, blogs regularly for that
same site, and maintains an active presence on
multiple forms of social media, particularly Twit-
ter. “Today,” he said, “if you are a beat writer any-
where, you are essentially a multimedia reporter,
because that’s where the industry has gone at
any major paper or Internet site. My advice to
students who want to break into this field is to
do anything and everything. Accept any assign-
ment. Do as much work as you can, even if the
direct payoff isn’t obvious. Keep doing stuff.
Keep getting your name out there and gaining
experience, whether it be in the classroom or
student media. That is the best way to improve
your skills and reputation among others, which
is what leads to jobs.” Slater acknowledges he
has a great job and reached a level within the
industry at a young age that most in the indus-
try never reach at all. However, he promises to
continue to work hard, while improving on his
skillset. “I guess my ultimate dream is to be an
NBA national reporter who covers the whole
league,” said Slater, who has already appeared
on NBA TV as a league expert. “I know there
are only a few of those jobs, but I think I can get
there eventually.”

complications in mind, Plunkett Research (“Sports
Industry Overview,” 2014, para. 2) surmised that
“the sports industry is so complex, including ticket
sales, licensed products, sports video games, col-
lectibles, sporting goods, sports-related advertis-
ing, endorsement income, stadium naming fees
and facilities income, that it’s difficult to put an
all-encompassing figure on annual revenue.”
It should not be surprising, then, that the sport
industry offers ample job opportunities. In fact,
according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics,
career opportunities in sport are projected to
increase by nearly 13 percent between 2010 and
2020, thus accounting for more than 340,000
new U.S. jobs in the process (Lockard & Wolf,
2012). To meet this demand, the industry will
need qualified professionals, which translates to
opportunities for students who hold a degree from
a good sport communication or sport manage-
ment program.
TELEVISION CONTRACTS
AND GROWTH IN SPORT
FRANCHISE VALUES
Sport communication is a major reason for the
rapid growth of the sport industry, as evidenced
by the huge media-rights contracts that reflect the
popularity and value of the Olympic games, the
most popular professional team-sport leagues,
and revenue-producing intercollegiate sports.
Since the advent of the World Wide Web in the
late 20th century and the social media revolution
of the early 21st century, sport media content
has become available to consumers at all times
through a variety of platforms. In the United
States, for example, sport fans can
• stream live video of a lower-level sporting
event halfway across the world;
• choose from dozens of all-sport stations avail-
able through high-definition video packages;
• listen to sports-talk programs and play-by-
play sport coverage from across the country
by means of satellite and Internet radio;
• read about any major sport or team at any
time through traditional media (e.g., news-
paper, magazine) or online sources;
Study of Sport Communication 7
• follow and occasionally interact with favorite
athletes and teams, beat reporters, and other
fans through social media; and
• do all of this while playing sport video games
and changing their fantasy-sport team lineups
via their smartphones.
Despite this impressive array of changes,
however, the growth in sport coverage is best
indicated by the dramatic growth in sport tele-
vision contracts, which have largely fueled the
growth of the professional and major-college
sport industries in the United States. Indeed, the
highest levels of sport in the country now com-
mand mind-boggling media rights fees. Nothing
better exemplifies the popularity and financial
magnitude of sport in the United States than the
National Football League (NFL), which collected
just under $7 billion in 2015 from CBS, DirecTV,
ESPN, Fox, and NBC through its new and ongoing
television contracts (Katowitz, 2014). The NFL’s
latest deal with DirecTV for its Sunday Ticket
package, announced in 2014, was worth 50 per-
cent more (rising to $1.5 billion annually) than
the previous deal negotiated just five years earlier
(Katowitz, 2014). Indeed, in a time of declining
ratings for most television programs amid the vast
array of media-consumption choices, NFL ratings
keep rising annually. Through early 2015, Super
Bowls accounted for the 22 most-watched telecasts
in U.S. history, with the most recent games being
the highest rated. Further, during the fall of 2014,
regular-season NFL games accounted for the 18
most-watched television programs in the United
States (Kondolojy, 2014; Smith, 2015).
Accordingly, the net values of NFL franchises
(as well as other major sport teams) have risen
considerably in recent years. In 2015, Forbes
(Badenhausen, 2015) considered the Dallas
Cowboys to be the most valuable NFL franchise,
with an estimated worth of $3.2 billion. How-
ever, Dallas is not the most valuable sport team
in the world. Per Badenhausen, the Spain-based
soccer franchise Real Madrid is worth slightly
more ($3.26 billion). Furthermore, Badenhausen
(para. 4) added that in 2015 the average value of
the 50 most valuable sports teams in the world
was $1.75 billion—a 31 percent increase over the
previous year. In addition, an examination of
8 Strategic Sport Communication
sport franchise valuation reports by Forbes over
the past two decades underlines the rapid and
seemingly unending growth in the value of sport
as a commodity.
The size of the sport industry is determined in
large part by sport communication, whether in
the form of a sport broadcaster’s commentary, an
advertiser’s promotional message, or a discussion
at the water cooler about a heated rivalry game.
Like the NFL, other U.S. professional sport leagues
have reaped ample financial rewards from recent
television-rights deals and increases in general
media exposure. The National Basketball Associa-
tion (NBA), for example, renegotiated its televi-
sion deals with ESPN and Turner Sports in 2014
for an annual total of $2.7 billion, which consti-
tutes an increase of 186 percent over the league’s
previous contracts with the same two partners.
This deal followed the 2014 purchase of the NBA’s
Los Angeles Clippers franchise by former Micro-
soft CEO Steve Ballmer for $2 billion, which,
along with the new television contracts, raised
the average value of NBA teams by an estimated
72 percent in just one year (Rovell, 2015).
ESPN sport business expert Darren Rovell
(2014) explained some of the reasons for increases
in sport television-rights deals: “While most
other forms of television are commonly watched
on demand or DVR’d, allowing viewers to fast-
forward through commercials, sports program-
ming is one of the few sectors remaining in
which watching live is crucial for most audiences.
Consider this: More than 99 percent of ESPN’s
content is consumed live. As we are starting to
move away from television and on to other ways
to watch—tablet, mobile—this equation hasn’t
changed. . . . [In contrast, the] rest of the TV world
outside of sports is proving harder and harder to
monetize” (para. 6). This distinction provides yet
another rationale for students who seek a career
in sport to study sport communication, as well as
the economics of the sport industry.
Professional sport is not the only segment of
the sport industry that is growing; intercollegiate
sport is also increasing in size, influence, and
revenues. The 100-year-old National Collegiate
Athletic Association has grown into an institution
that encompasses more than 450,000 students
in athletic competition, 89 men’s and women’s
championships, 23 sports, and three major divi-
sions. In recent years, the nonprofit NCAA has
received as much as 90 percent of its revenue
from contracts to televise its three-week Divi-
sion I men’s basketball tournament (i.e., March
Madness). In 2010, the NCAA wisely pulled out
of an existing 11-year, $6 billion deal with CBS
to televise March Madness, quickly renegotiating
with CBS and Time Warner to strike a deal worth
$10.8 billion over 14 years (O’Toole, 2010).
The growth of the NCAA is a direct result of
the outstanding expansion exhibited by many of
its more than 1,200 members. At the top of the
charts stands Ohio State University, which not
only fields the most athletic teams (39) involving
the most athletes (nearly 1,100) but also boasts
the athletic program ranked as the most profitable
in all of college sport (as of 2013) after account-
ing for subsidies and expenses (Kirk, 2014). The
Ohio State football program alone—which won
the national championship in the first year of
the NCAA Division I College Football Playoff in
2014—is estimated to be worth more than $1.1
billion (Diamond, 2015). For the 2014 calendar
year, the Ohio State athletics department gener-
ated revenues of just over $145 million through
sources such as merchandise royalties, ticket sales,
direct contributions, advertising, and television
and radio rights fees.
Even so, according to a USA Today database,
four schools ranked ahead of the Buckeyes in
total athletics revenue for 2014 (“NCAA Finances,”
2015):
1. University of Oregon ($196 million)
2. University of Texas at Austin ($161 million)
3. University of Michigan ($158 million)
4. University of Alabama ($153 million)
More generally, 25 athletics programs gener-
ated revenues of at least $95 million in 2014,
highlighted by 10 programs from the Southeast-
ern Conference (SEC) and 7 from the Big Ten
Conference, the latter of which included Michi-
gan (ranked number 3 nationally), Ohio State
(No. 5), and Wisconsin (No. 8). Furthermore, all
athletic programs in the Power Five conferences
of the NCAA’s Division I Football Bowl Subdi-
vision—that is, the Atlantic Coast, Big Ten, Big
12, Pac-12, and Southeastern conferences—are
expected to receive close to, or more than, $40

million annually from their respective confer-
ences by 2020. Most of that revenue comes from
television contracts, all of which are negotiated
primarily at the conference level for revenue-
producing, major-college athletics programs (with
the exception of Notre Dame, which has its own
exclusive national television contract with NBC
for football). Revenues distributed evenly to each
SEC school in 2014 doubled the allotment that
had been awarded to each just five years earlier
in 2009 (Solomon, 2014).
It has been even more costly to obtain U.S.
broadcast rights to the Olympic Games. NBC
Universal paid the International Olympic Com-
mittee (IOC) $4.4 billion for the right to televise
four Olympic Games from 2014 through 2020,
including two of the always-popular Summer
Games and two of the lesser-watched Winter
Games. Then, in just the first year of that deal,
NBC Universal agreed to pay the IOC $7.8 billion
for U.S. multimedia rights for the six Summer and
Winter Games from 2022 to 2032 (Sandomir,
2014). As noted by The New York Times sport media
reporter Richard Sandomir, NBC made the deal
partly because it was unsure of what the future
holds in technological advances: “The agreement
. . . captures just how technologically frenetic
the media landscape is. Once, such deals had to
contemplate only television, but smartphones and
tablets have become an increasingly large segment
of the viewing audience, and no one can guess
how people will watch sports in 2032. The new
Olympic contract acknowledges this, stipulating
that NBC will have the exclusive rights to broad-
cast the Games on whatever technology emerges
between now and then” (2014, para. 3).
When contemplating these huge financial fig-
ures, it is easy to forget that deals for sport media
rights constitute just one part of sport communi-
cation, which, in turn, is just one segment of the
greater sport industry. Let’s now take a look at
various ways of segmenting the industry.
SEGMENTATION OF THE
SPORT INDUSTRY
Because of its enormous size and scope, the sport
industry is best understood when its various com-
ponents are categorized into segments. Of course,
sport communication has its own segmentation
Study of Sport Communication 9
model (Pedersen, 2013), which is discussed in
detail in chapter 4, but we begin here by examin-
ing segmentation models used for the entire sport
industry. Given the industry’s complexity, it may
come as no surprise that it has been segmented
in multiple ways. For example, the Sport Manage-
ment Program Standards and Review Protocol
(2000) segmented the industry according to 10
areas of academic content: sociocultural dimen-
sions, management and leadership in sport, ethics
in sport management, sport marketing, communi-
cation in sport, budget and finance in sport, legal
aspects of sport, sport economics, governance in
sport, and field experiences in sport management.
Among other segmentation models, some of
the most widely accepted were developed in part
by sport management professors. For instance,
Pitts, Fielding, and Miller (1994) authored one
of the first—and still most used—segmentation
models for sport. Their model segments the indus-
try according to product and buyer type, which
results in three main segments: sport performance
(e.g., amateur and professional athletics, sport
businesses, membership-supported sport organi-
zations, fitness and sport firms), sport production
(e.g., outfitting products, performance production
products), and sport promotion (e.g., promotional
merchandising and events, media relations,
sponsorship, endorsement). The next influential
segmentation model came from Meek (1997),
an economist who segmented the sport industry
into three sectors consisting of sport entertain-
ment (e.g., events, teams, participants, associ-
ated spending), sport products and services (e.g.,
design, testing, manufacturing, distribution), and
sport support organizations (e.g., leagues, law
firms, marketing organizations).
In another model, Mullin, Hardy, and Sutton
(2014) noted that market segments are formed
largely on the basis of consumer wants and desires
and that the four bases commonly used to deter-
mine segmentation by marketers are consumers’
state of being (e.g., their demographic character-
istics), consumers’ state of mind, product benefits,
and product usage. Finally, the sport-activity
model developed by Eschenfelder and Li (2007)
is based on the concept that sport’s uniqueness—
as distinguished from other industries—lies in
the games or events themselves. In this model,
therefore, the sport-producing sector serves as the
10 Strategic Sport Communication
industry’s core. In each of these segments, a vital
role is played by communication, ranging from
employee interactions in a sporting goods firm
to broadcasts of a fishing tournament through
the mass media.
ROLE OF COMMUNICATION
IN THE SPORT INDUSTRY
Each segmentation model illustrates the vital
role that sport communication plays in the sport
industry. For example, Meek’s (1997) model
includes the media (e.g., television, radio, Inter-
net, publications) in sport entertainment, his
model’s first primary sector, and Eschenfelder
and Li’s (2007) sport-activity model addresses
sport media (e.g., television, radio and cable net-
works, magazines and other periodicals) as one
of its six subsectors. Beyond sport media, sport
communication also includes interpersonal and
small-group communication, organizational
communication in sport, sport public relations,
and other components of the field not categorized
in the models, such as sport advertising.
This attention to communication is appropri-
ate, because sport communication plays a vital
role in the management of sport. Without it,
professionals would be unable to set strategy,
advertisers would be unable to promote products
and services, and members of the media would
be unable to cover sport. Clearly, then, sport
communication is vital to the continued health
and growth of the sport industry, and, for the
most part, these vital skills are learned through
academic study and training.
STUDY OF SPORT
MANAGEMENT
Before examining the study of sport communica-
tion, we look first at the academic field of sport
management. This discipline, which is also an
academic major, is often referred to by multiple
interchangeable names: sport management,
sport administration, and occasionally sport
leadership (Kian, Pedersen, & Vincent, 2008).
Sport management has also been defined in differ-
ent ways. For example, DeSensi, Kelley, Blanton,
and Beitel (1990) described it as “any combina-
tion of skills related to planning, organizing,
directing, controlling, budgeting, leading, and
evaluating within the context of an organization
or department whose primary product or service is
related to sport and/or physical activity” (p. 33). In
another example, Pitts and Stotlar (2013) defined
sport management as “the study and practice of
all people, activities, businesses, or organizations
involved in producing, facilitating, promoting, or
organizing any sport-related business or product”
(p. 3). This definition incorporates the aspect of
sport management education.
The rapid expansion of the sport industry over
the past three decades has increased the demand
for trained and educated individuals to manage
and promote the increasingly sophisticated
operations that characterize the field (Pedersen
& Thibault, 2014; Stier, 2001). Today, this train-
ing and education are found most often in sport
management programs. Before the explosion of
such programs in the late 1980s, there were few
opportunities to pursue a major in sport manage-
ment or sport administration: “Early on, sport
managers learned from hands-on experiences
gained in the industry. However, as the sport
industry became more complex, there was a need
to train sport managers in a more formal fashion.
From this need emerged the formal study of sport
management” (Crosset & Hums, 2005, pp. 15–16).
After higher education administrators realized the
demand for trained individuals and recognized
sport management as a valid career path, they
worked to put together academic majors and
degrees in sport management in order to keep up
with the phenomenal growth of the sport industry
(Pedersen & Schneider, 2003).
The first sport management program was initi-
ated in 1966 at Ohio University (Mason & Paul,
1988). Additional programs began to emerge in
the late 1960s, and over the next 15 years the
number of programs approached 100. However, as
noted by sport management scholars Parkhouse
and Pitts (2001), “The significant proliferation in
curricular development was not observed until
the mid-1980s” (p. 5). Since then, sport manage-
ment offerings have exploded. By 2016, according
to the North American Society for Sport Manage-
ment website, there were 478 different institutions
of higher learning in the United States alone offer-
ing a sport management (or related) program at
some level, including 403 undergraduate sport
management (or related) programs, 229 master’s

programs, and 34 doctoral programs (“Sport
Management Programs: United States,” 2016).
Sport management programs and courses are
also now offered around the world, especially in
Australia, Canada, China, France, Greece, Italy,
Japan, New Zealand, Portugal, South Africa,
Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Some
programs are quite small, with only a few stu-
dents and a professor or two; others are very
large, with hundreds of students and many
professors. Amid this variety, there appears to
be nearly infinite potential for growth in sport-
management degree offerings at the under-
graduate, master’s, and doctoral levels.
One example of this growth can be seen
in Brock University in the Niagara region of
Ontario, Canada. Started in 1996, the univer-
sity’s four-year undergraduate program in sport
management now includes more than 600
students, 11 faculty members, and more than
50 courses in various areas of specialization
(e.g., management principles and practices,
sport marketing and sponsorship, social issues
in sport, sport industry applications, sport
policy and law, facility and event management,
and sport finance and economics). The under-
graduate program also provides students with a
number of experiential learning opportunities
throughout their studies. Moreover, entrance
into the program is highly competitive—the
program receives more than 1,000 applications
annually for approximately 150 spots, per Brock
University Sport Management Professor and
program head Dr. Lucie Thibault, who provided
all of this information.
In addition to traditional undergraduate and
graduate sport management programs such as
those at Brock, students can also gain an intro-
duction to the sport industry through other pro-
grams. For example, the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology (MIT) takes an interdisciplinary
approach to the study of sport. MIT’s Center
for Sports Innovation was launched in 1999 as
an opportunity for undergraduate and gradu-
ate students to learn about the development
of sport technology and products; it has since
grown and been renamed as Sports Technology
and Education @ MIT (STE@M). In addition,
dozens of sport management programs are now
offered at two-year institutions, and some basic
sport management courses are even offered
Study of Sport Communication 11
at the high school level. Furthermore, many
traditional and online universities now allow
students to earn a degree in sport management at
the undergraduate or master’s level either partially
or entirely through the Internet (i.e., through
distance learning).
STUDY OF SPORT
COMMUNICATION
The study of sport management includes many
content areas. Sport management programs are
structured in various ways but typically include
courses in sport marketing, sport finance, legal
aspects of sport, management and organizational
behavior of sport, sport governance, sport facility
management, event management, sociocultural
aspects of sport, and a variety of other topics. The
careers associated with these courses are discussed
in chapter 2, and they all involve aspects of sport
communication. As covered in chapter 4, sport
communication is a process by which people—
in sport, in a sport setting, or through a sport
endeavor—share symbols as they create meaning
through interaction. Therefore, it plays a role in
all areas of sport management.
As a result, as Brad Schultz wrote in Sports
Media: Reporting, Producing, and Planning (2005,
p. xvi), “the study of sports media is important,
both in a theoretical and [a] practical perspec-
tive.” Although Schultz’s focus is specific to the
sport media (e.g., television, radio, newspaper,
Internet), his statement also applies to sport
communication more generally. Studying this
field helps people understand and appreciate the
vital role that sport communication plays in all
sport organizations. If you are a sport manage-
ment or sport business major, then you are likely
required to take at least one sport communication
class. If you do not have one of these majors,
you can still take sport communication classes
in programs that specialize in sport media and
sport journalism. Furthermore, many commu-
nication, journalism, and media programs offer
at least one sport-focused communication class,
and some offer entire programs in this area; in
fact, sport communication courses and programs
may be housed in various departments, such as
business, education, kinesiology, journalism, or
telecommunications.
12 Strategic Sport Communication
Overall, courses and programs in sport com-
munication have increased along with the growth
in the study of sport management. The expansion
of sport communication studies can be attributed
both to the increase in sport coverage and to the
demand for skilled sport management profession-
als. As noted by Gillentine and Crow (2014), sport
organizations and teams need communication
in order to survive. In turn, the growth of the
sport communication segment of the industry
has naturally prompted an increase in sport com-
munication offerings.
PREPARING FOR A
CAREER IN SPORT
COMMUNICATION
The study of sport communication has long
been affiliated (and often intertwined) with the
academic aspects of sport management. In addi-
tion, as with the terms sport management and sport
administration, course and degree names in sport
communication often make interchangeable use
of the terms sport communication, sport jour-
nalism, and sport media. However, the term sport
communication is a more encompassing title for
both this specific field of the sport industry and
the associated academic discipline. Moreover, sport
communication is the most commonly used term for
the field in the discipline of sport management.
As a field of study, sport communication is
built on (and requires) interdisciplinary knowl-
edge, which can be obtained through disciplines
and courses including advertising, broadcasting,
communication, cinema, electronic media, jour-
nalism (including electronic journalism), film,
finance, informatics, information services, law,
management, marketing, mass communication,
media production, public relations, social media,
speech, and writing. Consider, for instance,
someone taking an educational path to become
a sport broadcaster or sportswriter. As noted by
sport media professor Brad Schultz (2005, p.
xix), “Today’s students rarely concentrate solely
in sports broadcasting or print, and they must
be able to write and perform across a variety of
media platforms. Even someone hired as a ‘sports
broadcaster’ will likely be expected to make con-
tributions to a web site, newspaper, or magazine.”
This flexibility is exemplified by the best sport
communication professionals, even if they were
trained to focus on just one medium. For example,
you may know ESPN personality Jemele Hill as
a co-host of the television show His & Hers and
for her frequent appearances on ESPN’s First Take.
Hill’s background and initial training, however,
focused almost entirely on print journalism,
beginning with her time as an undergraduate
student at Michigan State University and extend-
ing well into her career in reporting positions for
the Raleigh News & Observer, Detroit Free Press, and
Orlando Sentinel. These days, however, ESPN does
not hire top reporters only to write; as Hill sees
it, this demand for adaptability has been a good
thing for her:
I have been able to pick up a variety of skills that I
will be able to use for the future. My dream was to
be a sportswriter. When I was growing up, the only
thing a newspaper sportswriter needed to know
was how to be a reporter and write. But if you are
going to be a reporter today, you must be able to
do a lot of things or you aren’t going to make it.
ESPN does a very good job of working with you on
those skills (e.g., on-air appearances, videography,
social media use), but you also have to be willing
to change your routines and adapt to a changing
media environment. (personal communication)
Accordingly, students now have increasing
options for studying sport communication, and
the development of this academic area has been
both rapid and multidisciplinary. An excellent
example of this growth can be found at Pennsyl-
vania State University, which launched the John
Curley Center for Sports Journalism in 2003.
Just two years later, the center had attracted 174
enrolled undergraduates and received a $1.5 mil-
lion Knight Foundation grant to create the Knight
Chair in Sports Journalism and Society. As noted
by Knight Foundation president Alberto Ibargüen,
the foundation began supporting such work when
its leaders “realized that sports and sports journal-
ism . . . [constitute] one of the major reasons that
people watch TV, read newspapers, and go online”
(Penn State News online, 2005).
The development of the Penn State program
also demonstrates that support from institu-
tional leaders can help grow sport communica-
tion offerings. One key figure in the creation of

the Curley Center was Doug Anderson, former
dean of the Penn State College of Communica-
tions and a former newspaper sports editor.
In addition, the college’s current dean, Marie
Hardin, directed research for the Curley Center
and is among the world’s most prolific sport com-
munication scholars. With support from these
two individuals and others, the success of sport
journalism at Penn State refutes the negative
stigma sometimes attached to sport journalism
or sport communication as a “toy department”
of the newsroom or of higher education (Billings,
2011; Wanta, 2006).
In the same year that Penn State launched the
Curley Center, the University of Maryland created
the Shirley Povich Chair in Sports Journalism,
which is named after the late Washington Post
sport columnist. More generally, over the last 15
years, sport communication programs, majors,
and courses have been steadily introduced at
institutions of higher learning. As Wordsman
(2014) surmised in the American Journalism Review,
“Thanks to a boom in the business of sports,
sports journalism is one of the fastest-growing
areas of media today, bucking a general downsiz-
ing trend prevalent in much of the news industry.
. . . [S]chools have been responding by adding all
kinds of courses” (para. 18).
In the United States, current offerings allow
many students either to take sport communica-
tion classes in a sport management program
or to major in a specific sport communication
program. The particular way in which one goes
about securing this education is not as important
as the fact that one takes sport communication
courses and—most important—acquires practical
experience. In the words of sport broadcaster and
educator Ted Hedrick, “Absorb all the education
possible, and be aggressive in pursuit of on-the-
job training along the way” (2000, p. 22).
Options at the Undergraduate
Level
Undergraduate students can take any of three
distinct avenues to learn more about sport com-
munication: (1) majoring in sport communica-
tion or completing a sport communication track
(concentration) while majoring in a closely
related field; (2) enrolling in individual sport-
Study of Sport Communication 13
communication courses; and (3) developing
skills through experiential classes and practical
experiences. These approaches are detailed in the
following subsections.
Majoring in Sport Communication
An academic program focused on sport com-
munication provides the most courses and
opportunities for practical experiences that help
students learn about and enter the field. “I believe
sport communication deserves its own program
because the positions it entails are becoming more
expansive,” noted John Koluder, director of public
relations for the Indy Eleven professional soccer
team. At institutions that offer such opportunities,
majoring in a discipline such as sport commu-
nication, sport media, or sport journalism is an
obvious choice for students who wish to pursue
academic study in sport communication.
A number of sport management programs offer
an undergraduate major or a distinct track in
sport communication, including those at Drexel
University, Elizabeth City State University, Ithaca
College, Mississippi State University, New York
University, the University of North Alabama, and
Winston-Salem State University. More generally,
although most sport management programs do
not offer a major or specialized track in sport
communication, nationally approved sport
management programs (and those seeking such
standing) must still emphasize communication
skills and offer sport communication courses. As
a result, nearly every large undergraduate program
in sport management offers at least one course
in sport communication (e.g., sport media, sport
public relations). For example, the sport manage-
ment program at Indiana University includes a
number of sport communication offerings, such
as introductory, issues-based, and sport public
relations courses. In addition, students who wish
to focus exclusively on sport media can pursue
their interests through courses offered by the
university’s media school.
The standards for sport management programs
were developed by two academic associations—
the National Association for Sport and Physical
Education (NASPE) and the North American
Society for Sport Management (NASSM)—which
worked together to launch the Commission
14 Strategic Sport Communication

on Spor t Management Accreditation

(COSMA) in 2008. The COSMA accredi-
tation guide, Accreditation Principles and
Self-Study Preparation (2010), lists sport
communication as an essential content
area in sport industry. In addition, some
sport management programs (e.g., those
at George Mason University and West
Virginia University) offer a minor in sport
communication; more often, however,
such minors are offered in conjunction
with a journalism or communication
school.
Indeed, over the past decade, the great-
est growth in sport communication pro-
grams and similar offerings (e.g., sport
journalism, sport media) has occurred in
schools and colleges of communication
and journalism (Wenner, 2015). A survey
of 452 departments, schools, and colleges
affiliated with the Association for Educa-
Caleb Surly, a sport media major at Oklahoma State University,
tion in Journalism and Mass Communica-
used industry contacts made during a class tour of the ESPN
tion (AEJMC) found that the number of College GameDay set to help land a summer internship with
universities offering a sport communica- ESPN in Bristol, Connecticut.
tion or related program—for example, a
major, emphasis, minor, or certificate in
sport broadcasting, sport communication, sport Other ways to secure an education in sport
journalism, sport media, or sport reporting— communication include studying the field in a
increased from 14 in 2007 to 34 in the 2010–2011 sport management, journalism, broadcasting, or
academic year, and additional programs have telecommunication program. The greatest recent
been formed since then. The same study found growth in sport communication certificates and
that 48 percent of responding schools reported minors has occurred in journalism and mass
offering at least one course in sport communica- communication schools. For example, certificate
tion (Pennsylvania State University, 2012). programs related to sport communication have
Universities that offer an undergraduate major, been launched in recent years in the prominent
track, or concentration in sport communication or journalism programs at the University of Georgia
a related area include the University of Alabama, and the University of Texas at Austin.
Arizona State University, Ashland University, The growth of programs related to sport com-
Clemson University, Columbia College Chicago, munication is not limited to the United States. In
Ferris State University, Lasell College, Morehouse the last decade, multiple such programs have been
College, Oklahoma State University, Penn State launched internationally, including programs at
University, Quinnipiac University, Springfield the University of the Arts London, the University
College, and Syracuse University. In addition, in of Brighton, and the University of Sunderland—
2015, a gift from an alumnus and famed former all in the United Kingdom—as well as La Trobe
ESPN broadcaster enabled Bradley University to University and the University of Queensland in
create the Charley Steiner School of Sports Com- Australia. In addition, many more universities
munication, which is the first school dedicated around the globe are adding sport communication
fully to the study of sport communication in the courses to meet both student interest and demand
United States. from the burgeoning sport industry.
 Study of Sport Communication 15

Spotlight on an Undergraduate Sport Communication Program

One of the premier programs in the United
States—and an example of the rapid growth
in this area—is the sport communication
concentration at Marist University in Pough-
keepsie, New York. Since its 2002 launch, the
Marist program has grown from 12 students
to an average of more than 160 declared
sport communication concentration students
annually at a private university that has a total
undergraduate enrollment of fewer than 5,600
students. The program’s curriculum offers
both overview courses (e.g., issues in sport
media; sport, culture, and communication)
and practitioner-focused skills courses (e.g.,
sport reporting, sport broadcasting, and sport
public relations).
The program’s faculty possess academic and
professional backgrounds in sport manage-
ment and journalism, thus positioning them to
prepare students to enter the profession. How-
ever, the program’s uniqueness, and perhaps Sport communication students at Marist University
produce their weekly radio show, The Classroom,
its greatest strength, lies in the formal oppor-
which airs on an ESPN affiliate.
tunities that it provides to students outside of
the classroom. For example, the Marist Sport
Communication program partners with the organization to host regional meetings on
famed Marist Poll housed on the same campus campus; with the Sports PR Summit for stu-
to conduct and disseminate sport-focused dents to work in operations and events in New
scientific polling research, which is also used York City; and with American ED TV to produce
to provide polling data to the HBO television The Classroom, a student-run sport radio show
show Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel. The that airs weekly on a local ESPN affiliate and
Marist program has also created partnerships often features expert guests from the sport
with the Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE) communication industry and academia.

Taking Individual Sport Communication
Courses
For students whose institutions of higher educa-
tion do not offer sport communication or sport
management programs, another option is to
take individual sport communication courses.
Some of these courses are offered as electives,
whereas others can lead to either a certification
or a minor in sport communication. For exam-
ple, the University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill offers a certificate in sport communication
for students who complete the following three
courses: sport communication, ethical issues
and sport communication, and sport marketing
and advertising. The breakout box provides other
examples of individual sport communication
courses.
Additional Courses and Practical
Experience
Although students can learn about sport com-
munication through a variety of majors, it is also
16 Strategic Sport Communication
vital for them to engage in other “coursework
or volunteer or work experience that helps in
understanding the fundamentals of public rela-
tions, communications, marketing, advertising,
and journalism. Public speaking skills, writing
skills, and knowledge of TV/video production
and computer technology are a must for all future
sport communications professionals” (McGowan
& Bouris, 2005, p. 355). More specifically, a recent
survey found that newspaper sports editors and
television sports directors were both most likely
to rank writing as the number one skill needed for
a career in either medium (Ketterer, McGuire, &
Examples of Sport Communication Courses
Whether a university offers a program com-
plete with numerous sport communication
courses or just one or two classes in the field,
a wide variety of sport communication courses
are available in higher education today.
Undergraduate Courses
Typical sport communication course topics
include the following: sportswriting and report-
ing (George Mason University); sport commu-
nication (Slippery Rock University, University of
Massachusetts at Amherst); sport journalism
(Suffolk Community College); public relations
in sport (Clemson University); sport media rela-
tions (Rice University); sport, media, and society
(Penn State University); ethical issues and sport
communication (University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill); sport video production (Ithaca
College); sport media and public relations (Old
Dominion University); sport reporting (Ashland
University); business of sport television (Univer-
sity of Texas at Austin); sports information man-
agement (Waynesburg College); introduction
to sport communication (Indiana University);
sport public relations (Wichita State University);
sport, gambling, and the media (Springfield
College); sport broadcasting (University of
North Texas); public and media relations (York
College); sport communication internship
(Mississippi State University); sport, commu-
nication, and culture (University of Southern
California); business of sport communication
Murray, 2014). This finding indicates the contin-
ued relevance of advice given a bit earlier in the
field’s history by Anderson (1994), who empha-
sized the importance of learning how to write
and describe events with correct grammar and
accuracy: “Students interested in careers in sports
reporting must realize that masterful use of the
language and knowledge of style are as important
on sports pages as on page one” (p. 13).
Anderson (1994) added that a sport jour-
nalist also needs “a working knowledge of the
sport being covered” (p. 14). Similarly, veteran
sportswriter and current professor Joe Gisondi
(University of Iowa); management, leadership,
and communication in sport (San Jose State
University); sport enterprise reporting and
writing (University of Georgia); sport media
criticism (Clemson University); social media in
sport (University of Georgia); contemporary
sport media (Oklahoma State University); sport
journalism in the Internet age (Tufts University);
and, arguably the most distinctive title, Super
Bowl reporting (Arizona State University).
Graduate Courses
Sport communication courses at the master’s
level, though less common, include such topics
as the following: public relations in sport (Baylor
University); reporting and writing about sport
(University of California, Berkeley); sport public
relations and information systems (University
of Northern Colorado); sport marketing and
public relations (East Carolina University); sport
and the media (Florida State University); public
and media relations (Neumann College); sport
communication (Indiana University); marketing
and public relations in sport and recreation
(Temple University); sport publicity and promo-
tion (University of Louisville); sport and media
issues (University of Tennessee); public relations
for sport organizations (Western Illinois Univer-
sity); sport media, social networking, and brand
communication (Seattle University); sport media
and society (University of Florida); and diversity
in sport media (Oklahoma State University).

(2010) emphasized that “good writing comes
from solid reporting. . . . If writing about a game
were as simple as showing up and watching,
anybody could do it. You need to understand the
context of the event, know the key participants,
and have some idea of what makes today’s game
unique—all before you even arrive” (pp. 9–10).
High-quality writing is also of paramount impor-
tance for a successful career in sport public rela-
tions (Stoldt, Dittmore, & Branvold, 2012).
In addition to taking multiple writing courses,
many industry professionals recommend that
sport communication students learn another
language and gain knowledge of other fields
related to the sport industry. One professional
who regularly gave such advice was legendary
sport columnist and television commentator Bud
Collins, who passed away at the age of 86 in 2016.
Collins’ route to the top was anything but direct.
His first jobs in the field included positions as
sports editor of a small-town weekly newspaper
in Ohio and with his college newspaper. He was
pursuing a graduate degree in public relations
from Boston University when he joined the staff
of the Boston Herald newspaper for $60 per week.
Collins, who was one of the first journalists to
successfully transition from a top print-focused
reporter to a television commentator, offered
sound advice for people wanting to break into
the business: “Learn Spanish. . . . [It is] helpful
in communicating comfortably with the growing
number of Hispanic athletes. Study business/
finance and some law. Writing sports is much
more than covering games” (quoted in Glatzer,
2006, para. 9). Collins’ sentiments were seconded
by veteran sportswriter Joanne C. Gerstner, who
has taught sport communication at multiple
universities and currently serves as sport jour-
nalist in residence at Michigan State University:
“Some of the athletes on your team may not speak
English, so knowing another language or two
is very helpful” (Joanne C. Gerstner, personal
communication).
Any educational program in sport commu-
nication must provide opportunities for skill
development. The chapters that follow address
skills in such areas as interpersonal relationships,
organizational communication, and oral and
written communication. Although formal edu-
cation and textbooks provide the framework for
Study of Sport Communication 17
developing skills and expertise, effective educa-
tion for sport communication must also involve
internship, practicum, and volunteer experiences.
As McGowan and Bouris (2005) explained, “It is
no longer acceptable to enter the sports commu-
nications field, even as an intern, without some
practical, first-hand experience” (p. 355).
Options at the Graduate Level
Although fewer programs are available in sport
management or sport communication at the
graduate level than at the undergraduate level,
prospective graduate students still have options.
The first option is to pursue a master’s degree or
doctorate in sport communication; at this point,
however, the United States is home to few master’s
programs and no doctoral programs in the field.
The second option—and one that is currently
more available—is to pursue a concentration
or emphasis in sport communication within
the study of another discipline (e.g., journal-
ism, sport management). The third option is to
take sport communication courses as electives
while pursuing a degree in another field or con-
centration. For example, it would be difficult to
find a high-quality master’s program in sport
management that did not offer at least one sport
communication course.
Master’s Programs
Over the last two decades, the study of sport
management and the study of sport communica-
tion at the graduate level have increased, though
not as quickly with regard to programs devoted
specifically to sport communication. As noted
earlier, most sport management programs include
at least one sport communication course, and
several programs offer multiple courses. In addi-
tion, some are one-year programs, whereas others
require a two-year commitment. Some require
a thesis, but others do not. Most are traditional
programs featuring in-class lectures, but a few are
delivered either partially or fully online. Some
require at least one internship experience, while
others do not. Finally, some serve full-time stu-
dents, whereas others are geared toward working
students.
One example of a graduate program focused
on sport communication is the global sport
 PROFILE OF A SPORT COMMUNICATOR

TENNIS: A PASSION TURNED INTO A CAREER

Jeff Sikes
Marketing and Communications Manager
United States Tennis Association Southwest Section

Tennis has always been Jeff Sikes’

passion. He grew up playing on
hard courts in the sweltering heat
of Galveston, Texas, and watch-
ing the sport’s top professionals
on television. Now 40 years old,
Sikes holds a perfect job for
his interests: handling market-
ing and communication for the
United States Tennis Association
(USTA) Southwest Section based
in Scottsdale, Arizona. He has
held his current position since
2008 but started with the USTA
in 2005 and spent his initial three
years as senior communication
coordinator for the USTA Missouri
Valley Section, headquartered Jeff Sikes gets a courtside view of Rafael Nadal while working an event
in Overland Park, Kansas. The for the USTA.
earlier parts of his career journey,
however, were much more typical of most 21st- amateur sport. Overall, he spent four years work-
century sport communication professionals than ing 30 to 35 hours per week in the same roles for
the rapid ascension of Anthony Slater to NBA the same newspaper without earning a promo-
beat reporter as profiled at the beginning of this tion or even being eligible for health benefits. “I
chapter. felt like I was on a track to moving up,” he said,
After serving as editor of his high school news- “but it never materialized, and [finally] I just had
paper, Sikes enrolled at the University of Texas to go elsewhere.”
at Austin in the fall of 1992 with the intention of Sikes eventually went to a smaller media market
becoming a top sportswriter. Since the university to land his first full-time position as prep sports
then offered no undergraduate courses in sport editor for the High Point Enterprise newspaper in
communication or sport management, he majored the Triad area of North Carolina, where covering
in journalism and began acquiring sport media high school sports accounted for a large part of his
experience outside of class by writing regularly job duties. Sikes, however, also regularly covered
for the student newspaper (the Daily Texan), the Atlantic Coast Conference football and men’s bas-
Associated Press, and Horns Illustrated magazine ketball, as well as the National Football League’s
while also freelancing for other newspapers. Carolina Panthers. However, after less than two
After graduating from college, Sikes took a years in North Carolina, he began to grow weary
part-time position that included sportswriting of the lifestyle of a newspaper sportswriter, which
and desk duties for the San Antonio Express- allows few weekends off and requires frequent
News. He served as the primary tennis columnist evening hours and travel.
for the Express-News and covered a variety of In search of a new job—and possibly a new
other professional and college sports, though profession—Sikes kept coming back to the sport
most of his assignments involved high school and he had always loved most, and he eventually

18
decided to pursue a career in the tennis industry.
There are few full-time, traditional reporting jobs
for exclusively covering tennis, but his reporting
experience and writing samples helped him
quickly land a communication job in one of the
USTA’s 17 regional offices, even though he had
no experience in public relations. The job gave
Sikes the opportunity to gain new experiences
and develop new skills. In his newspaper work,
his skill set had been somewhat limited—he
had written, reported, copyedited, and done a
little page design. With the USTA, in contrast,
his job duties and skill set encompass a much
wider range:
• Sport reporting and sportswriting
• Public and media relations
• Membership promotions
• Press releases
• Website design, content creation, and main-
tenance
• Graphic design
• Professional social media use (e.g., Twitter,
Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Vine)
• Creative marketing operations
• Brochures, flyers, collateral pieces
• Photography
• Video filming, editing, and production
• Blogging
• Obtaining sponsorships (in-kind and cash)
• Serving as a spokesperson for the organiza-
tion
Depending on the event and the level of
participants (e.g., youth, adult amateurs, profes-
sionals), Sikes may also help with event planning,
event management, and facility operations.
“I was strictly a reporter and writer before joining
the USTA,” Sikes said. “Since then, I’ve added
and continue to add new skills. You have to keep
up with changing technology and trends, not
only because it happens so fast, but even more
so because you’ll quickly become a dinosaur
in your job if you don’t. The social media thing
hadn’t even exploded yet when I began with the
USTA, and now it’s a large part of what I do. I’d
still say writing—both AP Style and creative—
would be the number one skill you’d need in
a communications gig, and that newspaper
background has always served me well. Most of
the other skills, though—website design, Pho-
toshop, marketing—I learned on my own and
adapted, or I just couldn’t do my job. I sometimes
miss working for newspapers, because I enjoyed
the intensity and the deadline-driven environ-
ment. The goal of finishing what felt like this big
group project each and every day was fun and
the time in those newsrooms taught me a lot
about writing and reporting, what news value is,
and to look at all sides objectively. Those things
are still essential to what I do.”
Like many probable readers of this book, Sikes
grew up a huge fan of most sports and many
athletes. His fandom ebbed while he worked
in traditional media but has since returned in a
more mature form now that he works in market-
ing, communication, and media relations. “When
you are a newspaper sportswriter, you just can’t
be a fan . . . [because you] have to always remain
objective and impartial,” he said. “Now, I can still
be a fan of and enthusiastic about my subjects,
although I’d never exhibit that when working
in a media or event setting. As a reporter, you
have to suppress that feeling and learn to look
at all sides. It’s a bit different now with my job,
as I can actively root for American players’ doing
well. Their success is integral to what we try to
promote at the USTA.”
As an example of this shift, Sikes mentions his
enduring friendship with two-time Grand Slam
doubles champion Jack Sock and Sock’s family.
Sikes first started writing about Sock, then 12
years old, shortly after Sikes began working with
the USTA, which roughly correlated with Sock’s
relocation from Nebraska to Kansas City for better
training. Sikes quickly became good friends with
the Sock family, particularly Jack Sock’s parents,
and that friendship continues today. “I was invited
to social settings with the Sock family that I cer-
tainly would not have felt comfortable doing when
I was a reporter,” Sikes said. “All of this started
because I was writing features and covering this
12-year-old, and then promoting his success on
our website. I’ve known their family for a while,
and it’s really cool to see him move up the ranks
in the pros, after seeing him start at such a young
age. That friendship would have probably never
happened had I remained a reporter.”
19
20 Strategic Sport Communication

media concentration in the sport busi-

ness master’s degree at New York Uni-
versity. In addition to traditional sport
management courses, students in this
concentration take courses such as
sport broadcasting, digital sport media,
sport market research, and sport public
relations. The few other U.S. schools
now offering graduate degrees in sport
communication or a related area include
Arizona State University, DePaul Univer-
sity, Indiana University–Purdue Univer-
sity Indianapolis, Oklahoma State Uni-
versity, Quinnipiac University, Sacred
Heart University, and Valparaiso Univer-
sity. In addition, an increasing number of
journalism programs now offer graduate
courses in sport communication to better
prepare their students for careers in the
In her leadership position, Dr. Carla Green Williams, deputy
sport communication industry.
director of athletics and senior woman administrator at the
University of Georgia, communicates with various university and
Doctoral Programs athletics stakeholders throughout her day.
The number of universities in the United
States offering doctoral programs in
sport management has increased dramatically, ignored sport communication as a viable research
from 12 to 34, over the past decade, according field for doctoral students. That pattern has
to the NASSM website (“Sport Management changed, however, in recent years, and prominent
Programs: United States”). Most of the top institutions (e.g., Penn State University, University
sport-management doctoral programs include of Alabama) now produce top sport communica-
sport communication courses, and some, such tion scholars. Regardless of your particular field,
as the one at the University of Tennessee, offer it is important to choose a doctoral program
an optional concentration or emphasis in sport that features faculty whose research interests are
communication. The sport-management doctoral similar to yours and who express a willingness
program at Indiana University, in particular, has to advise you.
produced many top young sport communication Familiarity with communication in sport
scholars over the past decade. At this point, such is important for all doctoral students in sport
programs are offered largely in traditional set- communicat ion, spor t management, and
tings rather than online. In fact, as of 2014, none sport sociology programs. Pursuing a doctorate
of the 206 U.S. universities classified in 2015 as in sport management or sport communication
Research-I (i.e., the highest possible rating to be prepares an individual for leadership positions
considered a research-intensive university) by the in academics and athletics. Regardless of which
Carnegie Institute offered fully online doctoral track one takes—academician or practitioner—
programs in sport management or sport commu- communication is a major requirement of the
nication. However, a few other U.S. schools—such work. To exercise leadership in academics, profes-
as the United States Sports Academy in Daphne, sors must be able to write (research) and speak
Alabama—do offer students the chance to earn (present, lecture) effectively. For leadership in
a doctorate in sport management entirely online. athletics, communication skills are needed all the
Historically, more top sport communication more. This kind of leadership, according to Dr.
scholars came from sport management and sport Carla Green Williams, deputy director of athletics
sociology programs than from schools of journal- and senior woman administrator at the University
ism and communication, many of which largely of Georgia (UGA), requires “the ability to share
 Study of Sport Communication 21

a vision and get the right people to follow . . . [as
well as] the ability to serve all in the organization.
. . . If I am an effective communicator, people will
follow my vision” (personal communication).
Williams, who concentrated in sport manage-
ment for her doctoral studies at Florida State
University, is now a sport leader with numerous
responsibilities. Her duties include supervisory
responsibility in the UGA athletics department
for such divisions as academic support services,
compliance, sports medicine, human resources,
and student services; she also serves as the depart-
ment’s point person for Title IX and gender equity
issues. Williams notes that her work requires
constant communication: “My day is spent com-
municating with senior administrators within the
university’s leadership, as well as with coaches in
every sport and most staff members,” including
academic counselors and compliance officers. She
also speaks frequently with staff members of her
athletic conference. Her example demonstrates
that anyone who plans to pursue a doctorate
in sport management or sport communication
should prioritize the development of strong com-
munication skills in their studies.
Whether pursuing an undergraduate, master’s, or
doctoral degree, all sport management students are
expected to finish with a strong background in sport
communication. All of the sport-communication
content areas that have been presented here are
relevant to any position at any level of the sport
industry. Therefore, any academic preparation in
sport communication—whether one course or an
entire major—will provide you with useful educa-
tion, background, skill development, confidence,
and networking opportunities. Regardless of the
specific sport-communication career you decide to
pursue (see chapter 2 for more on career options), a
good education in the field makes you more attrac-
tive to potential employers.

CHAPTER WRAP-UP
Summary
This chapter outlines basic issues related to the study and practice of sport communication,
which has spurred much of the growth in the sport industry as a whole. No other media
segment is growing as fast as sport media (Andrews, 2013), and the increased mass-media
coverage and financial backing have tremendously affected the sport industry, particularly
the most popular professional team sports and the revenue-producing intercollegiate
sports in the United States. Without effective communication in, between, and about
sport organizations, the sport industry would not be as large and influential as it is today.
Indeed, much of the reason for the enormity of the sport industry can be traced to some
aspect of sport communication—whether interpersonal, organization, mass mediated,
or involving support services.
In keeping with these realities, this chapter emphasizes the need for future sport-industry
leaders to obtain strong academic preparation, both in sport management generally and in
sport communication in particular. The chapter concludes with suggestions to make sport
communication students as marketable and knowledgeable as possible through reading
outside materials and participating in academic and professional activities.

Review Questions
1. What are the size and scope of the sport industry? What has contributed to its growth?
2. How is the sport industry segmented?
3. What are some sport leagues or organizations that currently hold lucrative television
rights deals in the United States?
4. What are some examples of the specific names of sport communication–type pro-
grams offered at the undergraduate and graduate levels, and where are they housed?
5. Why is professional development important when preparing for a career in sport
communication?
22 Strategic Sport Communication

Discussion Questions
1. Why are communication skills important in any position in the sport industry?
2. What are the various segmentation models for the sport industry?
3. How can learning additional languages benefit someone who is preparing for a
career in sport communication?
4. Name some U.S. institutions that offer sport communication or a related program.
5. How does the growth of academic programs facilitate the development of profes-
sionals in sport communication?

Individual Exercises
1. Choose a sport, sport entity, or segment of the sport industry. Write a one- or two-
page summary statement describing how your chosen subject has contributed to
the growth of the sport industry. Share your findings with the class.
2. Write a description of an ideal job that you would like to pursue in the field of
sport communication. List the five courses offered at your university that can best
prepare you for this profession and provide your rationales for your selected courses.
 CHAPTER 2
Careers in Sport
Communication
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
• To recognize the breadth of professional opportunities in the commu-
nication segment of the sport industry
• To learn about the five key career areas and many career options in sport
communication
• To become acquainted with the trends in—and current status of—the
sport communication job market, particularly in relation to the Internet
and social media
• To understand the importance of learning and professional development
through sport communication publications, associations, conferences,
and conventions
• To comprehend the integral components, resources, techniques, and skill
development necessary to prepare for a position in sport communication

23
24 Strategic Sport Communication

KEY TERMS
leaders sports information directors
sport media buying web development

T his chapter describes the five major career seg-

ments of sport communication (see figure 2.1):
management, media, support services, entertain-
ment, and other opportunities. Consider the Sport
Communication at Work profile for this chapter:
Where would Nguyen be classified? Though she
now works in an executive management role, she
also provides some support services for the writers
and editors at USA Today. In addition, she began
her career as an unpaid independent blogger,
which, if we use an inclusive definition, falls into
the category of mass media. As Nguyen’s career
exemplifies—and as you will see throughout
this chapter—many 21st-century jobs in sport
communication require individuals to handle
a convergence of job roles and use a variety of
skills, many of which involve the Internet and
social media.
The multibillion-dollar sport industry is full
of exciting and challenging career opportuni-
ties. One estimate credited the industry with
accounting for nearly five million jobs (Peder-
sen, Whisenant, & Schneider, 2005). In another
analysis, CareerBuilder and Economic Modeling
Specialists International (EMSI) found that jobs
in U.S. sport-related industries increased by nearly
13 percent between 2010 and 2014; in contrast,
the overall national job market grew about 6
percent over the same period (CareerBuilder,
2014). Not only do the vast majority of jobs in
the sport industry involve communication (e.g.,
writing, speaking, interacting), but also the sport
communication segment of the industry is par-
ticularly vibrant. This chapter introduces you to
the broad range of careers available in this field.
More specifically, it answers questions such as,
“What kinds of jobs are available in sport com-
munication?” and “How do I prepare myself for
a position in sport communication?”
The various occupations that make up the
field of sport communication typically involve
some aspect of covering, delivering, publicizing,
financing, or even shaping sport. Professionals in
sport communication craft and send messages in
various ways, and they may alter their modes of
communication depending on the nature of their
position as well as audience needs and desires.
Although positions in sport communication vary
in both nature (e.g., management, publicity, writ-
ing) and scope (e.g., traditional print, television,
radio, online), the various career paths in the field
all hinge on the ability to communicate with key
audiences. These audiences also vary, depending
on the type of sport entity in question, but they
generally consist of whatever constituencies are
deemed most valuable to the organization. Key
audiences may include fans, members of the
public, politicians, owners and investors, athletes,
and even members of the media.
The development of sport communication pro-
fessionals has also been affected by the growth of
sport communication as a discipline. For example,
as discussed in chapter 1, recent years have brought
an increase in academic publications, courses,

Management Media Support services Entertainment Miscellaneous

• VP of communication • Sports broadcaster • Sport information • Video game designer • Media researcher
for team • Executive sports director • Sports filmmaker • Sport media buyer
• Associate AD for editor • Media relations • Software developer • Sport communication
communication • Sportswriter coordinator educator
• CEO of sports • Sport social media • Director of public
broadcasting expert and community
network relations
• Social media
coordinator

Figure 2.1 Careers in sport communication can involve one or more of five major areas.

E6734/Pedersen/Fig. 02.01/537619/HR/mh-R2
 SPORT COMMUNICATION AT WORK
DOING IT ALL: FROM LAW SCHOOL TO NBA
BLOGGER TO SALES EXECUTIVE
Alana Nguyen
A lana Nguyen has always been a high achiever.
Double-majoring in communication and
psychology, she graduated summa cum laude
with a perfect 4.0 grade point average from the
University of Pennsylvania. Shortly afterward, she
enrolled at Stanford Law School (consistently
ranked as one of the top three U.S. law schools). In
her first year—when most students focus entirely
on law school for fear of flunking out—Nguyen
instead began looking for a diversion from the
constant pressure of a top-tier program. With no
prior sportswriting experience, she started her
own blog (Sunsgossip.blogspot.com), where she
wrote about the NBA’s Phoenix Suns under the
alias Miss Gossip.
“At first it was just a fun, little stupid blog and
I never thought about making money from it,”
Nguyen said. However, the quality of her writ-
ing and insight caught the attention of others
in the sport blogosphere, and she was hired
during the following year as a freelance blog-
ger for FanHouse, a then-new network of sport
blogs promoted heavily by AOL. A year later, in
her third year at Stanford Law, Nguyen began
working a 40-hour-per-week graveyard shift
as a full-time producer for AOL Sports while
simultaneously continuing both her studies as
a full-time law student and her sport-blogging
career.
Despite earning her law degree from a top uni-
versity and completing a trio of summer intern-
ships with reputable legal firms along the way,
Nguyen graduated with no interest in practicing
law and thus she never bothered to take a state
bar exam. Instead, she was hooked on digital
sport media—and well on her way to launching
a highly successful sport communication career
that had never been part of her plan. Instead, the
impetus for her career had come from writing her
own blog, even though her only previous sport
communication experience involved working for
a campus radio station at Penn.
After serving in positions as a producer
and editor for AOL Sports and Yahoo! Sports,
Nguyen spent three years as an editor in vari-
ous roles for Yardbarker, a Fox company that
hosts a variety of sport websites and regularly
features posts by professional athletes. She then
spent a year and a half as executive producer of
SFGate, the online version of the San Francisco
Chronicle. There, she still managed content but
also collaborated with the sales department
and thus began mastering the business side of
online communication. In 2013, this experience
led her to her current position as vice president
of advertising sales marketing for USA Today
Sports Media Group.
Nguyen’s rapid ascension through a variety
of roles in sport communication—and different
types of outlets—would have been unimaginable
in earlier decades. In the past, aspiring sport com-
munication professionals usually chose to concen-
trate in one medium (e.g., newspaper, television,
radio) before slowly climbing the hierarchy in that
field. Now, however, different types of media,
as well as media companies, have converged in
an era dominated by digital media (Nguyen’s
expertise) and social media, thus allowing indi-
viduals who excel with these new technologies
to advance quickly through nontraditional means.
“It’s funny to think about how much this field has
changed in less than a decade,” Nguyen said.
“When I started blogging and then working for
AOL Fanhouse, it was considered the fringe (of
the sport communication industry) and now it’s
mainstream. Everything has changed with digital
media and even more so now with social media.
When people think of USA Today, you think of
the great content in our newspaper and at our
website, usatoday.com. But we are now increas-
ingly making more money from advertising on
our sports blogs. It’s still the same thing we were
doing and selling at FanHouse; it has just been
adopted by all the traditional media now.”
25
26 Strategic Sport Communication
and programs of study in sport communication.
This, in turn, has produced more versatile and
prepared students to enter the sport communica-
tion profession.
In addition, career opportunities in sport
communication have been greatly influenced by
the convergence of the mass media—that is, the
increasingly overlapping relationships between
media entities—and, as a result, the variety of
multimedia skills increasingly required of nearly
all individuals who work in any aspect of the sport
industry. Indeed, media convergence provides a
wide array of opportunities for professionals who
possess a strong skill set and an adaptable mind-
set. For example, today’s newspaper editors often
work with both the print and the online versions
of their publications; in fact, in recent years, the
most successful newspapers have added in-house
video production units or television studios. Simi-
larly, it has become common, and even expected,
for prominent sportswriters to cross over into
sport broadcasting while continuing their writ-
ing careers. This is the case, for example, with
longtime columnists Christine Brennan of USA
Today and Mike Lupica of the New York Daily News,
who, like many other print reporters (particularly
columnists), serve as regulars on ESPN television
and sports-talk radio programs.
Another example is Jemele Hill, who has said
that one reason she left her position as a sport
columnist at the Orlando Sentinel in 2006 was
ESPN’s promise that she would appear as a guest
on a few of its television shows while continuing
to focus most of her efforts on writing. “I made
the jump because I looked around the landscape
and saw that a lot of columnists were beginning
to get larger platforms on television,” Hill said. “It
was just a matter of kind of following where the
market was going. I watched shows like Around
the Horn and PTI, and most of the shows’ guests
and hosts are former newspaper columnists. I saw
going to ESPN as a way to brand myself and take
advantage of the enormous media platform” (Kian
& Zimmerman, 2012, p. 293).
As it turned out, Hill’s guest appearances on
ESPN television shows, particularly First Take,
increased steadily, and in 2013 she replaced Jalen
Rose as co-host of the network’s afternoon talk
show, Numbers Never Lie, rebranded as His & Hers
in 2014, which is now her primary career focus.
“I will always credit newspapers for making me
into the journalist that I am, because I learned
basically everything in an old-school way that
serves me very well in the new medium,” Hill
said. “I don’t feel like I abandoned newspapers.
Instead, I feel like they were my foundation, and
I used that foundation in another medium to still
perform many of the same job duties” (Kian &
Zimmerman, 2012, p. 293).
The rest of this chapter examines the five major
segments of sport communication, beginning
with the various management, leadership, and
administrative positions found in the field. The
chapter then covers the many careers available
in sport mass media, which fall into the broad
categories of print media, electronic and visual
media, and new and emerging media, though, as
mentioned earlier, work in the field is now marked
by the ongoing convergence of media companies
and job roles in the digital age. Next, the chapter
describes the professions involved with the sup-
port services of advertising and public relations.
Sport communication professionals who work
in support services have long used a variety of
techniques to disseminate messages through the
media, but nowadays they increasingly bypass
traditional media in order to deliver messages
and content directly to audiences via websites and
social media (Stoldt, Noble, Ross, Richardson, &
Bonsall, 2013). The next section illustrates the
many sport communication opportunities found
in entertainment, as well as some nontraditional
positions now available in the field.
The chapter then takes a step back to detail
the components necessary for gaining entry into
a sport communication career. It also examines
sport management and sport communication
publications, with particular focus on sport
communication textbooks, journals, and books.
The chapter concludes by addressing relevant
academic affiliations, professional associations,
and conferences and conventions.
CAREERS IN MANAGEMENT
Managers and administrators serve as the leaders
in the field of sport communication. Many have
worked in sport communication for decades and
have worked their way up the ranks, just as young
professional athletes climb their way through
 Careers in Sport Communication 27

the minor or developmental

leagues and into the majors.
In addit ion, most hig h-
ranking sport executives in
major communication com-
panies, sport organizations,
and intercollegiate athletics
departments have earned an
advanced degree, usually in
business or sport manage-
ment (Bower & Hums, 2014;
Wong, 2014). In fact, from
2009 through 2014, nearly
90 percent of athletics direc-
tors hired at National Col-
legiate Athletic Association
(NCAA) Division I programs
held at least one graduate
or terminal degree (Wong, Claude Felton began working full-time in the University of Georgia (UGA)
Sports Information Department in 1979. A year later, the UGA football team
2014).
won the national title behind the exploits of first-year tailback Herschel
Leaders in spor t com- Walker (pictured here with Felton in Sanford Stadium).
munication include owners,
publishers, producers, presi-
dents, vice presidents, and
entrepreneurs. Most oversee the day-to-day sport of skills. These days, they increasingly spend
communication operations of a sport-focused time addressing issues or opportunities that arise
organization; in doing so, they must perform a through social media. This burgeoning area of
wide variety of functions. As former ESPN presi- technology allows fans, athletes, coaches, and
dent George Bodenheimer stated, “While corpo- organizational representatives to communicate
rate leaders certainly have to know every aspect directly with each other; at the same time, it can
of their business, they also better pay extra-close lead to problems not encountered in previous
attention to things that are important to employ- eras, when communication processes were more
ees (Bodenheimer & Phillips, 2015, p. 151). For structured and predictable.
example, sport communication leaders manage Individuals who hope for a career in sport
employees; plan strategies; organize campaigns; leadership can pursue numerous managerial and
and handle budgetary, staffing, policy, legal, and administrative tracks for getting there. In sport
ethical issues. organizations, these positions range from vice
Leaders must also foster mutually beneficial president of communication to corporate com-
partnerships with stakeholders, such as adver- munication specialist to sport media manager.
tisers, other sport organizations, media outlets, For example, the sport management leaders of the
clients, and fans. “Part of business leadership is National Football League’s Pittsburgh Steelers, as
maintaining the personal relationships you’ve listed on the club’s official website, include the
built with your customers,” noted Bodenheimer. team’s chairman (Dan Rooney), president (Art
“If you make it a habit to deliver the tough news as Rooney II), vice president (Art Rooney Jr.), and gen-
well as the good news, and if you do so honestly, eral manager (Kevin Colbert). Managers serving
straightforwardly, and with respect, more often under these top management professionals include
than not you’ll maintain your relationships and Burt Lauten, the team’s communication coordina-
keep your customers” (Bodenheimer & Phillips, tor, who oversees all aspects of the Steelers’ public
2015, p. 141). In order to work with a variety of relations efforts, both directly to the public and
stakeholders, leaders must possess a wide range through the media. The highest-ranking employee
28 Strategic Sport Communication
under Lauten on Pittsburgh’s communication team
is public relations and media manager Dominick
Rinelli. Lauten also works closely with directors
and staff members from other departments, par-
ticularly information technology, photography,
and marketing.
As compared with professional sport teams,
major college athletics departments usually
include fewer divisions for their communication
staff. For example, Claude Felton serves as senior
associate athletic director for sport communica-
tion at the University of Georgia. He has headed
the sports information department since 1979,
and his responsibilities have expanded regularly
over that period. He currently manages all of the
athletics department’s communication functions:
radio, television, public relations, sports informa-
tion, social media, and written website content.
This work includes overseeing eight associate and
assistant sport communication directors, interns,
and other staff personnel. Felton’s department
has been continually recognized for excellence
by the Football Writers Association of America,
which dubbed Felton “collegiate sports’ premier
publicist,” and by the College Sports Information
Directors of America, which inducted him into
its Hall of Fame in 2001 (Gardner, 2014, para. 1).
Sport communication leaders such as Lauten
and Felton shoulder numerous duties that may
include broadcast rights negotiations, strategic
planning for communication, and a host of other
typical managerial and leadership responsibilities.
Moreover, they are continually taking on more
work with other departments in their organiza-
tion or institution due to the convergence of media
and the emphasis on digital and social media as
a way to reach fans, alumni, and key stakehold-
ers. “The advances in technology over a relatively
short period of time represent the most significant
change and impact in our communications mis-
sion,” Felton said. “The speed and efficiency of
communications tools are overwhelming along
with continuing technology advancement. At the
same time, I’m still convinced the development
and maintenance of interpersonal communica-
tions is still the formula for getting important
things done” (personal communication).
Similar executive positions and opportuni-
ties can be found in sport media enterprises. For
example, Sports Illustrated—the most popular sport
magazine in the United States—is led by its pub-
lisher, Brendan Ripp, but depends on numerous
managerial and administrative professionals who,
in turn, lead other employees. These leaders hold
titles such as publishing director, editorial projects
director, advertising revenue manager, director of
positioning, director of book makeup, director
of plant operations, regional director, advertis-
ing director, sales manager, account manager,
and production staffer. In 2014, according to the
Street & Smith’s SportsBusiness Journal, television
and digital sport media executives were prevalent
among the 50 most influential people in sport
business. For example, John Skipper (president
of ESPN) ranked second, Sean McManus (chair-
man of CBS Sports) ranked sixth, David Levy
(president of sales, distribution, and sports for
Turner Broadcasting System) ranked eighth, Mark
Lazarus (chairman of NBC Sports Group) ranked
eleventh, and Eric Shanks and Randy Freer (co-
presidents of Fox Sports Media Group) tied for
twelfth (“50 Most Influential” 2014).
Steve Bornstein, who retired in 2014 from his
position as the inaugural CEO of the NFL Net-
work, is another example of a successful executive
who worked in high-profile positions for some of
the biggest companies in the U.S. sport communi-
cation industry. Before joining the NFL, Bornstein
served as president of ABC Entertainment and
chairman of ESPN. He climbed the ranks at ESPN
after joining the start-up company in 1980, just
four months after it had gone on the air. With the
NFL, Bornstein led multiple negotiations regard-
ing the NFL Sunday Ticket, which culminated in a
massive increase in the annual rights fees paid to
the league by DirecTV, from $144 million in 2002
to $1.5 billion per year under the 2014 renewal
deal (Moritz, 2014). In Bornstein’s initial rene-
gotiation, DirecTV had also agreed to carry the
NFL Network, which was then in its infancy. As of
2013, the network reached more than 72 million
homes, or 62 percent of U.S. households with at
least one television (Miller & Sandomir, 2013).
Known for his strategic thinking ability and
tough negotiating tactics, Bornstein began his
career by working at two local television stations
while attending the University of Wisconsin. After
graduation, he worked as a remote crew chief for
a television station in Milwaukee and as a free-
lance camera operator for the Marquette Warriors,
Milwaukee Bucks, and Milwaukee Brewers. He
later served as an executive producer at an Ohio

television station before beginning a two-decade
stint at ESPN and ABC Sports, where he was instru-
mental in establishing ABC as a premier network
for college football. “If you want to talk about
what’s on my tombstone, which I hope is far away,
both the NFL Network and ESPN would have to
be mentioned,” Bornstein told the New York Times
in 2013 after his announcement that he would be
leaving the NFL of his own volition. “The difference
is, the N.F.L. was going to thrive with or without
me. At ESPN, we were faced with a touch-and-go
situation. There were no guarantees that business
was going to survive” (Miller, 2013, para. 12).
Although sport communication managers and
administrators hail from varying backgrounds
and positions, they move into executive and other
leadership positions by honing their skills and
building relationships at lower levels of organiza-
tions. They then rely on the experience gained in
working their way through various positions to
prepare them for managerial and administrative
opportunities at higher levels. For both sport-
media entities and sport teams, the rapid growth
of the sport industry has resulted in an increase
in sport communications professionals—and a
growing need for people to lead them.
CAREERS IN MEDIA
Where do sport fans find news and updates about
their favorite teams and players? For the most part,
these enthusiasts get their information through
media sources. They turn on the TV and tune in to
one of the many ESPN channels offered through
their cable or satellite package, pick up a smart-
phone to get information about their favorite team
through websites and social media, or grab a daily
newspaper or sport-focused magazine to read on
the treadmill. Although sport action takes place
on the field, rink, or court, the production and
transmission of sport information to the public
typically comes about through the efforts of sport
communication professionals working in mass
media. The mass media constitute the segment
of the sport communication field that houses the
major outlets for the transmission of ideas. This
segment—which informs, educates, persuades,
and entertains masses of sport viewers, listeners,
and readers—employs thousands of professionals.
In the past, the primary sport occupation in the
mass media was sport journalism, and the major-
Careers in Sport Communication 29
ity of sport journalists were housed in newspaper
sports departments up through the end of the
20th century. Although newspapers still represent
a sizable portion of the mass media, people inter-
ested in a career in the sport mass media today
have a myriad of additional options from which
to choose, and most of them require some exper-
tise in working with websites and social media
(Finberg & Klinger, 2014). Professionals in this
segment of the industry work for numerous and
varied mass media, and the diverse positions in
the sport media involve gathering, selecting, pro-
cessing, and presenting sport news to the masses.
Careers include such possibilities as designing
and maintaining sport websites; coordinating a
team, organization, or media outlet’s social media
efforts; writing sport books; taking photographs
for various publications or websites; handling
sport radio programming; delivering sport news
on television; and writing scripts for sport movies.
This section of the chapter examines some of the
unique sport communication careers available in
the mass media.
Traditional Print Media
The traditional print component of the sport
mass media encompasses several broad areas. For
individuals interested in a sport communication
career, the most prominent and attractive print
options include newspapers (e.g., New York Times,
USA Today), wire services (e.g., Associated Press),
magazines (e.g., Golf Digest, Runner’s World), and
books (e.g., Friday Night Lights by H.G. Bissinger, A
Season on the Brink: A Year with Bob Knight and the
Indiana Hoosiers by John Feinstein, and Moneyball:
The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael
Lewis). Within each print sport medium, one can
find numerous and varied careers ranging from
business and production occupations to editorial
professions.
Sport coverage in the print media serves as a
major information source for fans. Even though the
increase in new technology has been accompanied
by a reduction in the number of daily newspapers,
exciting and abundant careers can still be found in
writing for newspapers, wire services, magazines,
and books. Furthermore, many newspaper and mag-
azine writers now work exclusively for—or have their
print articles placed on—a website associated with
a print-based publication (Kian & Murray, 2014).
30 Strategic Sport Communication
In addition, a few print publications have moved
mostly online. For example, the Sporting News,
which began publishing a regular sport magazine in
1886, still publishes profitable preview magazines
for many sports (e.g., pro and college football, pro
and college basketball, and Major League Baseball),
but it no longer publishes a weekly print magazine,
having ended that practice at the end of 2012 to focus
on digital media (Price & Howard, 2012). Similarly,
some newspapers, including the Times-Picayune in
New Orleans, have reduced the number of days per
week on which they print hard copies, and most
major U.S. newspapers have reduced the number of
pages in their daily editions while producing more
multimedia content for their affiliated websites
(Edmonds, Guskin, Mitchell, & Jurkowitz, 2013).
In terms of business operations and produc-
tion, print sport media include jobs in publishing,
accounting, administration, finance, sales, mar-
keting, human resources, promotions, corporate
communications, business development, and
strategic planning. For instance, all areas of sport
mass media include sales representatives, such as
Alana Nguyen (profiled at the beginning of this
chapter). These professionals contact prospec-
tive clients to sell advertising slots for print and
web-based media, as well as radio and television
time for broadcast media. They also work with
copywriters to create advertisements for sport
publications and broadcasts.
On the journalistic side of the print sport media,
many full-time and freelance positions are avail-
able in writing, reporting, editing, designing, and
photography. Working for print media or wire
services, these journalists research and gather
information and then communicate their work
to the public through words, photographs, and
other creative endeavors. Many of these print-
media activities are also performed for radio
and television broadcasts, as well as web-based
publications. The leader of a sport magazine or
newspaper sports department is often referred
to as the sports editor, though the exact wording
may vary (e.g., executive sports editor, managing
editor for sports). By any name, this professional is
responsible for addressing both planned coverage
and breaking news, deciding what gets covered,
juggling deadlines, handling assignments and
special projects, dispatching reporters, supervising
coverage and production, and setting and uphold-
ing the standard for sports department practices.
Does everything newsworthy get covered by
the sports section? What about an event that drew
thousands of spectators but received only limited
coverage buried near the back of the publication?
The mere fact that event was not covered does
not necessarily mean that it is any less important
than another event that did receive coverage. The
discrepancy does, however, illustrate the power
of the sports editor, the media’s “gatekeeper,” in
sport communication (Hardin, 2005; Shoemaker
& Vos, 2009). This key decision maker determines
what gets covered by a given magazine or news-
paper—whether national, regional, or local and
whether tabloid, broadsheet, daily, weekly, or
specialized—and what does not make the cut.
Some events receive additional coverage (e.g.,
longer articles, more photos) on the publication’s
website, which generally is not subject to space
restrictions. However, even online print sources
cannot cover everything, because they too face
limitations in staffing, resources, and time.
With respect to writing for print sport media,
sport columnists lead the way. These profession-
als provide subjective opinions and analyses,
and their head shots regularly appear with their
columns, thus making them more recognizable
to readers, particularly in newspapers that cater to
small-town audiences. Other jobs in sportswriting
include beat writer, feature writer, general assign-
ment reporter, agate clerk, and photographer, as
well as regular part-time correspondent and free-
lance reporter. Sportswriters and photojournalists
cover events, issues, and personalities. The events
they cover range from youth leagues to interscho-
lastic athletics to college and professional sport,
depending on the market of the publication or
wire service. Their work includes attending games,
interviewing subjects, and providing information
and expert analysis for fans and readers.
In addition to employing staff reporters and
photographers, many print publications rely
heavily on correspondents and freelancers to meet
their sport coverage needs. Freelancing is a good
choice for someone who wants to be a sportswriter
or photographer but does not want the demands
of a full-time position with a newspaper, wire
service, or magazine. Most full-time freelancers
accumulate years of experience before deciding
to become an independent professional, but any

prospective sportswriter or photographer can
embark on a career as a freelancer. Although writ-
ing for a college newspaper is usually the best path
for students interested in a sportswriting career,
many have garnered experience, made industry
contacts, and acquired extra income while in
school by serving as a freelance stringer or regular
correspondent for a professional newspaper or
magazine. Regardless of one’s experience, working
as a freelancer requires one to develop contacts
with web-based publications, newspapers, maga-
zines, and other media.
In addition to storied sport publications such
as Sports Illustrated, there are also magazines dedi-
cated specifically to just about every sport, such
as Mountain Biking, Black Belt, and American Snow-
mobiler. Indeed, most sport magazines—whether
they are sponsored magazines, trade journals, or
news-rack publications—cater to narrow audience
segments. Even so, they offer countless opportu-
nities. Depending on your interests, ability, and
experience, you can find professional opportuni-
ties in sport magazine publishing in such areas
as management, production, editing (e.g., editor
in chief, editorial director, executive editor, man-
aging editor, senior editor), writing (mostly on a
freelance basis), design, advertising sales, promo-
tion, marketing, public relations, circulation, art,
and photography.
Finally, no analysis of print sport media is
complete without including what is often consid-
ered the first and most respected mass medium:
books. Each year brings the release of hundreds
of sport-related novels, biographies, commentar-
ies, histories, trade books, and textbooks. A small
number are even made into movies—for example,
Michael Lewis’ The Blind Side, Norman Maclean’s
A River Runs Through It, Bernard Malamud’s The
Natural, and Peter Gent’s North Dallas Forty. Indi-
viduals who choose this profession can emulate
plenty of writers of classic sport books, including
Roger Kahn (The Boys of Summer), Jim Bouton (Ball
Four), Dan Jenkins (Semi-Tough), George Plimpton
(Paper Lion), Terry Pluto (Loose Balls), Rick Telander
(Heaven Is a Playground), David Halberstam (The
Breaks of the Game), and Roger Angell (The Summer
Game).
The publishing of a sport book involves many
occupations in addition to that of author, biogra-
pher, or chronicler. Publishing positions for sport
Careers in Sport Communication 31
communication professionals include acquisi-
tions, press agentry, sales, promotion, editing,
layout, and design, both at the large, well-known
publishing houses and at the thousands of smaller
publishing ventures. Additional opportunities
may arise as publishers of sport books move
increasingly into digital and web-related publi-
cations.
Electronic and Visual Media
Rapid changes are happening in sport broadcast-
ing, and this dynamic field is in need of man-
agement, production, and news professionals.
The opportunities—whether for 24-hour sport
ventures or sports departments and produc-
tions—can be found in a variety of areas, such
as local television and radio stations, nonprofit
and federally funded noncommercial enterprises,
in-house video production units in professional
sport franchises and college athletics depart-
ments, independent production facilities, sole
proprietorships, networks, and satellite and cable
companies.
It is not uncommon for a career in sport broad-
casting to begin in radio, which is considered
the first broadcast medium. Sport radio broad-
casts—ranging from campus and local endeavors
to regional and national networks—reach people
in various markets and in some cases throughout
the United States with sport-related opinions,
news, entertainment, business, and advertising.
Each sport station and sport program offers job
possibilities in management, on-air talent, pro-
duction, sales, marketing, engineering, research,
and programming. In addition, the delivery of
this sport content via the web creates opportuni-
ties for sport communication professionals with
technical expertise.
Television—long recognized as the most
influential form of the media (Bandura, 2002)—
offers similar career offerings, both on the air
and behind the scenes. The most competitive
opportunities are found at cable and other mul-
tichannel sport services. For instance, ESPN has
become by far the most dominant force not only
in U.S. sport communication but also in all of
U.S. sport because its channels own the rights to
televise most major sporting events and leagues
(Sandomir, Miller, & Eder, 2013). Along the way,
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
 CHAPTER IX.

D elphi is everywhere hilly, the sacred precincts of Apollo and

other parts of the town alike. The sacred precincts are very
large and in the upper part of the town, and have several entrances.
I will enumerate all the votive offerings that are best worthy of
mention. The athletes however, and musical competitors, of no great
merit I do not think worthy of attention, and notable athletes I have
already described in my account of Elis. At Delphi then there is a
statue of Phayllus of Croton, who had no victory at Olympia, but was
twice victor in the pentathlum and once in the course in the Pythian
games, and fought a naval engagement against the Medes, having
furnished a ship himself, and manned it with some people of Croton
who were sojourners in Greece. So much for Phayllus of Croton. On
the entrance to the sacred enclosure is a bull in brass by
Theopropus the Æginetan, the votive offering of the Corcyræans.
The tradition is that a bull in Corcyra left the herd and pasture, and
used to resort to the sea bellowing as he went; and as this happened
every day the herdsman went down to the sea, and beheld a large
shoal of tunny fish. And he informed the people of Corcyra, and they,
as they had great difficulty in catching these tunnies much as they
wished, sent messengers to Delphi. And then in obedience to the
oracle they sacrificed the bull to Poseidon, and after this sacrifice
caught the fish, and offered both at Olympia and Delphi the tenth of
their catch. And next are the votive offerings of the people of Tegea
from the spoils of the Lacedæmonians, an Apollo and Victory, and
some local heroes; as Callisto the daughter of Lycaon, and Arcas
who gave his name to Arcadia, and the sons of Arcas, Elatus and
Aphidas and Azan; and besides them Triphylus, (whose mother was
not Erato but Laodamia, the daughter of Amyclas king at
Lacedæmon), and also Erasus the son of Triphylus. As to the
artificers of these statues, Pausanias of Apollonia made the Apollo
and Callisto, and the Victory and effigy of Arcas were by Dædalus of
Sicyon, Triphylus and Azan were by the Arcadian Samolas, and
Elatus and Aphidas and Erasus were by the Argive Antiphanes. All
these the people of Tegea sent to Delphi after the capture of the
Lacedæmonians who invaded them. And opposite them are the
votive offerings of the Lacedæmonians when they vanquished the
Athenians, statues of Castor and Pollux and Zeus and Apollo and
Artemis, and besides them Poseidon crowning Lysander the son of
Aristocritus, and Abas who was Lysander’s prophet, and Hermon the
pilot of Lysander’s flag-ship. This statue of Hermon was designed by
Theocosmus the Megarian, as the Megarians ranked Hermon
among their citizens. And Castor and Pollux are by the Argive
Antiphanes, and Abas is by Pison from Calauria near Trœzen, and
Artemis and Poseidon and Lysander are by Dameas, and Apollo and
Zeus by Athenodorus. Both Dameas and Athenodorus were
Arcadians from Clitor. And behind the statues we have just
mentioned are those of the Spartans or their allies who fought for
Lysander at the battle of Ægos-potamoi, as Aracus the
Lacedæmonian, and Erianthes the Bœotian beyond Mimas, and
then Astycrates, and the Chians Cephisocles and Hermophantus
and Hicesius, and the Rhodians Timarchus and Diagoras, and the
Cnidian Theodamus, and the Ephesian Cimmerius, and the Milesian
Æantides. All these were by Tisander. The following were by Alypus
of Sicyon, Theopompus from Myndus, and Cleomedes of Samos,
and from Eubœa Aristocles of Carystus and Autonomus of Eretria,
and Aristophantus of Corinth, and Apollodorus of Trœzen, and from
Epidaurus in Argolis Dion. And next to these are the Achæan
Axionicus from Pellene, and Theares from Hermion, and Pyrrhias
from Phocis, and Comon from Megara, and Agasimenes from
Sicyon, and Telycrates from Leucas, and Pythodotus from Corinth,
and Euantidas from Ambracia, and lastly the Lacedæmonians
Epicyridas and Eteonicus. All these are they say by Patrocles and
Canachus. The reverse that the Athenians sustained at Ægos-
potamoi they maintain befell them through foul play, for their
Admirals Tydeus and Adimantus were they say bribed by Lysander.
And in proof of this they bring forward the following Sibylline oracle.
“Then shall Zeus the lofty-thunderer, whose strength is almighty, lay
grievous woes on the Athenians, fierce battle for their ships of war,
that shall perish through the treachery and villainy of their
commanders.” They also cite these other lines from the oracles of
Musæus, “Verily a fierce storm is coming on the Athenians through
the villainy of their commanders, but there shall be some comfort,
they shall level low the state that inflicted this disaster, and exact
vengeance.” So much for this affair. And as for the engagement
between the Lacedæmonians and Argives beyond Thyrea, the Sibyl
foretold that it would be a drawn battle, but the Argives thinking they
had got the best of it in the action sent to Delphi as a votive offering
a brazen horse by Antiphanes of Argos, doubtless an imitation of the
Trojan Horse.
 CHAPTER X.

O n the basement under this horse is an inscription, which states

that the following statues were dedicated from the tenth of the
spoils of Marathon. These statues are Athene and Apollo, and of the
commanders Miltiades, and of those called heroes Erechtheus and
Cecrops and Pandion, and Leos, and Antiochus the son of Hercules
by Meda the daughter of Phylas, and Ægeus, and of the sons of
Theseus Acamas. These, in accordance with an oracle from Delphi,
gave names to the Athenian tribes. Here too are Codrus the son of
Melanthus, and Theseus, and Phyleus, who are no longer ranked
among the Eponymi. All these that I have mentioned are by Phidias,
and these too are really the tenth of the spoils of Marathon. But the
statues of Antigonus, and his son Demetrius, and the Egyptian
Ptolemy, were sent to Delphi later, Ptolemy through goodwill, but the
Macedonians through fear.
And near this horse are other votive offerings of the Argives, statues
of those associated with Polynices in the expedition against Thebes,
as Adrastus the son of Talaus, and Tydeus the son of Œneus, and
the descendants of Prœtus, (Capaneus the son of Hipponous, and
Eteoclus the son of Iphis), and Polynices, and Hippomedon
(Adrastus’ sister’s son), and near them the chariot of Amphiaraus
and in it Baton, the charioteer and also kinsman of Amphiaraus, and
lastly Alitherses. These are by Hypatodorus and Aristogiton, and
were made, so the Argives themselves say, out of the spoils of the
victory which they and their Athenian allies obtained at Œnoe in
Argolis. It was after the same action, I think, that the Argives erected
the statues of the Epigoni. They are here at any rate, as Sthenelus
and Alcmæon, who was, I take it, honoured above Amphilochus in
consequence of his age, and Promachus, and Thersander, and
Ægialeus, and Diomede, and between the two last Euryalus. And
opposite these are some other statues, dedicated by the Argives
who assisted Epaminondas and the Thebans in restoring the
Messenians. There are also effigies of heroes, as Danaus the most
powerful king at Argos, and Hypermnestra the only one of her sisters
with hands unstained by murder, and near her Lynceus, and all
those that trace their descent from Hercules, or go back even further
to Perseus.
There are also the horses of the Tarentines in brass, and captive
women of the Messapians (barbarians near Tarentum), by Ageladas
the Argive. The Lacedæmonians colonized Tarentum under the
Spartan Phalanthus, who, when he started on this colony, was told
by an oracle from Delphi that he was to acquire land and found a city
where he saw rain from a clear sky. At first he paid no great heed to
this oracle, and sailed to Italy without consulting any interpreters, but
when, after victories over the barbarians, he was unable to capture
any of their cities, or get possession of any of their land, he
recollected the oracle, and thought the god had prophesied
impossibilities: for it could not rain he thought from a clear and bright
sky. And his wife, who had accompanied him from home,
endeavoured to comfort him in various ways, as he was in rather a
despondent condition, and laid his head on her knees, and began to
pick out the lice, and in her goodwill it so fell out that she wept when
she thought how her husband’s affairs made no good progress. And
she shed tears freely on Phalanthus’ head, and then he understood
the oracle, for his wife’s name was Æthra (clear sky), and so on the
following night he took from the barbarians Tarentum, the greatest
and most prosperous of their maritime cities. They say the hero
Taras was the son of Poseidon and a local Nymph, and both the city
and river got their name from him.
 CHAPTER XI.

A nd near the votive offering of the Tarentines is the treasury of the

Sicyonians, but you will see no money either here or in any of
the treasuries. The Cnidians also brought statues to Delphi, as
Triopas (their founder) standing by a horse, and Leto and Apollo and
Artemis shooting at Tityus, who is represented wounded. These
statues stand by the treasury of the Sicyonians.
The Siphnii too made a treasury for the following reason. The island
of Siphnos had gold mines, and the god bade them send a tenth of
the revenue thus accruing to Delphi, and they built a treasury and
sent the tenth to the god. But when in their cupidity they left off this
tribute, then the sea encroached and swept away their mines.
Statues after a naval victory over the Tyrrhenians were also erected
by the people of Lipara, who were a colony of Cnidians, and the
leader of the colony was they say a Cnidian whose name was
Pentathlus, as Antiochus the Syracusan (the son of Xenophanes)
testifies in his History of Sicily. He says also that when they had built
a town at Pachynus, a promontory in Sicily, they were expelled from
it by force by the Elymi and Phœnicians, and either occupied
deserted islands, or drove out the islanders from those islands which
they call to this day by the name Homer employs, the islands of
Æolus. Of these they lived in Lipara and built a city there, and used
to sail to Hiera and Strongyle and Didymæ for purposes of
cultivation. In Strongyle fire clearly ascends from the ground, and in
Hiera fire spontaneously blazes up on a height in the island, and
near the sea are convenient baths, if the water is not too hot, for
often it is difficult to bathe by reason of the great heat.
The Theban treasuries were the result of the victory at Leuctra, and
the Athenian treasuries from the victory at Marathon and the spoil of
Datis on that occasion: but whether the Cnidians built theirs to
commemorate some victory or to display their wealth I do not know.
But the people of Cleonæ suffered greatly like the Athenians from a
plague, till in obedience to the oracle at Delphi they sacrificed a goat
to the rising sun, and, as they thus obtained deliverance from their
plague, they sent a brazen goat to Apollo. And the treasury of the
Syracusans was the result of the great reverses of Athens, and the
Potidæan treasury was erected out of piety to the god.
The Athenians also built a portico with the money which they got in
war from the Peloponnesians and their Greek allies. There are also
votive offerings of the figure-heads of captured ships and brazen
shields. The inscription on these mentions the cities from which the
Athenians sent the firstfruits of their spoil, Elis, and Lacedæmon, and
Sicyon, and Megara, and Pellene in Achaia, and Ambracia, and
Leucas, and Corinth itself. In consequence of these naval victories
they sacrifice to Theseus, and to Poseidon at the promontory of
Rhium. I think also the inscription refers to Phormio the son of
Asopichus, and to his famous deeds.
 CHAPTER XII.

T here is a projecting stone above, on which the Delphians say the

first Herophile, also called the Sibyl, chanted her oracles.[97] I
found her to be most ancient, and the Greeks say she was the
daughter of Zeus by Lamia the daughter of Poseidon, and that she
was the first woman who chanted oracles, and that she was called
Sibyl by the Libyans. The second Herophile was younger than her,
but was herself clearly earlier than the Trojan War, for she foretold in
her oracles that Helen would be reared in Sparta to the ruin of Asia
Minor and Europe, and that Ilium would be taken by the Greeks
owing to her. The Delians make mention of her Hymn to Apollo. And
she calls herself in her verses not only Herophile but also Artemis,
and says she was Apollo’s wedded wife and sister and daughter.
This she must have written when possessed by the god. And
elsewhere in her oracles she says her father was a mortal but her
mother one of the Nymphs of Mount Ida. Here are her lines,
“I was the child of a mortal sire and goddess mother, she
was a Nymph and Immortal while he eat bread. By my
mother I am connected with Mount Ida, and my native
place is red Marpessus (sacred to my mother), and the
river Aidoneus.”
There are still in Trojan Ida ruins of Marpessus, and a population of
about 60 inhabitants. The soil all about Marpessus is red and terribly
dry. Why in fact the river Aidoneus soaks into the earth, and on its
emerging sinks into the ground again, and is eventually altogether
lost in it, is I think the thin and porous soil of Mount Ida. Marpessus is
240 stades distant from Alexandria in the Troad. The inhabitants of
Alexandria say that Herophile was the Sacristan of Sminthian Apollo,
and that she foretold by dream to Hecuba what we know really came
about. This Sibyl lived most of her life at Samos, but visited Clarus in
Colophonia, Delos, and Delphi, and wherever she went chanted
standing on the stone we have already mentioned. Death came upon
her in the Troad, her tomb is in the grove of Sminthian Apollo, and
the inscription on the pillar is as follows.
“Here hidden by stone sepulchre I lie, Apollo’s fate-pronouncing
Sibyl I, a vocal maiden once but now for ever dumb, here placed by
all-powerful fate, and I lie near the Nymphs and Hermes, in this part
of Apollo’s realm.”
Near her tomb is a square Hermes in stone, and on the left is water
running into a conduit, and some statues of the Nymphs. The people
of Erythræ, who are most zealous of all the Greeks in claiming
Herophile as theirs, show the mountain called Corycus and the
cavern in it in which they say Herophile was born, and they say that
she was the daughter of Theodorus (a local shepherd) and a Nymph,
and that she was called Idæa for no other reason than that well-
wooded places were called by people at that time Idas. And the line
about Marpessus and the river Aidoneus they do not include in the
oracles.
Hyperochus, a native of Cumæ, has recorded that a woman called
Demo, of Cumæ in the Opican district, delivered oracles after
Herophile and in a similar manner. The people of Cumæ do not
produce any oracle of Demo’s, but they shew a small stone urn in
the temple of Apollo, wherein they say are her remains. After Demo
the Hebrews beyond Palestine had a prophetess called Sabbe,
whose father they say was Berosus and mother Erymanthe, but
some say she was a Babylonian Sibyl, others an Egyptian.
Phaennis, (the daughter of the king of the Chaones), and the Peleæ
at Dodona, also prophesied by divine inspiration, but were not called
Sibyls. As to the age and oracles of Phaennis, one will find upon
inquiry that she was a contemporary of Antiochus, who seized the
kingdom after taking Demetrius prisoner. As to the Peleades, they
were they say earlier than Phemonoe, and were the first women that
sang the following lines:

“Zeus was, Zeus is, Zeus shall be. O great Zeus!

Earth yields us fruits, let us then call her Mother.”
Prophetical men, as Euclus the Cyprian, and the Athenian Musæus
the son of Antiophemus, and Lycus the son of Pandion, as well as
Bacis the Bœotian, were they say inspired by Nymphs. All their
oracular utterances except those of Lycus I have read.
Such are the women and men who up to my time have been said to
have been prophetically inspired: and as time goes on there will
perhaps be other similar cases.[98]
[97] The text is somewhat uncertain here. I have tried to extract
the best sense.
[98] “Qui hoc et similia putant dicuntque Pausaniam opposuisse
Christianis, hos velim explicare causam, cur Pausanias tecte
tantum in illos invadere, neque usquam quidquam aperte contra
eos dicere ausus sit.” Siebelis.
 CHAPTER XIII.

T he brazen head of the Pæonian bison was sent to Delphi by

Dropion, the son of Deon, king of the Pæonians. These bisons
are most difficult of all beasts to capture alive, for no nets are strong
enough to hold them. They are hunted in the following manner.
When the hunters have found a slope terminating in a hollow, they
first of all fence it all round with a palisade, they then cover the slope
and level ground near the bottom with newly stripped hides, and if
they chance to be short of hides, then they make old dry skins
slippery with oil. The most skilful horsemen then drive these bisons
to this place that I have described, and slipping on the first hides
they roll down the slope till they get to the level ground at the bottom.
There they leave them at first, but on the 4th or 5th day, when
hunger and weakness has subdued their spirit somewhat, those who
are skilled in taming them offer them, while they are still lying there,
pinenuts after first removing the husks, for they will at first touch no
other kind of food, and at last they bind them and lead them off. This
is how they capture them.
Opposite the brazen head of this bison is the statue of a man with a
coat of mail on and a cloak over it: the Delphians say it is a votive
offering of the people of Andros, and that it is Andreus their founder.
And the statues of Apollo and Athene and Artemis are votive
offerings of the Phocians from spoil of the Thessalians, their
constant enemies, and neighbours except where the Epicnemidian
Locrians come in. Votive offerings have been also made by the
Thessalians of Pharsalus, and by the Macedonians who dwell at
Dium under Pieria, and by the Greeks of Cyrene in Libya. These last
sent a chariot and statue of Ammon on the chariot, and the
Macedonians at Dium sent an Apollo who has hold of a doe, and the
Pharsalians sent an Achilles on horseback, and Patroclus is running
by the side of the horse. And the Dorians of Corinth built a treasury
also, and the gold from the Lydians was stored there. And the statue
of Hercules was the votive offering of the Thebans at the time they
fought with the Phocians what is called The Sacred War. Here also
are the brazen effigies erected by the Phocians, when in the second
encounter they routed the Thessalian cavalry. The people of Phlius
also sent to Delphi a brazen Zeus, and an effigy of Ægina with Zeus.
[99] And from Mantinea in Arcadia there is an offering of a brazen
Apollo, not far from the treasury of the Corinthians.
Hercules and Apollo are also to be seen close to a tripod for the
possession of which they are about to fight, but Leto and Artemis are
trying to appease the anger of Apollo, and Athene that of Hercules.
This was the votive offering of the Phocians when Tellias of Elis led
them against the Thessalians. The other figures in the group were
made jointly by Diyllus and Amyclæus, but Athene and Artemis were
made by Chionis, all 3 Corinthian statuaries. It is also recorded by
the Delphians that, when Hercules the son of Amphitryon came to
consult the oracle, the priestess Xenoclea would not give him any
response because of his murder of Iphitus: so he took the tripod and
carried it out of the temple, and the prophetess said,
“This is another Hercules, the one from Tiryns not from
Canopus.”
For earlier still the Egyptian Hercules had come to Delphi. Then the
son of Amphitryon restored the tripod to Apollo, and got the desired
answer from Xenoclea. And poets have handed down the tradition,
and sung of the contest of Hercules and Apollo for the tripod.
After the battle of Platæa the Greeks in common made a votive
offering of a gold tripod standing on a bronze dragon. The bronze
part of the votive offering was there in my time, but the golden part
had been abstracted by the Phocian leaders.[100] The Tarentines
also sent to Delphi another tenth of spoil taken from the Peucetian
barbarians. These votive offerings were the works of art of Onatas
the Æginetan and Calynthus, and are effigies of footsoldiers and
cavalry, Opis king of the Iapyges come to the aid of the Peucetii. He
is represented in the battle as a dying man, and as he lies on the
ground there stand by him the hero Taras and the Lacedæmonian
Phalanthus, and at no great distance a dolphin: for Phalanthus
before he went to Italy suffered shipwreck in the Crissæan Gulf, and
was they say brought safe to shore by a dolphin.
[99] Ægina was the daughter of the river-god Asopus, and was
carried off from Phlius by Zeus. See Book ii. ch. 5. Hence the
offering of the people of Phlius.
[100] See Rawlinson’s Herodotus, Book ix. ch. 81.
 CHAPTER XIV.

T he axes which were the votive offering of Periclytus, the son of

Euthymachus of Tenedos, have an old legend connected with
them. Cycnus was they say the son of Poseidon, and king at
Colonæ, a town in the Troad near the island Leucophrys. This
Cycnus had a daughter Hemithea and a son Tennes by Proclea,
daughter of Clytius, and sister of that Caletor of whom Homer says in
the Iliad[101] that he was slain by Ajax when he tried to set on fire the
ship of Protesilaus,—and, Proclea dying, Cycnus married for his
second wife Phylonome, the daughter of Cragasus, who failing to
win the love of Tennes told her husband that Tennes wanted to have
illicit dealings with her against her will, and Cycnus believed this lie,
and put Tennes and his sister into a chest, and sent them to sea in it.
And they got safe to the island Leucophrys, since called Tenedos
from Tennes. And Cycnus, who was not destined to be ignorant of
his wife’s deception all his life, when he learned the truth sailed after
his son to implore his forgiveness, and to admit his unwitting error.
And as he was anchoring at the island, and was fastening his vessel
by ropes to some tree or piece of rock, Tennes in his rage cut the
ropes with his axe. Hence it is passed into a proverb, when people
obstinately decline a conference, that they resemble him who cut the
matter short with his Tenedian axe. Tennes was afterwards slain the
Greeks say by Achilles as he was defending Tenedos, and in
process of time the people of Tenedos, as they were weak, joined
themselves to the people of Alexandria on the mainland of the
Troad.
The Greeks who fought against the King of the Persians erected at
Olympia a brazen Zeus, and an Apollo at Delphi, after the actions of
Artemisium and Salamis. It is said also that Themistocles, when he
went to Delphi, brought of the spoils of the Medes as a present to
Apollo, and when he asked if he should offer them inside the temple,
the Pythian Priestess bade him at once take them away altogether.
And these were the words of her oracular response: “Put not in my
temple the beautiful spoils of the Persians, send them home as
quickly as possible.” It is wonderful that the god declined to accept
the spoils of the Medes only from Themistocles. Some think the god
would have rejected all the Persian spoil equally, if those who offered
it had first asked (like Themistocles) if the god would accept it.
Others say that, as the god knew that Themistocles would be a
suppliant of the Persians, he refused on that account to accept the
spoil from him, that he might not win for him by acceptance the
undying hate of the Medes. This invasion of Greece by the barbarian
you may find foretold in the oracles of Bacis, and earlier still in the
verses of Euclus.
Near the great altar is a bronze wolf, the votive offering of the
Delphians themselves. The tradition about it is that some man
plundered the treasures of the god, and hid himself and the gold in
that part of Parnassus where the forest trees were most thick, and
that a wolf attacked him as he slept and killed him, and that this wolf
used to run into the town daily and howl: and the Delphians thought
this could not but be by divine direction, so they followed the wolf
and discovered the sacred gold, and offered to the god a bronze
wolf.
[101] xv. 419-421.
 CHAPTER XV.

T he gilt statue of Phryne here was made by Praxiteles, one of her

lovers, and was an offering of Phryne herself. And next it are two
statues of Apollo, one offered by the Epidaurians in Argolis after
victory over the Medes, and the other by the Megarians after their
victory over the Athenians at Nisæa. And there is an ox an offering of
the Platæans, when they defended themselves successfully on their
own soil with the rest of the Greeks against Mardonius the son of
Gobryas. Next come two more statues of Apollo, one offered by the
people of Heraclea near the Euxine, the other by the Amphictyones
when they fined the Phocians for cultivating land sacred to the god.
This Apollo is called by the Delphians Sitalcas,[102] and is about 35
cubits high. Here too are statues of the Ætolian Generals, and of
Artemis and Athene, and two statues of Apollo, votive offerings of
the Ætolians after their victories over the Galati. Phaennis indeed
foretold in her oracles, a generation before it happened, that the
army of the Celts would pass from Europe to Asia to destroy the
cities there.
“Then indeed the destroying host of the Galati shall cross the narrow
passage of the Hellespont, marching to the flute, and shall lawlessly
make havoc of Asia. And the god shall even afflict more grievously
all those that dwell near the sea-shore. But Cronion shall verily soon
raise up a helper, the dear son of a Zeus-reared bull, who shall bring
a day of destruction to all the Galati.”
By the bull Phaennis meant Attalus the king of Pergamus, who was
also called bull-horned in the oracle.[103]
The statues of cavalry leaders seated on horseback were offered to
Apollo by the Pheræans, when they had routed the Athenian cavalry.
And the bronze palm and gilt statue of Athene on the palm were
dedicated by the Athenians for the victory at the Eurymedon on the
same day both on land and river. I noticed that some of the gold on
this statue was plucked off. I put this down to the cupidity of
sacrilegious thieves. But Clitodemus, the oldest writer on Athenian
Antiquities, says in his account of Attica that, when the Athenians
were making preparations for the expedition to Sicily, an immense
number of crows came to Delphi, and with their beaks knocked off
and tore away the gold off the statue. He also says that they broke
off the spear, the owls, and all the fruit on the palm in imitation of real
fruit. Clitodemus relates also other prodigies to deter the Athenians
from the fatal expedition to Sicily. The people of Cyrene also placed
at Delphi a figure of Battus in his chariot, who took them by ship from
Thera to Libya. Cyrene is the charioteer, and Battus is in the chariot
and Libya is crowning him, the design is by the Cretan Amphion the
son of Acestor. And when Battus built Cyrene, he is said to have
found the following remedy for an impediment in his speech. As he
was travelling in the remote parts of Cyrene which were still
unoccupied he chanced to see a lion, and his terror at the sight
made him cry out loud and clearly.[104] And not far from Battus the
Amphictyones erected another statue of Apollo, out of the proceeds
of the fine imposed on the Phocians for their impiety to the god.
[102] i.e. Prohibitor of corn-growing (on the sacred land).
[103] The words of the oracle were as follows:

Θάρσει Ταυρόκερως, ἕξεις βασιληίδα τιμὴν

καὶ παίδων παῖδες· τούτων γε μὲν οὐκέτι παῖδες.

[104] So the son of Crœsus found his tongue from sudden fright.
See Herodotus, i. 85.
 CHAPTER XVI.

O f the votive offerings which the Lydian kings sent to Apollo

nothing now remains but the iron base of the bowl of Alyattes.
This was made by Glaucus of Chios, who first welded iron, and the
places where the base is joined are not riveted together by bolts or
nails, but simply by welding. This base from a broad bottom rises
turret-like to a point. The sides are not entirely covered, but have
girders of iron like the steps in a ladder. Straight bars of iron bend
outwards at the extremities, and this is the seat for the bowl.
What is called by the Delphians the navel, made of white stone, is
according to their tradition the centre of the world, and Pindar in one
of his Odes gives a similar account.[105] Here is a votive offering of
the Lacedæmonians, a statue by Calamis of Hermione, the daughter
of Menelaus and wife of Orestes (the son of Agamemnon), and still
earlier the wife of Neoptolemus the son of Achilles. The Ætolians
have also erected a statue to Eurydamus their general, who
commanded their army against the Galati.
There is still among the mountains of Crete a town called Elyrus, its
inhabitants sent a brazen goat as their offering to Delphi. This goat is
represented suckling Phylacides and Philander, who according to the
people of Elyrus were the sons of Apollo by the Nymph Acacallis,
with whom he had an intrigue in the city Tarrha in the house of
Carmanor.
The Carystians also from Eubœa offered a brazen ox to Apollo after
the Median war. I think both they and the Platæans made their votive
offerings because, after repulsing the barbarian, they enjoyed
prosperity in other respects and a free land to cultivate. The Ætolians
also sent effigies of their generals and Apollo and Artemis, when
they had subdued their neighbours the Acarnanians.
The strangest thing I heard of was what happened in the seafight
between the Liparæans and Tyrrhenians. The Pythian Priestess
bade the Liparæans fight a naval engagement with the Tyrrhenians
with as small a fleet as possible. They put to sea therefore with only
five triremes, and the Tyrrhenians, thinking themselves quite a match
for the Liparæans, put out to sea against them with only the same
number of ships. And the Liparæans took them, and also another
five that put out against them, and a third and even fourth set of five
ships. They then placed at Delphi as votive offerings as many
statues of Apollo as they had captured ships. Echecratides of
Larissa offered the small Apollo, and the Delphians say this was the
first of all the votive offerings.
[105] Pindar Pyth. viii. 85. So also Æschylus, Eumen. 40.
 CHAPTER XVII.

O f the western barbarians the Sardinians offered a brazen statue

of Sardus, from whom their island took its name. For its size
and prosperity Sardinia is equal to the most celebrated islands. What
its ancient name was among its original inhabitants I do not know,
but the Greeks who sailed there for commerce called it Ichnusa,
because its shape was like that of a man’s foot-print. Its length is
about 1,120 stades and its breadth 470. The first that crossed over
into the island were they say Libyans, their leader was Sardus, the
son of that Maceris who was called Hercules by the Egyptians and
Libyans. The most notable thing Maceris ever did was to journey to
Delphi: but Sardus led the Libyans to Ichnusa, and gave his name to
the island. They did not however eject the original inhabitants of the
island, but the new comers were received as fellow colonists rather
from necessity than choice. Neither did the Libyans nor the
aborigines of the island know how to build cities, but lived dispersed
in huts and caves as each chanced. But some years after the
Libyans some Greeks came to the island under Aristæus, (who was
they say the son of Apollo by Cyrene): and who migrated they say to
Sardinia in excessive grief at the death of Actæon, which made him
ill at ease in Bœotia and indeed all Greece. There are some who
think that Dædalus fled at the same time from Camicus, owing to the
hostility of the Cretans, and took part in this colony of Aristæus: but it
is altogether beyond probability that Dædalus, who was a
contemporary of Œdipus when he reigned at Thebes, could have
shared either in a colony or in anything else with Aristæus, the
husband of Autonoe the daughter of Cadmus. Nor do I think that
even these Greeks built a town, inasmuch as in numbers and
strength they were inadequate to such a task. And after Aristæus the
Iberes crossed into Sardinia under Norax, and built the town of Nora,
which is the first mentioned in the island: Norax was they say the son
of Hermes by Erythea the daughter of Geryon. And a fourth band of
colonists of Thespians and Athenians under Iolaus came to Sardinia
and built the town of Olbia, and the Athenians separately built the