A MESSAGE FROM THE DEPARTMENT CHAIR

DEAR MCCORMACK COMMUNITY,

For alumni, faculty and friends of the Mark H. McCormack Department of Sport Management, the past year was indeed one for the books, and we’ve tried to capture the highlights in this “annual report.” After all, you only turn 50 once!

Our golden anniversary campaign kicked off with a special 8-page pullout in SportsBusiness Journal that documented the history and evolution of our program while illustrating throughout our long record of leadership in sport management education. This special piece also highlighted several of our key initiatives on the research and industry-engagement fronts and saluted our roster of alumni award winners. For those who missed it, this SBJ piece is available on our website for your reading pleasure.

The centerpiece of our celebration was our 50th Anniversary Reunion Weekend in early June, highlights of which you’ll find in the pages of this magazine. The 50th was also used as an opportunity to “fuel the next 50 years,” with a campaign kickoff in March. On behalf of the entire faculty and staff, I want to thank our Campaign Committee members for their service in stimulating alumni support: Garret Bedrin, Jen Bozek, Adina Erwin, Neal Huntington, Pamela Levine, Dennis Mannion, Jeff Price, and Dave Wright. In mid-January we eclipsed our goal of $1 million in gifts and pledges which includes funding of an Endowed Professorship named for long-time department chair Lisa Pike Masteralexis.

The generosity and support of literally hundreds of alumni and friends have also helped fuel the future of our department’s key initiatives: increasing the diversity of our undergraduate student body through the McCormack Diversity Fund; expanding our connections and student involvements with industry through the McCormack Industry Engagement Fund; and last but not least, building our reputation for best preparing and supporting women for careers in the sport industry through our Women in Sport Business Fund.

Through your support of these and other scholarship funds, and in addition to our annual UMassGives campaign, we are well positioned to continue to provide our students with unparalleled education, experiences and opportunities. As you’ll read inside, we’re also providing unparalleled preparation and industry pipelines to our students through the tireless efforts of Professor Emily Must. How do we know it’s working? This year, sport management undergraduate seniors ranked our program as #1 in Student Satisfaction out of all the majors on campus! Our grad program also vaulted back to #1 Post-Graduate Program in the world as ranked by SportBusiness!

In addition to the two new faculty members who are introduced on page 13, we’re also fortunate to have recently added Liz Colleran to our staff as Communications, Events and Alumni Relations Manager. Liz brings over a decade of experience working with sport properties, including Brown University Athletics, the Big Ten Network and Notre Dame Sports Properties. Liz welcomes your alumni story ideas for our newsletters and social media!

I will let the pages that follow highlight the many accomplishments and achievements of our faculty, students and alumni from the golden anniversary year that was! Suffice to say, we look pretty darn good at 50 …ENJOY!

Steve McKelvey Department Chair

STEVE MCKELVEY, Department Chair

Sports Business Journal

A special pullout in Sports Business Journal documented the history of McCormack for the 50th anniversary. You can see the special insert on our website.