Samford University's Sports Industry Program will hold a ribbon cutting on Friday, Oct. 2 to officially open the new Sports Industry Program Student Lounge on the third floor of Cooney Hall in the Brock School of Business.
"In the world of sports, the locker room is sacred," said Dr. Darin White, the Margaret Gage Bush Distinguished Professor and founder of the Sports Industry Program. "It is where teams bond. It is where the hard conversations happen. It is where you celebrate together after a big win and where you pick each other up after a tough loss.
“I have lived that my entire life as a player and as a coach," said White, a Hall of Fame college soccer coach and national championship winner. "That is what this space is for our students. It is their locker room. It is the place where they will build the relationships and the community that will carry them through their careers in the sports industry."
The lounge was designed by Advent, the Nashville-based experience design firm that completed projects for some of the biggest sports organizations in the country, including the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the PGA of America and the Oakland Athletics. The space was made possible through the generous support of program donors.
"This space is for our students. It is their locker room. It is the place where they will build the relationships and the community that will carry them through their careers in the sports industry." — Darin White
White founded the Sports Industry Program in 2011, making Samford the first AACSB-accredited business school in the South to offer a dedicated sports business program. In 2017, he followed that by launching the Center for Sports Analytics, the first of its kind in the nation. Today the program has grown to more than 200 students from 33 states, with four curriculum pathways: Sports Marketing, Sports Business Analytics and Strategy, Team Strategy and Player Performance (aka Moneyball), and a five-year Fast Track option that allows students to earn a bachelor's degree and a Sports Business MBA.
“It all started with a conversation over lunch back in January 2010,” said George Dennis, president of ZOOM Motorsports and chairman of the Sports Industry Advisory Board.
A 1996 Samford graduate, Dennis has chaired the board since the program's founding in 2011.
“I had come to campus to speak to a class, and afterward we sat down and started asking the question: what if Samford had a program like this? Nothing like it existed in the South at the time. It was just a dream. And now I look at what this program has become, the students it is producing, the organizations that are hiring them, and I just shake my head. I work in this industry every day, and the young professionals coming out of this program are as prepared as anyone in the country. This new space matters because this program is built on community, and community needs a home. Our students now have one.”
The program combines a rigorous business education with hands-on sports industry experience. Every student completes at least two major consulting projects during their time in the program. To date, students have worked with more than 100 teams and properties, including the Denver Broncos, the Miami Dolphins, the New Orleans Saints, the Los Angeles Dodgers, Bayern Munich in Germany, and Celtic FC in Scotland. The program's advisory board includes more than 50 industry leaders from across professional and collegiate sports. The Wall Street Journal ranks Samford third nationally for career preparation, and the program reports a 97% job placement rate.
“The sports industry is built on relationships,” White said. “And Samford is a place that puts an extraordinary value on relationships. Between our faculty and students, between our students and each other, and between our program and the professionals who invest in it. Everything we do is built on a foundation of respect, trust, and grace. Our students come from all over the country to be part of this program. They need a place that is theirs. A place to study, to collaborate, to connect. This space gives them that.
“When I look at where this program was 15 years ago and where it is today, I can only give the glory to God,” White said. “From the very beginning, our mission has been to develop the next generation of sports business leaders who are not only prepared to be the very best at what they do, but who also recognize that they have an opportunity to leverage their influence to make an impact for the Kingdom of God. That has been at the heart of everything we have done. None of this would be possible without the Lord’s blessing on this program. This space, these students, this community. It is all a gift. And we do not take any of it for granted.”
The ribbon cutting takes place during a full weekend of events celebrating the Sports Industry Program. The program’s advisory board will be on campus, and many alumni and friends of the program will return for the occasion. The weekend marks the historic football matchup between Samford and UAB, with the Birmingham schools meeting for the first time since 1992.
