Meet The Class of 2010 - William

One of the unique attributes of the DeVos Sport Business Management Program is the network of students who make up our program. Our class will take every course together during our tenure here at UCF and we will work on countless group projects and collaborative efforts. As a result of our shared interests in the business of sport, a natural team camaraderie is formed. However, our team is composed of people from diverse backgrounds, experiences and ambitions. We offer profiles of class members to give you an idea as to the type of people who make up our program, individuals who collectively will be leaders in sport and society and will be teammates for life.


Name: William Johnson
Hometown: Louisville, KY
Undergraduate College: The Florida State University
Undergraduate Major: Business Management

Current Graduate Assistantship or Employment: G.A. in the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports (TIDES)

Future Career Goals: Working in professional soccer and eventually moving up to the ownership level.

Reasons For Choosing DeVos: The program stands for ethics, diversity, leadership, and community. The community aspect is very unique and the professors are good, positive role models.

Meet The Class of 2010 - Charlie

One of the unique attributes of the DeVos Sport Business Management Program is the network of students who make up our program. Our class will take every course together during our tenure here at UCF and we will work on countless group projects and collaborative efforts. As a result of our shared interests in the business of sport, a natural team camaraderie is formed. However, our team is composed of people from diverse backgrounds, experiences and ambitions. We offer profiles of class members to give you an idea as to the type of people who make up our program, individuals who collectively will be leaders in sport and society and will be teammates for life.


Name: Charlie Harless
Hometown: Hollywood, MD
Undergraduate College: The University of Tennessee
Undergraduate Major: Sport Management
Background: Head Student Manager for Tennessee Lady Vol Basketball Program, Intern in Athlete Services for the United States Olympic Committee

Current Graduate Assistantship or Employment: G.A. in the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports (TIDES)

Future Career Goals: Working in college athletics administration and earning my doctorate in sport studies

Reasons For Choosing DeVos: Opportunity to work alongside highly motivated peers who are looking to not only be leaders in sport, but leaders in their community as well. The educational opportunity to earn two degrees while being placed in real-life sport and business environments presented a challenging and collaborative academic experience that I could not pass up.

Living Classroom 2.0 - New Year, New Class

Greetings everyone! The time since our last blog post has been regrettably long, but we are back to give you insight into the exciting goings-on in the DeVos Sport Business Management Program at UCF.

The Class of 2010 has already been in classes for a full month (!) and if I do say so myself, we have acclimated very quickly to both the rigors of the program and the many outside-the-classroom activities we can participate in. The first semester is all business, literally, as we take four of our M.B.A courses in statistics, economics, accounting and organizational behavior. We had our first major exam this morning so please wish us luck on the grade front.

Our most important test of the semester may actually take place tonight on the intramural fields, as our class does battle with the Class of 2009 in a game of co-ed Intramural Flag Football. In honor of our victory, I’ll post our winning score in the blog tomorrow (clearly nothing stings more than blog smack talk).

We have had the pleasure of listening to Dr. Bernard Franklin, Senior V.P. for Governance, Membership, and Education and Research Services for the NCAA. Dr. Franklin was our first guest in the Distinguished Speaker Series at DeVos. Dr. Franklin gave a fantastic presentation discussing his prominent role in college athletics, particularly his experiences with the controversial Native-American Mascot legislation. Students in both the 2009 and 2010 classes enjoyed Dr. Franklin’s candor and openness to questions regarding a wide issue of topics. On Friday, we are all looking forward to listening to author and former NFL all-pro linebacker David Meggyesy and next week, we will travel to Daytona to meet with the leadership of NASCAR. These should be some fascinating meetings that will give all of us greater insight to both the business and social issues of sport.

In the coming days, we’ll show you more of the life of a DeVos student and introduce to you the new class members who will be posting in the future. We're excited to share with you details from our memorable trip to New Orleans (that picture is all of us in the Class of 2010 with Dr. Lapchick and his wife Ann in New Orleans) and our unique community service activities. For any prospective students out there please feel free to post comments or ask questions of us at devosprogram@gmail.com. We are more than happy to talk about ourselves (modest much?) and how awesome the DeVos program has been for us this first month.

Enjoy the day

Charlie
Class of 2010

Super Tuesday

We are about a week past “Super Tuesday,” and find ourselves in the midst of politicians calling for “change”. While many people of our generation are turning out in record numbers to cast their vote, I think we all remain a bit skeptical of political movements. Dr. Lapchick is always saying, “There is something about sports.” I believe that to be true, and I think my classmates think that as well. Even amongst all the scandals, there is something in us that believes that there is a certain pureness to sports. I think that is why many of us chose to go into sports, because we really believe we can make a difference.

I believe all of us should make our voice known and vote in the coming election. However, I remain a bit skeptical of the politicians and their promises. Teeball, hotdogs and baseball games, Lil’ Penny, marching bands, bracket busters, game winning shots, unbelievable catches, the World Cup, and slam dunks…these are things that seem to remain consistent. There is something about sports, indeed. I leave you with a quote from Lance Armstrong, “One of the redeeming things about being an athlete is redefining what is humanly possible.”

Much love and good game,

Jonathan

Dee Brown!?!?!

What’s it like to meet one of athletes you looked up to as a child? I grew up in Vermont rooting for the Boston Celtics in the 1990s after the “big three” of Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, and Robert Parish retired and there wasn’t a lot to root for as the team struggled. Dee Brown was one of the only reasons to like the Celtics. He won the 1991 Slam Dunk Contest as a rookie when he famously pumped up his Reeboks before covering his eyes with his forearm and dunking the ball “no look”. He went on to play twelve seasons in the NBA with the Celtics, Raptors and Magic, averaging just over eleven points per game.

I had the distinct honor of introducing a bio of Dee to my classmates. I had a huge grin on my face, though I was definitely nervous (and I don’t get nervous). When I researched Dee to present the bio, I was extremely impressed with the diversity of his background: player, coach of two WNBA teams (Orlando Miracle and San Antonio Silver Stars), NBA front office experience with the Magic, on-air TV personality with ESPN after winning the show “Dream Job”, ESPN radio personality from 12-3 everyday, and owner/operator of Edge Training Facility.

As a lifetime Celtics fan and someone who people have called a “sports encyclopedia," I thought that I knew everything there was to know about Dee Brown... Boy was I wrong. Dee Brown stressed to us that basketball never defined who he was as a person; he was just gifted at it and used basketball as a tool to pursue all his other interests. Dee has two degrees from Jacksonville University in math and computer science. He owned several dot-com companies during the 90s and claims to be one of the first two NBA players (along with Spurs great David Robinson) to have the first monochrome, 15-pound Apple laptop in the '90s.

Dee also stressed the importance of having a value system above everything else. He spoke of an incident when he was in Boston for the first time after the NBA draft. Dee was tackled to the ground by police who suspected him of robbing a bank, despite the fact he was at the post office a block away. As Dee said, “What kind of dumb criminal goes to the post office across the street from the bank he just robbed?!” This was Dee Brown’s first impression of Boston, the city that would be his home for seven years. He could have been bitter, he could have sued, he could have blamed the world, but he didn’t because he didn’t believe it would help the situation. Instead Dee spun it positively and sought out the director of our program, Dr. Lapchick, who was at Northeastern University at the time. They have been great friends ever since.

It’s been a week since Dee Brown spoke to us and I still have that huge grin on my face. I thought that I knew everything there was to know about Dee Brown... Boy was I wrong.

Eric

Don't Bet on It

This week in Dr. Lapchick's class, we had a very interesting discussion about how commonplace gambling has become, particularly with regards to sport. He opened up by calling us out, asking if we would use cocaine, carry a handgun, drive under the influence, etc. The response for each was a resounding, "No."

It was interesting, then, that three-quarters of our class said they would either participate in an office pool or bet on a game. As you may know, sports gambling is only legal in Nevada, yet it has grown into an accepted reality - particularly during March Madness and the Super Bowl. Perhaps because it is viewed as a small-scale wager, or removed from organized crime, we have allowed ourselves to justify our decision.

The truth is, however, that gambling's addictive nature can lead to harm quickly. Everyone thinks they can beat the odds, but many fall short. If an athlete, trainer, coach, or administrator gets in a bookie's pocket, the integrity of the game could soon be compromised. Though this is a hypothetical situation, the issue has plagued athletic competition over the last century, with a dramatic spike in the Internet age.

In fact, the 2007 Super Bowl had over $93 million in legal wagers - that is, from those over the age of 21 and physically in the state of Nevada - yet this represented only 1.5% of the actual amount wagered - an astonishing $8 billion on one game! It can be assumed that the difference was comprised of bets with local illegal bookies or through Internet sites.

Congress took a stab at Internet gambling in 2006 with the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, which effectively shut down US poker and sports wagering sites. Offshore betting, however, remains rampant and unchecked.

This issue is at the forefront of sport ethics and will remain so, with nearly $400 billion bet annually. The cliche is that money talks - the question is, what is it saying?

Interesting Links:
Sports Betting

History of Point-shaving

Sports Wagering Industry Info

What do you think?

Nathan

Wrapping Up Bowl Season

College football’s bowl season seemed to go on and on (and on) this year from December 20 to January 7. There are now thirty-two bowl games including the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl, the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl, Roady’s Humanitarian Bowl and the Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl (I swear I didn’t make any of those up). This year I had the pleasure of studying the teams in the bowl games closer than most and I don’t mean the play calling of the X’s and O’s, but the academics of A’s, B’s, C’s, D’s and F’s.

My graduate assistant (GA) position is with the DeVos program in the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport doing research on the academic standing of college athletics and the racial and gender hiring practices of professional leagues and the NCAA. There are six of us in the ’09 class out of twenty-six that work with the Institute, but (in case you were wondering) almost everyone in the program has a GA position somewhere on campus.

This year Marina Bustamante (DeVos ’08) and I co-authored Dr. Lapchick’s study, “Keeping Score When It Counts: Assessing the 2007-08 Bowl-bound College Football Teams. Academic Performance Improves but Race Still Matters.” The study was released December 3, 2007 which was the morning after the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) bowl games were announced. The study concluded that while overall academic performance was improving in college football, there remains a large gap between the graduation rates of White and African-American football players with African-Americans trailing far behind. If it was based off academics alone, Navy and Boston College would play for the national title. I encourage you to read the study.

The Institute also annually releases a NCAA leadership study, which assesses diversity among Division 1-A campus and conference leaders. We also annually release racial and gender report cards for Major League Soccer, Major League Baseball, the National Football League, the National Basketball Association, the Women’s National Basketball Association, among others. I’d also encourage you to check these out at the Institute’s website. The work of the Institute is a major part of the mission of the DeVos program and I’m humbled to play a small role in it.

Eric

Ladies and Gentleman, the Former President (of FCA), Jon Adams...

Hello everyone, my name is Jonathan Adams. I have the tough act of following Eric and Nathan, but I will do my best. I am originally from a small town called Fruitland Park, Florida (If you know where that is, I would be seriously impressed). I moved to Orlando to attend UCF for my undergrad. I got my degree in Business Management with a minor concentration in sport business management.

I have had the privilege of having a variety of experiences over the past 5 years. I have worked the past four seasons with the Orlando Magic as part of the game night arena operations staff. I also currently work with Dr. Keith Harrison doing research on social responsibility.

When UCF Athletics first started their sales department, I had a position stationed at the Orlando Regional Chamber of Commerce where I sold businesses UCF football season tickets. I also worked a year at a local inner city YMCA, which was a great experience. I had the privilege of working three years as a teacher’s assistant with Dr. Fritz Polite, who was a former professor here at the DeVos Program. I was involved with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes all four of my years of undergrad, serving as president my final year.

I can truly say I feel so at home at the DeVos Program. The faculty are great, and I cannot say enough about how much I have enjoyed all of my classmates. I think we truly have a special group (but I suppose I’m partial).

Hopefully, on good days you will be able to take something away from my blog. I’d love to hear from you if you have any questions or comments. In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King’s Day that just passed, I’d like to leave you with this quote from his autobiography. “Human beings with all their faults and strengths constitute the mechanism of social movement. They must take their mistakes and learn from them, make more mistakes and learn anew. They must taste defeat as well as success, and discover how to live with each.”

Much love…good game,

Jonathan