Fourth Annual Fielding Golf Tournament - 2011

Fourth Annual Fielding Golf Tournament - 2011

Congrats to Dr. Tywan Martin

After several years of graduate work, Tywan Martin successfully defended his dissertation today.

He is now Dr. Tywan Martin!

Congratulations.

His 230+ page manuscript examined the media coverage given to mixed martial arts. He also investigated the article and photographic content devoted to the National Football League (NFL) and the X Games.

It has been my honor to serve as Ty's dissertation chair throughout this scholarly journey. While I know we'll keep in contact, I will miss our interactions and I wish him nothing but the best as he returns to the University of Miami as Dr. Martin!

Faculty Trip with the Indiana University Baseball Team

I recently had the opportunity to travel with the IU baseball team and took photos of the experience. While I posted many of the photos on Facebook, I'll put up a few here for anyone who isn't a "friend" ;-).

Hallie, Hurdles, and Steele

So proud of Hallie as she placed third in her first high school track performance. With that early-season success she is listed as a Top-15 hurdler in the state (Indiana) according to the website Indiana Runner. Of the top hurdlers so far in this young season she is the only freshman on the list. She really enjoys the sport and it's fun watching her practice and compete. I'm looking forward to her next outing (on Monday)!

I'll also post a photo from a couple weeks ago where Hallie had the opportunity to meet ESPN SportsCenter anchor Sage Steele, a graduate of our IU program.

2011 NFL Combine - Zack and Brock

Zack (13), Brock (9), and I drove up to Indianapolis as the National Football League (NFL) Combine was in town. The three of us had a great time together (well, Brock got a little bored) watching the athletes, executives, coaches, journalists, autograph seekers, etc. Here is a sampling of some of the photos I took of the boys:

Lucas Oil Stadium, home of the Indianapolis Colts

Zack

Brock and Zack with some of the NFL Combine invitees

Brock and Zack with Rex Ryan

Zack and Brock enjoying a meal at Champions

Congrats to a Former Student

It was great to hear this week that master's alum Jonathan Benedek's hard work has not gone unnoticed. After working as an unpaid intern and then an hourly employee in the athletic department, Jonathan was hired this week as the Assistant Director of Marketing for the IU Department of Athletics. He is the perfect example of someone who worked hard, did an excellent job, and was rewarded for his effort, patience, skills, etc. Congrats Jonathan!

International Journal of Sport Communication (Volume 3, Issue 4)

The latest issue of the IJSC came out last week. The issue is unique in that it is the first "special issue" published by the journal (IJSC - http://journals.humankinetics.com/ijsc). This special issue focuses on new media and social networking. I'm proud to say that Dr. Galen Clavio - one of my first doctoral advisees - is the guest editor of this special issue.

Here are the seven research articles (and their authors) that are published in this issue:

Dae Hee Kwak, Yu Kyoum Kim, and Matthew Zimmerman: User- Versus Mainstream-Media- Generated Content: Media Source, Message Valence, and Team Identification and Sport Consumers' Response

Jo Williams and Susan Chinn: Meeting Relationship-Marketing Goals Through Social Media: A Conceptual Model for Sport Marketers

James Sanderson: Framing Tiger's Troubles: Comparing Traditional and Social Media

Marion Hambrick, Jason Simmons, Greg Greenhalgh, and Chris Greenwell: Understanding Professional Athletes' Use of Twitter: A Content Analysis of Athlete Tweets

Mary Lou Sheffer and Brad Schultz: Paradigm Shift or Passing Fad? Twitter and Sports Journalism

Galen Clavio and Ted Kian: Uses and Gratifications of a Retired Female Athlete's Twitter Followers

Ann Pegoraro: Look Who's Talking - Athletes on Twitter: A Case Study

Doctoral Student on WIBC

Congratulations to Evan Frederick, one of the sport management doctoral students in our Indiana University-Bloomington doctoral program. Evan was featured on radio station WIBC. You can listen to his sport media segment on violence in sport by clicking on the station link and scrolling to the March 4th file of the "Steve Simpson Audio" section.

Graduate Quoted in the Wall Street Journal

It's always nice to see any publicity associated with an alum of the sport management doctoral program. It's even better when the graduate's expertise is published in a popular outlet such as the Wall Street Journal. Anyway, Dr. Ryan Rodenberg - an alum of the doctoral program in addition to being a lawyer specializing in sport law - was recently interviewed by the WSJ and has now been quoted in the WSJ article "Speed and Commerce Skewed Track's Design".