By Jeffery Jacobs
This semester, I was fortunate enough to work as a Public Relations Intern with Southern Methodist University Athletic program. I started working on January 2nd as a volunteer construction worker for the Moody Coliseum. With only two days before the opening of the coliseum, it was imperative to make sure every tile was in the right place, test the lighting and sound, and experiment the various food options in the different concession stands. It was hard work, but it was amazing to make my contribution into the coliseum that will be standing for at least the next half century. If you have been into the coliseum, you will see the blue section numbers circulating the stadium. Before the coliseum was opened, they were power drilled into the wrong locations. My job was to unscrew all of the blue signs and take them all down so they could be placed in the correct spots. Even though I was going backwards on work that had already been done, it was still cool to make my marks in the coliseum.
The first game was amazing because we played and beat the University of Connecticut by 20+ points. It was a big deal for us at the time and it is even more impressive that we beat the NCAA Champions of 2014 twice. Too bad we couldn’t play them instead of Minnesota. This began the whimsical slogan of “Moody Magic.” During the season, my job was to run the statistical data from the media table in the center of the court to the team benches, the radio crew, the television crew, and all of the media sources that attended the games. I met a number of well known people from ESPN, ABC, and TXA 21. In addition, I also met George Bush, Jason Garret, Jason Witten, Tony Romo, Michael Finley, Vince Carter, and a few other successful individuals. This was just a bonus perk but it was really cool to meet people who I see on television every day. With the year coming to a close, I feel so much more prepared for the business world in sports because I learned that the game itself is what people come to see, but all of the cyber kinetics between the different offices in an athletic department is what lasts on a daily business. This is a tough and time consuming business. People who work in sports have to be prepared to work back to back 16 hour days because it is very possible. Sports in the real world is a very fast paced business and you must learn how to keep up before you actually know what you are actually doing in your position. You have to be prepared for sudden changes, discretion, and representing a positive image for not only your department, but for the athletic program as a whole, and the school/team you are working for. This is the most fun I have had in my life.