Samford University will officially open a new student lounge for its Sports Industry Program with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Friday, Oct. 2. The lounge, located on the third floor of Cooney Hall in the Brock School of Business, was designed by Nashville-based Advent, the firm behind projects for organizations including the Dallas Cowboys, Kansas City Chiefs, PGA of America, and Oakland Athletics. The project was funded by program donors.
“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 at Union University, where his team won a National Christian College Athletic Association national championship. “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.”
White founded Samford’s Sports Industry Program in 2011, making it the first AACSB-accredited business school in the South to offer a dedicated sports business program. He later launched the Center for Sports Analytics in 2017. Today, the program enrolls more than 200 students from 33 states and offers four curriculum pathways: Sports Marketing, Sports Business Analytics and Strategy, Team Strategy and Player Performance, often referred to as “Moneyball,” and a five-year Fast Track option that allows students to earn both 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.
“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.”
According to the university, every student completes at least two major consulting projects before graduating. Students have worked with more than 100 sports teams and organizations, including the Denver Broncos, Miami Dolphins, New Orleans Saints, Los Angeles Dodgers, Bayern Munich and Celtic FC. The program’s advisory board includes more than 50 leaders from professional and collegiate sports, and the university reports a 97% job placement rate for graduates.
“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 is part of a weekend of events celebrating the Sports Industry Program and will coincide with the return of the program’s advisory board, alumni and supporters to campus. The weekend also includes Samford’s football game against UAB, marking the first meeting between the Birmingham schools since 1992.
Sherri Blevins is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You may contact her at [email protected].
