The Program
The Richard Pound Olympics Archive
Through a unique collaboration with McGill University in Canada, The University of Texas will soon share—and make available to the world—one of the most important archives on the history of the modern Olympic movement. This collaboration was facilitated by U.T. grad Dr. Steven Ungerlieder, a noted author and friend of Mr. Pound, who is an expert on sports medicine and a person who has worked closely with the Olympic Committee. The papers are now housed at McGill but U.T.’s Director of Libraries has agreed to oversee the digitizing of these materials and to provide the needed web-based software. The papers were assembled by Richard Pound, currently Chancellor of McGill and a competitor in his own right at the 1960 Summer Olympics. He later became president of the Canadian Olympic Committee and was elected to the International Olympic Committee where he oversaw television and sponsorship arrangements, ultimately transforming the IOC into a multi-billion dollar enterprise. He also became known as an outspoken critic of corruption in sports and so his papers embrace virtually every issue addressed by the Olympic movement during the last half-century. As such, the Pound Collection will become a focal point for students, scholars, and journalists in the years ahead.
The McGarr Symposium on Sports and Society
This is an annual conference in the College of Communication that will bring working professionals to campus to discuss sports-related public policy issues. The first such symposium focused on athletics and drugs and a second will deal with the racialized aspects of modern sport. Other topics to be investigated might include public-private partnerships for stadium construction, sports and human rights in the Third World, the role of athletics in reducing childhood obesity, fan behavior and violence, gender disparities in school-based programs, the stereotyping of athletes, etc. In short, by bringing nationally known figures to the U.T. campus each year and by broadcasting their remarks online for the world to see, the McGarr Symposium will not only study the news but it will make news as well.
Sports Journalism Curriculum
U.T. is one of the first universities in the nation to offer formal coursework in sports journalism, having established an undergraduate course in that area in the Fall of 2000 with the help of a generous lead gift from an anonymous donor. The course has been taught by an award-winning columnist and feature-writer, Melanie Hauser, who has covered everything from swimming to the NFL in her 32-year career as a working sportswriter. Currently secretary-treasurer of the Golf Writers Association of America and a former member of the board of the Pro Football Writers Association, Hauser has worked for both the Austin American-Statesman and the Houston Post. She has also been a columnist for CBS SportsLine and a frequent contributor to Golf World and Sports Illustrated. Since 2000, Hauser has prepared more than 160 students for careers in sportswriting and sports information.
The Sports Publicity Project
The College of Communication is currently seeking support for curricular work in sports publicity and advertising. The Program will create opportunities for students to intern with major sports-related companies (e.g., Host Communications, Nike, etc.) and also support faculty research on sports and society. The Project will analyze both amateur and professional sports, considering such factors as the role of the sports information director, media writing for athletics, sports photography, broadcast interviewing, coordinating press conferences, interpreting statistics, promoting sporting events, overseeing crisis management, designing a sports web page, fund-raising for athletics, etc.
