Global Sport Matters

Last week, Kim Ng made history as the first woman and first woman of color to become a general manager in Major League Baseball. With more than 30 years of experience in professional baseball, this pivotal moment is a long time coming. We’re joined by Lori Okimura, former chairwoman for USA Volleyball and current CEO of Creative Sport Strategies, Marian Rhodes, a former executive for the Diamondbacks and Cardinals and current consultant, and Karina Bohn, COO of the Global Sport Institute and former VP of marketing for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Matthew Casey, a reporter with the local radio station KJZZ, investigates the impact of sports and COVID-19 on Phoenix’s culture and economy. His podcast series Empty Seats, a KJZZ Original Production, explores the history of sports in the city, the local effects of the sports industry crash, and what needs to happen for a safe return to sport. He says that Phoenix has provided an advantageous environment for teams with its ideal climate, state of the art facilities, state tourism efforts, and cooperating leadership.

They say elections have consequences. One group in particular who lives on the precipice on who gets sworn-in, come this January are DACA recipients. Over the summer, we interviewed Argeo Cruz, a DREAMER, and an athlete. He said his story with us about wanting to be on the US Olympic team as a runner, a dream that was cut short. We revisit that conversation in this episode which originally aired on July 22, 2020.

Sean Gregory, a senior writer for TIME, has covered the intersection of sport and society for most of his career. In his recent article about President Trump taking credit for the return of Big Ten football, he refers to the Global Sport Institute’s national snapshot poll on sport. In a survey of 400 college football fans who are undecided registered voters in battleground states, 53% said that Trump's comments about saving Big Ten football had no impact on which presidential candidate they will vote for in the upcoming election.

Earlier this year, Rhasaan Nichols traveled to Haiti to film a documentary about a basketball mentoring program created by his Yale classmate Dave Fils-Aimé. While filming, the unexpected happened and Nichols found himself in another country during the COVID-19 outbreak.

In 1992, Dr. Fitz Hill began his collegiate football coaching career as an assistant coach at the University of Arkansas. In 2001, he became the first Black head football coach at San Jose State University. As he progressed throughout his career, Hill was aware that his story was an uncommon one. Hill recalls thinking that a tipping point had been reached when the NFL implemented the Rooney Rule and made efforts to diversify coaching staff. He hoped that this would be mirrored in collegiate athletics, but it seems that the transformation has yet to take place. Ken Shropshire, CEO of the Global Sport Institute, and Bill Rhoden, writer-at-large for The Undefeated join Fitz Hill on this episode.

The Global Sport Institute shares results from a recent national survey done in partnership with OH Predictive Insights. The survey looked at multiple categories such as college sport, youth sport, professional sport, COVID-19, the desire to attend a high-level sporting event, and race in professional sport.

Daniel Libit and Luke Cyphers of The Intercollegiate discuss the rights of college-athletes and the power of money as colleges begin their fall and winter sports seasons.

In college sport, football may ‘reign supreme’ in popularity, but it is behind the curve when it comes to diversity at its top tier coaching positions. The newest field study report to come out of the Global Sport Institute shows the stark, yet unsurprising, reality of hiring of Division 1 head coaches over the past decade – in the NCAA Power 5. Joining us to discuss his investigation into our Field Study is reporter Patrick Hruby.

Coach John Beam, who was recently featured on Netflix’s Last Chance U, has had a career football spanning 40 years. And in that time, he’s impacted so many lives, including our own Scott Brooks from the Global Sport Institute. Both join us on this episode of the Global Sport Matters Podcast.