KENNY MOSSMAN: SPORTS PR

Kenny Mossman is the voice behind all the voices of the OU Athletics Department. He is the current SID (Sports Information Director) for the University of Oklahoma.

At OU, he supervises all media relations for the sports programs, publications, the department website, graphic design, licensing and Sooner Vision, Sooner Tradition media.

In media relations, with his main responsibility pertaining to the football program, he and is staff focus on promoting and supporting OU’s student athletes in winning national awards and recognition. For examples, one could look at the Jim Thorpe award winners, Heisman Winners, The Butkus Award, and a large number of All-American athletes. The OU Football Tradition remains strong, due to these awards that are responsible for attracting some of the top student athletes across the nation.

Mossman has a string of accomplishments, including being a staff member for four NCAA football bowl games. He was on the media staff for nine men’s basketball regionals, two Men’s Final Fours, and the coordinator for four NCAA women’s basketball regionals.

He has received many award for his role as the SID, from his peers. The College Sports Information Directors of America, have given him awards on several of the publications, he and his staff have produced. For the years 2001-2007, he won consecutive awards for his “Sooner” bowl guides, which were judged the best in the nation.

OU’s SID is constantly adjusting to new technologies in the sports public relations industry. When asked about what were the biggest changes he has experienced in his field, Mossman stated, “It would have to be that we no longer have to rely on others to get our message out, and don’t have to be concerned if it would be communicated in a positive light. We still keep a close relationship with the media, but with Twitter, Facebook, our TV network and the internet, we are able to control our messages without the filtering, like never before.”

He explained that on the “downside,” the program’s student athletes also had equal access to close communication with the publics, that his staff had little control of. He feels that all organizations will deal with these issues on a daily basis.

Mossman had this advice for any future PR practitioner, “I would encourage them to have almost a ‘nerdish’ approach to emerging technology and social platforms, they need to be the person in the department or organization who understands that stuff more than anybody else, pay attention to the trade journals, watch those who have it figured it out. Management is more interested in people who do things better, different, edgier than other people are. Basically, stay technology savvy on the social network platforms."

Meet Todd Knisley

By Dara Hollingsworth

For this blog, I decided to profile someone in the field that I hope to go in to: college athletics. A lot of people think of media relations when they think of PR in an Athletic Department. I didn’t want to simply profile someone from media relations because I realize that, in college sports, PR can be a very broad term. For this reason, I chose to profile Todd Knisley.

Knisley is an Assistant Director of Marketing and Promotions for the OU Athletic Department. Knisley earned a bachelor’s degree from West Virginia University in 2006 were he majored in sports management and minored in communications and business. He went on to earn a master’s degree in sports management from West Virginia in 2007.

Knisley, whose experience prior to working at OU includes an internship with the NFL Players Association and a job in Marketing and Partnerships with the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings, says that his job encompasses both marketing and PR. The university seems to agree. He is listed as a Marketing/PR Specialist in the OU people search database. Knisley says he feels that his job is a combination of marketing, advertising and PR, and he says that helps to make his job exciting. But Knisley says that is just one of the many great parts about his job.

“You don’t know what each day will bring,” Knisley says. “You can go to a meeting with Jeff Capel in the morning, and then go to lunch with the volleyball coaches and then be on the field at a sold out football game with 85,000 people that night.”

Knisley has some advice for people trying to choose a career, whether that be in PR or another field. He says it is important to get an internship in the field you’re interested in because you gain valuable experience and it can help you decide what you really want to do.