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.