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."

"Never make the same mistake twice"

March 9, 2010

"Never make the same mistake twice"

By: Katlin Francis

Jason Bodin is the Sports Information Director for the University of Oklahoma Department of Athletics. Bodin works closely with Men's Tennis as the media contact.

Relatively new to the industry, Bodin spent the last two years, post graduation, working with public relations. Prior to his current public relations employment, Bodin tried marketing. After attaining a Bachelors degree in Public Relations from OU with a minor in Classics, Bodin began working for Oil and Gas Company as a Lease Buyer.

However, Bodin was not fulfilled in his field as a Lease Buyer. He "realized even though it paid well it was not want I wanted to do." Looking for a new career, Bodin interned at OU for two years and is currently working as a graduate assistant. Bodin likes the career trajectory with OU athletics and sees a future of growth in this industry.

Despite Bodin's current successful career, he was not always satisfied with his work. After learning a few lessons the hard way, Bodin advises PR majors to know their strengths. PR majors should not be "afraid to ask questions." When in doubt always follow the associated press stylebook guidelines.

The top knowledge and skills needed for a PR professional are "1. Writing (press releases are key to the industry, if you cannot write PR is not for you) 2. Be able to communicate to a wide variety of people. 3. Networking"

Bodin learns from every situation and lives by the motto, "don't beat yourself up if you make a mistake... learn from it and never make the same mistake twice."

Photo courtesy of Jason Bodin

Busy All the Time but It's Fun

March 8, 2010

Busy All the Time but It's Fun

By: Matthew Wilson

When I came to the University of Oklahoma I didn’t know what major I wanted to choose. It was suggested to me that I check out Public Relations and when I saw the opportunities, it looked like a good idea.

When I saw that there were different fields to the PR profession and that one of those was sports PR, I got excited because Norman has one of the best sports PR offices in the nation.

Craig Moran is the assistant director contact for are women’s soccer, baseball of the OU Athletics Communications office.

Craig has been in the sports PR field for eight years and graduated for Bowling Green State University with a bachelor’s degree in sports information and a minor in journalism. He started his career as an intern for the University of Detroit-Mercy and with the Toledo Storm hockey team.

Craig started work at OU as the contact for the men’s and women’s gymnastics team and then was hired fulltime as the contact for women’s soccer and baseball.

“I was very excited to land my first full-time position at a large Division I university,” said Moran. “After working a few years at smaller schools and in minor league hockey, I felt like all of the hard work had finally paid off.”

When observing what he does for a brief period of time, it is clear that Craig works very hard with the day-to-day operations of the communications professional. SoonerSports.com is the key tool to get information out to the public for the OU Athletics Communications office.

According to Craig, “A lot of the old school methods continue to get weeded out. Instead of solely providing information for the media, we are becoming our own news source and trying to drive more and more traffic to our web site.”

For any future professional out there, Craig says that a sports PR professional always must be on the search for new ways to reach the public, like OU Athletics on Twitter and Facebook.

“I knew working as an intern at Oklahoma would lead to good things. That is exactly why I took the job in the first place,” added Moran. “But I didn’t see myself staying longer than a year or two, and never would have expected seven years now working in not only one of best communication offices in the nation, but one of the best athletics departments.”

Watching Craig I realized that each day Craig wakes up and gets to work around sports. Growing up in Norman, this is a job that could be a dream come true for me. If you are looking for a job that you could love, this would definitely be it.

The image of OU is courtesy of the University of Oklahoma Athletic Department

Sports & Public Relations with David Bassity

Sports & Public Relations with David Bassity
By Stephanie Turner


I’ve sat down with Mr. David Bassity, Assistant Director for Media Relations at the University of Oklahoma Athletics Department. This is his third year as a full-time Assistant Director at OU. Bassity earned his degree in public relations and graduated in December of 2005. Shortly after graduation in 2006, Bassity began working in sport public relations with the Professional Bowlers Association, where he served as one of the main sports information contacts. After a short time with the PBA, he returned home to Oklahoma (originally from Chickasha, Okla.,) to work at his current job. As an OU graduate with a degree in PR, here are a few quick questions about public relations from his perspecitve.

What are some of the qualities you think a person needs to work in the field of public relations?
You need to be outgoing, be able to manage your time well and have a creative mind.

What can you do with a degree in public relations?
You could get a job like I’m doing right now in sports, you could do business public relations, personal public relations (like a publicist) for a big-time celebrity or a CEO of a Fortune 500 company. There are really a lot of different kinds of options with that degree, that’s one of the main reasons why I majored in public relations.

What is it that you do that involves public relations with your job?
One of the main things is I try to generate publicity. Awards campaigns are also a good example of how PR is used in the athletics media relations department. You’re basically making a campaign like a political campaign; you’re trying to step out there for your candidate.

Can you talk about Sam Bradford’s Heisman campaign and how was public relations used in that?
Sam Bradford’s campaign was a very exciting campaign and it was one of the closest Heisman campaigns ever. Having a good PR campaign was crucial to him having a good shot at winning the Heisman Trophy.

What’s a piece of advice you would give to someone who’s entering the work force in the public relations field?
Go hard every day and never be satisfied with your work. Know that your work is always being judged.

Photo courtesy of the University of Oklahoma Athletics Media Relations Department.