UT Alumnus Teaching Course in Sports Promotion and Branding while Working for UT Athletics
Tombras School of Advertising and Public Relations adjunct lecturer Josh Lively (‘16, ‘19) holds many roles at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. In addition to teaching, he serves as an assistant director for strategic communications at Tennessee Athletics, where he’s responsible for overseeing the media relations of the men’s and women’s swimming and diving, and volleyball programs. Additionally, he oversees the student intern program for the media relations office.
Lively spent his childhood in Harriman, Tennessee, which is located around forty-five minutes away from UT’s campus. With the university in his backyard, there was only one place he wanted to attend for his undergraduate degree. Additionally, he knew that whatever he studied, there had to be an athletic aspect involved. He applied to one school only: UT.
Lively began his academic career as a journalism major with aspirations of becoming a sports reporter. In his freshman year, he contacted the communications department of Tennessee Athletics and began working with their team.
“I fell in love with it,” he said.
He finished his undergraduate program in 2016 in three and a half years and began his master’s in sports management at UT soon after.
“I never thought I would teach at that point,” he said. “When I was a freshman, I had to take public speaking and I ended up taking it at Roane State Community College because I didn’t want to take it at UT in front of 100 other kids. I hated public speaking. It was terrifying.”
After completing his master’s degree in 2019, Lively was hired as an assistant director of communications for Mississippi State University’s women’s basketball program.
Being in the field is what inspired him to consider teaching a sports promotion and branding class.
“I thought it would be beneficial for both the students and professionals like me. We could first prepare the students and then provide them with training at our office. This way, they will enter the industry with more knowledge,” he explained.
While the idea of creating this class was still a dream, Lively ended up back at UT, taking a job as assistant director for strategic communications with Tennessee Athletics.
It wasn’t until the summer of 2022 that Lively thought about teaching once again.
“I reached out to the College of Communication and Information’s dean, Joe Mazer, expressing interest in teaching specifically in the Tombras School of Advertising and Public Relations because there were no sports classes. Journalism has sports reporting and sports writing, but PR didn’t have anything, and so much of the industry is sports PR specifically,” he explained.
Lively said that, after speaking with Dean Mazer and Director of the Tombras School Beth Foster, all three agreed the class would be beneficial for the college. The first semester of the course started in spring 2023.
In the course, students learn how to develop strategic communications and social media plans and create graphics, promotional videos, and press releases.
Initially, Lively thought only a handful of students would be interested in the course, and he expected around fifteen to twenty students to apply. However, to his surprise, almost fifty students signed up for the course. Now, in his third semester, he has over ninety students in his class.
One of his students, Emma Pytko, is a junior studying public relations. She said she met Lively after interviewing him for her internship program.
“When he told me about his class, I decided to take it to grow my knowledge of the industry. Having the opportunity to learn from him both in the classroom and at the office empowered me to learn so much about athletics,” Pytko said.
Caleb Jarreau is a sophomore studying journalism and is a sports editor for The Daily Beacon. He said his favorite part about the class is getting hands-on experience with real-life scenarios and presenting projects that demonstrate how they would promote certain situations or players.
“It helps to know the jobs that he does and learn the other side of it, like from a SID’s (sports information director) point of view and the rest of the Tennessee communications staff,” he said.
Jarreau adds that he appreciates the fact that the university strives to bring in faculty who are still very active in the fields that they teach in.
“When you have somebody who’s actively doing what you’re learning about, I feel like it makes it a lot more interesting,” he said.
Lively said he enjoys teaching future sports industry leaders, and with UT’s rich athletic culture, this is the perfect opportunity for both students and the college.
“There’s just so much momentum on Rocky Top right now, in athletics, with the university and the College of Communication and Information,” he said. “It’s fun that I get to be a piece of this story and help build the next generation.”
UT Alumnus Teaching Course in Sports Promotion and Branding while Working for UT Athletics written by Hillary Tune and originally published on the College of Communication & Information site.