By Trey Scott

Photo by Kiersten Marian

With the impending arrival of prized archives, the enlisting of renowned scholars for a panel discussion, and the creation of a new course, certificate programs and student internships, the new Texas Program in Sports and Media has started laying the groundwork for a successful future, in just three months.

That’s primarily because the man behind it all, Michael Cramer, is driven to succeed.

Cramer has served as president of the professional franchises Texas Rangers and Dallas Stars and, more recently, taught courses at New York University. He was chosen from a group of 150 applicants to guide the new program, which resides in the College of Communication. “Mike’s unusual skill set of management, sports management and professional academic experience make him the ideal executive for this emerging program,” College of Communication Dean Roderick Hart said. “His connections throughout the sports and media industries as well as the experience developing programs, building partnerships, fundraising and creating internship opportunities will propel the program to the highest levels.”

Cramer, who earned his law degree from Marquette University, has an extensive resume. He was chief administrative officer of a multi-billion-dollar food conglomerate, Pinnacle Foods Corp. From 1998-2004, he was president and chief operating officer of Southwest Sports Realty, and in that role, also served as president of the Texas Rangers and the Dallas Stars. Before that, he practiced law in Wisconsin. But for Cramer, there is no place he would rather be than Austin.

“It’s the University of Texas, and that’s fun for me because I wanted to stay involved in an academic institution,” Cramer said. “I loved the idea of coming back to Texas. You come here, and you don’t want to leave.”

Cramer said he looks forward to the blank canvas that heading a new program provides. The concept is understood, but he is the designer. It includes a series of internships, established by the Tom Hicks and Nolan Ryan families and the Austin American-Statesman. There might be a certificate programs in the upcoming year in which students can earn a certificate in sports management by completing 15 or 18 credit hours of academic coursework.

Cramer will teach as well. He taught—and helped create—undergraduate courses pertaining to sports and the media at NYU. His spring 2011 upper-division communications course, Sports, Media and Integration of American Society, filled its allotted 25 spots within minutes of opening. At Cramer’s request, the college opened 50 more seats that filled up just as quickly. “This is a very special course for me,” he said. “I taught a version of it [at] NYU, but this focuses more on sports and media together. I think we’ve become a better society because of sports and the way that media has brought the news to us, and that is what this class is about.”

The program’s goal in the first year—to establish a foothold in the community—has already been accomplished through fundraising and on-campus events, he said. The Arthur Miller Dialogues, a free program open to the public, brought in scholars, athletes and media personnel from across the nation to participate in a panel discussion on sports, media and race in early November. Additionally, Cramer is working with Mark Updegrove, director of the of LBJ Library and Museum, to move the Richard Pound Olympic archives, which include papers and letters from Pound who served as vice president of the International Olympic Committee, to Austin where they can be  digitized for research.

The next step, Cramer said, is to package the program into a finished product.

“I want to see us have a solid academic foundation,” Cramer said. “I want us to be a research center that supports student and faculty research. I want us to be a clearinghouse for key issues that relate to sports and media.”

At a University with such a rich vested history in athletics, a program such as the Texas Program in Sports and Media has much potential, and Cramer said he wants national and international communities to think of the University of Texas when they think about research of sports and media.

“There is no other school that has what we have started,” he said.