Twenty-five students from the School of Media and Communication and Sport Management headed to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, OH on Friday, April 10 as part of Richard Maxwell’s “Public Relations Practitioners in the NFL Reunion.” Students had the opportunity to meet and interact with some of the 70 current and retired public relations NFL directors who attended.
Students attended workshops on social media, crisis PR, and getting that first job in the sports world. They attended the “Conversations with Dick Maxwell” panel where six PR practitioners shared stories of their days in the NFL and provided career advice to students.
The annual Collins Scholarship awards were handed out that evening. This year’s recipients are Terry Lash, a BGSU junior majoring in broadcast journalism, and Kaleb Page, a sophomore sport management major. The Collins Scholarship is presented annually in honor of Mr. Maxwell’s father-in-law, the late Bob Collins, who was a highly regarded sports editor of the Rocky Mountain News.
The event is sponsored by the Department of Journalism & Public Relations, the BGSU Sport Management Program, the School of Media and Communication and the Maxwell Project.
Backgrounder
Richard “Dick” Maxwell is a 1965 BGSU journalism graduate and retired Senior Director of Broadcasting for the National Football League. He is widely known and greatly respected in the sport communication industry, having worked in public relations for the Denver Broncos, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and subsequently as the NFL’s Director of Information for the National Football Conference, and finally as Senior Director of Broadcast Services. Dick was instrumental in the production of 32 Super Bowls, numerous Hall of Fame games, AFC-NFC Pro Bowls, and international American Bowls including as overall coordinator for three games in London, England.
Dick has served as a member of the BGSU Journalism Advisory Board, and has given numerous guest lectures over several years in BGSU journalism, public relations, and sport management courses. During the lead-up to 2006’s Super Bowl XL in Detroit, Dick arranged for seven NFL and Super Bowl executives to participate in a highly successful panel presentation held on BGSU’s campus, sponsored by the undergraduate student pre-professional group, the Sport Management Alliance. This past fall, Dick taught an undergraduate workshop titled “NFL: Modern Sport Media and Management.”
In 2008 Dick was inducted into the BGSU Kappa Tau Alpha Journalism Hall of Fame and the Fostoria (Ohio) High School Athletic Hall of Fame.
Since his retirement, Dick continues to serve as a broadcast consultant for the NFL. He also coordinates the faculty and curriculum for the annual NFL Broadcast Boot Camp, a program established in 2006 to help NFL players plan for a post-playing career in sports broadcasting. He also continues to make several lectures per year on American and European university campuses including, of course, BGSU.