Earlier this month, 15 Rice Sport Management students worked the National Football League (NFL) Honors event in Los Angeles, getting up close and personal with the stars of the sports world.
The students served as talent escorts, helping coordinate the fast-paced, live broadcast of the event. They ensured VIPs were in the right place at the right time, whether that meant guiding them from the red carpet to their seats, backstage to present an award, to the media room for interviews, or back to their seats or exits after appearances.
While Los Angeles may seem far from Houston, this opportunity is part of a longstanding partnership with a production company that hosts many big-time events in the sports and entertainment industry. Rice Sport Management students first worked with the company at the 2017 Super Bowl in Houston, where 37 students supported the event.
“The company told us at the conclusion of the event that they had never had a group of students who did as well as our students did that night,” says Tom Stallings, professor in the practice of Sport Management at Rice. “That opened the door for Rice Sport Management students to work more events with them.”
Though production companies usually use local students to help with their events, Rice Sport Management students have been flown around the country in the past nine years to work major events such as the ESPYs, the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Sports Awards, the American Music Awards, the Golden Globes, and other NFL Honors awards shows.
“Our students are cited as professional, intelligent, quick learners, confident, and very competent,” Stallings says. In short, they are trusted to do the job, and to do it well.
The connections Rice students have made at these events have even turned into opportunities down the road. For example, Alex Li '25 landed a summer internship at Wasserman after meeting with an athlete's agent while working one of the awards shows.
Nearly a decade since the 2017 Super Bowl, Rice Sport Management students continue to earn their place at some of the most prestigious events in sports and entertainment. They leave with connections, real-world experience, an impressive line item for their résumés—and, of course, unforgettable moments of brushing elbows with the stars.
Molly Bruni '15 is a freelance editor for the Department of Sport Management.