On summer nights as a kid, Glenn Geffner could be found sitting on the floor of his bedroom, baseball cards lined up meticulously into makeshift starting lineup cards. In front of him was a television showing the Boston Red Sox-New York Yankees game, the volume turned off. Geffner would stare at the TV and, as if he had the ears of the world listening to him, described what he saw.
“Here’s Jim Rice standing in…batted .314 last year with 37 home runs and 112 RBI against the right-hander Mike Torrez, a native of Topeka, Kansas…”
Those audience-of-one broadcasts formed the foundation of a lifelong dream.
“I learned the power that words have, whether written or spoken, and I carried that into broadcasting,” Geffner says.
Now Geffner is helping other students achieve their dreams in his new role as a sports communication faculty member in the Diederich College of Communication — a job that is the culmination of a 31-year career in baseball that included play-by-play stints with the San Diego Padres, Boston Red Sox and Miami Marlins. He also taught at Florida Atlantic University and the University of Florida before finding his way to Marquette.
“I don’t teach out of a textbook; I teach out of having lived this life,” Geffner says. “I can tell you all the good and bad things that come with this career because I’ve experienced them.”
Kevin Robbins approaches his work from a similar perspective. After a 25-year career in sportswriting that includes covering some of professional golf’s most prestigious events, including Tiger Woods’ legendary performance at the 2007 PGA Championship, Robbins decided to come to Marquette to help grow the sports communication program with Geffner. Much like his partner, Robbins has also had extensive teaching experience, having been a journalism instructor for 13 years at the University of Texas at Austin after writing for the Austin American Statesman.
“We no longer live in an era where you can just be a writer or just be a broadcaster; you’ve got to be versatile.”
Glenn Geffner, faculty member at the Diederich College of Communication
The ability to build something new at Marquette, and to teach in a program that includes strategic communication professionals as well, was an offer too good to pass up.
“When I was in the School of Journalism and Media (at Texas), there were no strategic communication people in the room,” Robbins says. “There was no advertising or PR, photo, filmmakers — meanwhile, this program welcomes people from every discipline into one common mission. It’s really exciting.”
The Diederich College of Communication has several natural advantages for anyone interested in working in sports. Student-led sports productions give students who want to go into live broadcasting the opportunity for dozens of reps per year. Award-winning student media offers budding sports journalists a regular outlet for published work. Proximity to multiple TV stations, radio stations, media outlets and professional teams — including the Brewers and Bucks — provide plenty of potential internship sites.
All these selling points provide a base for Robbins and Geffner to build upon, even as the broadcasting landscape changes rapidly in the face of cross-industry consolidation and the advent of new media platforms. Students who want to become professional sports journalists or broadcasters in the 2020s have a starkly different path than the one Geffner and Robbins walked.
“We no longer live in an era where you can just be a writer or just be a broadcaster; you’ve got to be versatile,” Geffner says. “Yes, you have to be able to broadcast, but you also have to do public relations. You have to do the game notes, the media guide, generate content for social media and the video board in the ballpark. I might even have to sell advertising. If a team can find a candidate who does the job of three people, that person is going to get the job.”
“It’s clear to me that when people talk about sports content, they’re thinking of all kinds of things now, not just the written word, and we have to adapt to that,” Robbins says.
Aspiring sports communicators have multiple strong institutions to choose from, both in the Midwest and across the country. Geffner and Robbins know they need a strong differentiator for students to consider Marquette, and they think they have a winning formula: day one involvement mixed with professional feedback and a healthy dose of broad-based, liberal arts classes. At Marquette, you’ll get more high-quality opportunities for portfolio material than anywhere else, along with the judgment to know what to say and when.
“We’re going to daily, supervised opportunities with people who have been in the industry for a long time, and who are going to sit with you and help you get better,” Geffner says. “There are a lot of great programs that will just wind you up and let you go, but we’re going to be here to work with you, and that’s going to make a huge difference.” “Typically, the people who do this work the best are punctual, prepared and open-minded,” Robbins says, “They’re deeply engaged, highly curious and they care. That’s the kind of student we’re looking for and the kind who will ultimately thrive here.”
