Changing the Game

In the world of sports, Stephen M. Schanwald ’77 is a trailblazer. He spent more than 28 years of his illustrious career as a marketing executive with the Chicago Bulls—through the Michael Jordan era and beyond—where he changed the way fans experienced the game. He pioneered game entertainment, corporate sponsorships, community relations, and broadcasting and digital marketing. 

Now Schanwald is helping the next generation find their path in the industry at the place where sports marketing started and his journey began. In December 2024, he committed $18 million to his alma mater, the University of Maryland, to support athletics programs, including $8 million for the Stephen M. Schanwald Sports Management Program Endowment for Business. 

“It’s a great blessing at this stage of my life to be able to help young people grow and achieve their dreams,” says Schanwald. “The most rewarding thing to me is mentoring people and helping people climb the ladder the way I was helped. It feeds my soul.”

It Started at Maryland

When University of Maryland Athletic Director Jim Kehoe tapped Russ Potts as the first sports marketing director in the history of college athletics in 1970, it marked an inflection point that forever shaped the sports industry. Together, Kehoe and Potts created what is widely regarded as the first sports promotion office within intercollegiate athletics, dedicated to generating athletic revenue, selling tickets and bolstering brand awareness.

As a sophomore, Schanwald sought out Potts for career guidance and an opportunity to be part of what he was building. For the remainder of his undergraduate career, Schanwald worked for free and absorbed as many lessons as he could from Potts about sports marketing. 

“I didn’t have the athletic ability to earn a living competing on the field, so the next best thing was getting involved in the business side of sports,” says Schanwald. “Russ Potts and the University of Maryland gave me the start of my career, and everything that followed happened only because of those opportunities.”

Schanwald joined the Bulls in 1987, following stints at the U.S. Air Force Academy, Pittsburgh Pirates and the Chicago White Sox. He eventually rose to executive vice president of business operations through the Bulls’ six NBA championships in the 1990s. He spearheaded innovative strategies that served as a model for how sports organizations marketed their products and engaged with their communities, including establishing the NBA’s first community relations department.

Schanwald’s biggest mark on the NBA came in the way he shaped what happened in the arena during breaks in play. He revolutionized the experience for fans, adding the kind of entertainment fans now expect at a live sporting event. He introduced pregame player introductions with music and light shows; halftime acts inspired by Las Vegas-style magic shows and acrobats; and on-court events during pregame, timeouts and halftime.

His emphasis on corporate sponsorships, broadcasting and digital marketing—including the sale of suites, naming rights and signage—helped fund the creation of the United Center arena in 1994. And his efforts in the community helped propel the Bulls to perennial league leaders in attendance—even after the Jordan-era ended. Fans continued their die-hard support when the team had one of the worst winning percentages in the NBA.

Schanwald says that the modern-day sports management and marketing industry essentially “started here at the University of Maryland” because of Kehoe and Potts’ vision. He remains grateful for their mentorship and for setting him on a path to pursue a career that kept him connected with his passion for sports.

Now he’s doing the same for current students with his gift to endow the sports management program. 

“Steve’s generous contributions represent an incredible investment in the education of the next generation of sports business leaders,” says Smith School Dean Prabhudev Konana. “We’re extremely grateful for the opportunity to work closely with him in developing this cutting-edge program.”

The notation program is a collaboration between the Smith School, Maryland Athletics, the School of Public Health’s Department of Kinesiology and the Philip Merrill College of Journalism’s Shirley Povich Center for Sports Journalism. Along with students gaining skills and foundational knowledge for sports industry careers through coursework, the program offers access to specialized, hands-on learning experiences in the form of site visits, career fairs and networking events. 

Schanwald’s gift will support the program’s expansion and fund the creation of more industry site visits while providing increased access to the latest technology and resources. It will also enable program leaders to foster valuable collaborations and adapt offerings to industry trends. 

Getting the Ball Rolling

The creation of what has become the Schanwald Sports Management Program began with a simple question: Why doesn’t the University of Maryland have this? 

Bradley Polkowitz ’23, who now works in the NFL Rotational Program, raised the question to Smith School administrators during his freshman year. 

In his mind, it made sense. He was attending a premier NCAA Division 1 school situated in the heart of a region with 10 professional sports franchises across five major sports. Polkowitz turned his attention to the Smith School’s Sports Business Society, an undergraduate student organization dedicated to helping students pursue careers in the sports industry and network with professionals. 

Polkowitz and fellow SBS member Rachel Levitt ’22 co-founded the organization’s Sports Business Conference in 2020 to increase awareness about sports business career opportunities and tap into the region’s abundant resources, including connecting with Smith alumni working in the industry. Since its founding, the conference has been a mainstay of the Smith community and celebrated its fifth anniversary in May. 

“We saw this as an opportunity to fill that gap. We wanted to bring together some of the brightest sports minds and hold high-level discussions about industry trends, while showing guests what we’re doing on campus,” says Polkowitz. “Our driving question was, ‘How can we help students get to their dream job?’” 

Following the conference’s success, Polkowitz still had a goal to formalize sports business education at Smith. He saw a model that worked through his participation in the Quality Enhancement Systems and Teams (QUEST) Honors Program, a three-year program for undergrads studying business, engineering and science. He approached Associate Dean of Undergraduate Programs Joseph Bailey and Tori Shay, SPH ’13, who is now the program’s associate director. 

“Bradley had the QUEST model in his head for how we could make the Sports Management Program experiential,” says Shay. “I think a crucial part of sports education is that it has to be hands-on in nature. We wanted to give students unique experiences while also being flexible and understanding that sport is interdisciplinary.” 

Officially in the Game

After developing the curriculum and bringing cross-campus partners into the fold, Smith launched the 12-credit notation program with a 25-student cohort of juniors and seniors during the fall 2023 semester. 

Program coursework includes KNES287: Sport and American Society and BMGT383: The Business of Sport. Students select a third elective course to customize their learning experience. 

The program culminates with a capstone project that requires teams to develop and pitch solutions for a case study from a corporate partner in the sports industry. 

Based on the idea that business is for all, business principles lie at the heart of the curriculum. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to education when it pertains to sports careers, Shay says. That understanding was a driving force behind the program’s interdisciplinary nature. 

“If you want to go into the sports industry, you can be a software developer for the NFL, you can study computer science and go into data analytics, or even become an athletic trainer through kinesiology,” says Shay. “No matter which path you choose, you have to have a foundation in business—and we want to prepare students to explore as many pathways as possible.” 

With the third cohort set to begin in fall 2025, student interest continues to grow, and the number of applications continues to increase. The second cohort admitted 50 students, double the size of its predecessor. Shay says that Schanwald’s gift creates the possibility of expanding future cohort sizes even more. 

In the incoming cohort, roughly half of the students are business majors; the rest come from varying backgrounds such as journalism, public health, engineering and psychology. Nearly 75% of the program’s students also serve Maryland Athletics in some capacity, which Shay says indicates their commitment to the industry and their willingness to put in the work. 

A Slam Dunk for Students

Vinay Kumar ’26 is one undergraduate student whose career trajectory has already been positively influenced by his experience in the program. Kumar, a public health science major, initially enrolled at UMD with aspirations of a sports medicine career. 

He says the program shifted his understanding of sports-related careers beyond medicine, media and other traditional roles. Class projects; site visits with his cohort to NFL, NBA and MLB headquarters; and networking opportunities with industry professionals helped him recognize his desire to pivot from sports medicine to sports management. 

“The program opened my eyes to so many other possible career opportunities,” says Kumar. “I fell in love with the program and now my goal is to explore the business side of sports.” 

In particular, Kumar, who is also a Plus-1 student earning a master’s degree at Smith, says he has appreciated experiences such as adjunct faculty Steve Sclafani’s name, image and likeness (NIL) course, and his capstone project with the Washington Wizards. He and his team were tasked with identifying solutions to increase foot traffic to the Wizards’ District E staging area within Capital One Arena. 

“It’s been incredible talking to people in positions that we’re hoping to reach one day,” says Kumar. “You get to see the amount of work on the back end that goes into running these franchises and businesses. You see the players, coaches and general managers on TV, but there are so many other operational roles that don’t get as noticed unless you’re in a program like this.” 

Valentyna Breslawec ’25, a member of the program’s first cohort, says that she sought a community of like-minded aspiring sports professionals through her participation in the program. 

She says she found that and also gained innumerable skills that will aid in her career moving forward. That positive experience is also why she says she wanted to increase her involvement as an undergraduate program assistant this past year. 

“I’m passionate about continuing to grow the program and helping create a great environment for future cohorts, just like the one I had as part of the first cohort,” says Breslawec. “Students enrolling in the program should know that they will join a tight-knit group of people who lift each other up and support their career aspirations every step of the way.”

Building the Future

To Schanwald, sports always served as a way to be part of a team working toward a common goal. Throughout his career, he appreciated firsthand the power sports franchises hold as focal points of communities that unite people of all backgrounds. He believes this program also contributes to that goal and is continuing his direct involvement as a member of the Sports Management Advisory Council. 

He encourages all UMD alumni to support the program or Maryland Athletics in any capacity. 

“If you can afford to do it—whether with time, money, opportunities, or other means—you’ll get more reward out of it than the people you’re helping,” says Schanwald. “It’ll feed your soul the way it fed mine.” 

For Polkowitz, who also serves on the Sports Management Advisory Council, observing the growth and success of a program he helped set into motion is “incredibly fulfilling.” He takes pride in playing a role in helping future generations of Terps find their way into the sports industry. 

“Seeing everyone in cohorts one and two thrive and get their foot in the door has been an awesome experience, and I’m very happy to stay connected and see the program continue to grow,” says Polkowitz. “I think a lot of my friends and I wish we had a program like this when we were students, and now we’re in a position to pay it forward.” 

Schanwald says the tools and opportunities students will leverage will help empower and prepare them for careers in what has become an extremely competitive industry. 

“When I started in the industry in the early ’70s, it was in its infancy, and it has since grown exponentially into a multi-billion dollar industry,” says Schanwald. “I’m very happy to know that for decades to come, the financial resources that I’m providing will pave the way for young people to have the kind of careers that I enjoyed for so many years.” 

Schanwald says it is “an honor” to partner with Smith for the program and hopes the gift helps the university return to its roots as a transformative leader in the field. 

“My hope is that the University of Maryland is seen as the preeminent sports business and sports management program in America,” says Schanwald. “We’ve got a long way to go, but we all have to start somewhere—and we’re certainly off to a very good start.”