Sportscaster-Turned-Professor Leading New Media Concentration at South Carolina J-School
Current students at the University of South Carolina’s School of Journalism and Mass Communications likely know its lead sports media instructor or are at least familiar with his efforts to bring the school to new heights.
The same can be said for the school’s recent alumni with sports media gigs across the county.
Professor Kevin Hull’s fellow faculty members surely know him too, considering the collaborative efforts he has forged with colleagues that culminated in the school’s new sports media concentration.
After earning his bachelor’s degree in journalism from Boston University in 2000, Hull began his broadcast career as a reporter at WECT-TV in Wilmington, NC, for two years followed by seven years as the station’s sports anchor. Recognizing his knack for coaching up the interns he worked with, he then transitioned from the newsroom to the classroom teaching high school media classes. Yet, he calls his next step, which ultimately led him to become an associate professor at the University of South Carolina, a “gamble.”
“I basically gave up a job, gave up a salary and took a huge life gamble, which I don’t ever do,” Hull says. “If you know me, I’m a big play-it-safe guy so it’s probably the biggest gamble I’ve ever done in my entire life, but it paid off and I’m really glad I did it.”
That gamble Hull took was enrolling in the University of Florida’s mass communications doctoral program, where he first began his award-winning research of sports broadcasters’ use of social media as he readied himself to become a tenured journalism professor down the road.
The former sportscaster made his teaching debut at South Carolina’s journalism school during the fall 2015 semester. He has since been instrumental in fostering the educational and professional growth of countless students.
The sports media concentration’s new classes provide Hull opportunities to instill even more sports media and journalism lessons to students taking classes with him and the other instructors he works closely with. In addition to Hull, instructor Greg Brannon and recently hired Sports Media Instructor Manie Robinson are among several instructors with extensive sports media backgrounds who will teach innovative classes specific to sports media.
Classes include Social Media for the Sports Media; Sports Activism & the Media; Media, Sports & Race; and Sports Media, Gender & Sexuality. These classes compliment other established courses such as Sports Journalism, Sports Announcing, Super Bowl Commercials, and of course, Hull’s popular Sports Media & Society class.
A glance at Hull’s Twitter mentions will likely show many of his former students wishing they could join the current and future students taking these classes. Hull says that without alumni showing an immense interest in sports media when they were on campus, the concentration would never have come to fruition.
Nonetheless, Hull acknowledges the concentration was not built in a day. Dr. Miles Romney — who taught Sports Journalism at the J-School before accepting a new position at BYU— joined Hull in creating opportunities for students before the sports concentration was officially on the books.
When the time came for Hull to present the concentration’s plan to faculty peers, he had all of his ducks in a row and was thankful for the result.
“It’s hard to get an entire place to agree on one thing so to have them approve it unanimously was really wonderful,” Hull says. “It shows that other people recognize the importance of this. Even if you’re not a ‘sportsy’ person or a sports fan, you recognize student demand is there, and jobs and opportunities are there.”
Despite the pandemic hindering the hiring of additional sports media instructors and the creation of more classes, Hull has not deviated from his vision.
Plenty comfortable speaking with purpose, Hull has his elevator pitch ready to aspiring sports media professionals and high school students thinking about applying to the University of South Carolina ready — regardless of their intended major: “The one thing that sets our program apart from a lot of sports programs at other institutions is ours is sports media. You can take sports journalism at a lot of really great places, but if you want to do sports PR, sports graphics, sports advertising — maybe we’re the place for you. And oh, by the way, we have a really good sports journalism program, too.”
Even before the concentration, which Hull is optimistic will involve over one hundred students immediately once it gets up and running, South Carolina’s sports media alumni have already been visible on the national stage. SEC Network host, reporter, and on-air donut connoisseur Alyssa Lang regularly reaches sports fans across the country on ESPN’s multichannel platforms.
The 2015 J-School grad is happy to pay her knowledge forward of course.
South Carolina ’04 graduate Kent Babb covers the NFL, college athletics, the NBA and more as a sports features writer for The Washington Post. Claudia Chakamian, former sports editor of The Daily Gamecock and sports producer at Capital City Sports, now works as a sports reporter and anchor for Fox 21 Sports in Duluth, MN.
And that’s only a few of the school’s recent sports media alumni.
Hull believes the concentration will enhance South Carolina’s national reputation, with no limit for where South Carolina’s sports media pros can find themselves. “I fully think we can have University of South Carolina people anywhere.”
