Welcome back to The Campus Game.
This is the second in a series of “Careers in Sport” profiles. The purpose of these profiles is to provide regular Campus Game readers and college students interested in pursuing sport-related careers with authentic information from both seasoned and new practitioners working in sports.
We are not limiting our subjects to one specific area of sport; instead the purpose is to highlight a range of potential career avenues. Our previous feature was on Chuck Dunlap of the SEC, and we stay inside the conference today with a profile of Claude Felton from the University of Georgia.
Thanks for visiting.
Name: Claude Felton
Organization
University of Georgia
Position
Sr. Associate Athletic Director for Sports Communications
Educational Background
University of Georgia ABJ degree in Journalism (major in public relations)
MA degree in Journalism (also from UGA)
Summary of Current Position
Responsible for overall supervision of Sports Communications Department programs, establish and maintain the direction of the overall media relations programs for sports, and development of all annual publications of the communications office including media guides, game event programs and recruiting publications.
How did you get into your current field of work?
I was pressed into duty as a high school senior to serve as sports editor of the school newspaper and concurrently took a required journalism class. I enjoyed the experience and decided to major in journalism at UGA. After serving a dual role in university public relations and sports information at Georgia Southern, I made the transition to full time sports information/media relations and had the opportunity to return to UGA in that role.
What are the most enjoyable aspects of your position?
Working in sports on a college campus with student-athletes and coaches. It’s a terrific atmosphere to spend a career.
My busiest time of the year is …
Football season
To unwind and relax I …
Go fishing or hunting, but I don’t get to do it often enough.
Advice for students or those seeking to work in this field:
Start early. Volunteer to help out with your high school sports teams keeping stats, helping publicize the teams in local media. Also, working on the high school paper is great experience. Find the sports information office in college and tell them you want to help out. Jobs in this field are plentiful but there is a lot of competition. Two, three or four years of sports information/media relations experience in college will be essential to getting into the job market.
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