History of JSU Sport Management and Recreation

kinesiology students in class

In the 1973-74 academic year, the Department of Health and Physical Education (HPE) at Jacksonville State University developed a new special emphasis in Recreation. Department Head Dr. Ronnie Harris, along with the other members of the HPE faculty, developed this program to meet the needs of the growing demand for recreation professionals in the industry. This new program evolved into a Bachelor of Science: Recreation Administration degree a few years later and sparked a change name of the department to Health, Physical Education, and Recreation (HPER).  

student on the climbing wall at the Rec Center
To meet the needs of the growing demand for sport management professionals, the HPER began the process of developing a Sport Management curriculum. In 2006, the HPER department utilized an already existing Master of Public Administration program and current master's level HPER course to develop a concentration in Athletic Administration. Three years later in 2009, after seeing some initial interest from students in this program, Dr. 
Glaucio Scremin was hired to develop a stand-alone Masters in Sport Management program that offered a Class-A teacher certification concentration to meet the needs of teachers who wanted to pursue athletic administration at their respective schools. the program also offered a non-teacher certification for those students who are not a part of the secondary education profession. 

Since the development of the Master of Science: Sport Management was met with significant student interest, natural evolution to the creation of a bachelor’s level in sport management was inevitable. In the spring of 2015, Dr. Rebecca Turner, Provost of Jacksonville State University, petitioned the Alabama Commission of Higher Education (ACHE) to split the existing Recreation degree into a concentration in recreation and a concentration in sport management, and begin offering a degree in a Bachelor of Science: Sport Management and Recreation Studies degree in the spring 2016 semester. Presently the MS: Sport Management and BS: Sport Management and Recreation Studies program has more than 200 students. Many of these students acquired jobs and internships many notable sport and recreation organizations including the Atlanta Braves: the Atlanta Falcons; the Biloxi Shuckers; KnightEady Sport Marketing and Events LLC.; Bruno Event Team LLC.; Camp Sumatanga Conference and Retreat Center; Shocco Springs Baptist Conference Center; Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail; and the Jacksonville State University Department of Athletics.