by Rachel Rippetoe |
It’s back in the late 1980s, what some call the “golden era” of the San Francisco 49ers.
Rodney Knox is standing in a locker room swarming with Bay-area media members. Hall of Fame receiver, Jerry Rice, is at his shoulder, whispering his answers into Knox’s ear as Knox reiterates them louder to the questioning press.
Nearly 30 years later, Knox stands at the head of a different kind of group on Wednesday evenings in Franz, teaching students how the Seahawks not making the playoffs might affect the team’s brand.
Knox teaches a seminar on sports marketing. The course focuses on giving students perspective on real life experiences from the communications side of sports.
Knox has worked as public relations assistant director for the San Diego Chargers, senior director of communications for the San Francisco 49ers and director of communications of team sports for Nike. His extensive resume made the spaces in his class highly coveted.
“He talked about it the first day of class. He went on about it for maybe 30 or 45 minutes and we were just like, ‘Wow, that is awesome,’” junior Gat Bol said. “He’s got a lot of sports background and he makes a great connection.”
Knox’s class isn’t based in theory, but on real life experiences. He requires that students bring in topics from the real world to talk about each class. The seminar also hones in on networking.
According to Bol, Knox plans to bring in a different guest speaker from the professional world each week to talk to his students about getting prepared for the workforce.
“It’s more about showing me what you can do in a real life situation,” Knox said. “To that end, it requires the students to be really engaged and interactive.”
Knox was inspired to start teaching while pursuing his master’s degree in sports management at the University of San Francisco.
“I was 15 years into the industry and I saw the next generation of kids that were coming into the workforce,” Knox said. “So I thought, ‘Man, I have this experience now. Why don’t I try to teach at a college level so I can help kids get ready for the work force? Give them an idea of what it’s really going to be like.’”
Knox’s colleagues at USF encouraged him to seek out a teaching position on the UP campus. The level of student engagement was what drew Knox to The Bluff. He’s enjoyed working with UP students so much that he is now in the process of trying to convince his son, a senior in high school, to attend the university.
“I’ve really been impressed with the level of quality of students at UP,” Knox said. “I’m so glad that of the institutions in Portland, I’m here at UP because the students challenge me. They’re always very engaged and have nothing but really positive things to say.”
Knox’s respect and admiration for his students appears to be mutual. For Bol, being in Knox’s class is special in several ways. Bol finds the class rewarding because of the unique perspective Knox is able to bring with his expansive career and the diversity he creates among the UP staff.
Knox is the first professor Bol has had on campus who is African-American. For Bol, this creates a different perspective, one that he finds more relatable.
“Most professors here, it’s like, alright, they look like they came from a different background than I came from,” Bol said. “I think if you have different backgrounds, you have different stories and it brings more diverse experiences. Having just one culture teach is kind of hard, because not everybody can relate to that culture.”
Although Knox may bring diversity to the UP staff, it’s his diverse career that truly makes the adjunct stand out in the Pilot community. He went from reporter for his high school newspaper to public relations assistant director for the San Diego Chargers in a little over a half a decade. Knox chalks his first job out of college up to networking, a skill he encourages his students to improve upon. One of the employees Knox worked with at the sports information director’s office in San Diego State recommended Knox for his position with the Chargers.
After working with the team for four years, Knox was promoted to director of communications for the San Francisco 49ers, a job he refers to as the “hub of the wheel.” Knox served as the direct line of contact between the players and the media, along with the coaching and training staff.
It was a job he enjoyed and excelled at for 20 years.
But then Knox decided it was time for a change. After realizing he had only been working for the NFL, a privately traded entity, throughout his career, Knox sought out ways to challenge himself. He found that opportunity in Nike.
“As a PR person, that’s a whole new world,” Knox said. “The opportunity at Nike came up and it was a blessing because it was along the lines of dealing with high profile athletes or products but was now in the arena of a very global, international, publicly-traded company.”
Now Knox owns his own company, Knox Strategies, an integrated marketing firm focused on helping young, up-and-coming athletes promote their brands.
In the midst of running his own company, Knox finds it difficult yet rewarding to make time for teaching.
“That’s always the challenge being an adjunct, you have a full-time gig but you also have the teaching,” said Knox. “But most adjuncts will tell you they really do it for the enjoyment of it and to take something that they enjoy as a career and turn others on to that career.”
Rachel Rippetoe is a reporter for The Beacon. She can be reached at rippetoe18@up.edu or on Twitter @rachelrippetoe.
