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A Home Run Swing in the Televised World of Sports

ESPN Executive Honored as Distinguished Alumnus
By Jeff Murphy

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From growing up in a small Missouri town that no longer appears on a map to leading the world's most powerful sports media organization into the high definition age of television, Bryan Burns '72 is a master at seizing the right opportunities. His willingness to take a chance has opened many doors in the sports marketing and media world, including the executive offices of ESPN, Inc.

For those risks and resulting achievements, he was honored as a 2009 recipient of the University of Central Missouri Distinguished Alumni Award. Raised by his widowed mother in Flat River, MO, Burns never considered attending UCM. Somewhere amidst taking notes at a college sporting event, though, he chatted with two Central Missouri employees who changed his mind.

"Bryan has helped guide ESPN to the forefront as the single most important communications vehicle for fans of all sports."


— Charles Armstrong, Seattle Mariners' president

As he recalls, "One spring day in 1971, I found myself at the University of Missouri-Rolla, covering the MIAA conference track meet for the student newspaper at another college. I was sitting next to a fellow named Dean Vogelaar [then sports information director at Central Missouri]... While we were in the stands, he turned to ask if I would be interested in transferring to Warrensburg to be his assistant in the sports information department. A split second later as I was still in shock by the thought, he introduced me to Carl Foster, the university's public relations director."

For the next hour or so, Foster and Vogelaar pitched UCM, then known as Central Missouri State University, to Burns. Their salesmanship paid off. Before long, Vogelaar had a new student assistant, and the university had a new student in its bachelor's degree program in communications. "I've never understood what Dean saw in me at that time, but in retrospect, it was clearly the biggest break of my life, in a career that has received a lot of breaks," Burns insists. He graduated from Central Missouri in 1972, after transferring from Southeast Missouri State.

 


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