Greetings from Iowa City! Spring break on campus was exactly what one would expect: four seasons in one week! The start of spring break brought a few inches of snow in blizzard conditions, and by the end of the week temps reached the high-80s. 

We have many Sport and Recreation Management program highlights and updates to share in this newsletter edition and a vast community of supporters to thank for the gifts that make it all possible. One Day for Iowa (ODFI), the university’s annual high-impact day of giving, is when much of our community gave critical funding last year to make this year’s scholarships, field trips and more possible. ODFI 2026 is almost here – Wednesday, March 25^th – and we’re hoping to build on last year to support our students at an even greater level in the coming months.

What opportunities have the UISRM program supported this year thanks to last year’s ODFI gifts? Below is a partial summary of highlights just since January:

• UISRM awarded more than $37,000 in scholarships to 37 current and incoming students. Learn more through The UISRM Awards Go To... story.
• UISRM sent a team of four master’s students to St. Louis (pictured right) to compete in the prestigious National Sports Forum Case Cup Competition, an invitation-only master’s student competition for 12 universities that UISRM has participated in for seven consecutive years.
• UISRM led a two-day field trip to Indianapolis for 56 students where they learned from and networked with 15 Iowa alumni and more than 30 executives total working for the Pacers, Colts, NCAA, Indianapolis Indians, Lucas Oil Stadium, MBSA Events, and Downtown Indy Alliance. Learn more through the UISRM Field Trip Recap - Indianapolis story.
• UISRM sent 15 students to the TeamWork Online Sports Sales Workshop and Job Fair in Cleveland. Learn more through the #SalesHawks Thrive in Cleveland story.

• UISRM sent master’s student Emmanuel Mensah (pictured right) to the prestigious MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference in Boston.

  

One of our 37 scholarship recipients is Carter Klein, an SRM master’s student and Iowa Football Operations student assistant (pictured below with Kirk Ferentz in The UISRM Awards Go To... preview image). Upon receiving an SRM Student Success Scholarship this month, Carter said,

“SRM at Iowa has provided me with mentorship, hands-on learning opportunities, and connections with professionals across the sport industry. Being in the SRM program has helped broaden my worldview on the sports industry, while strengthening my understanding of sports business. Thanks to the program I think more critically about not only my career in sports, but how we all can improve the business. The program continues to challenge me to grow both personally and professionally while preparing me for the next step in my career. I am thankful to be part of a community that is committed to developing its students and investing in their futures.”

Last year during ODFI, SRM received gifts from 76 members of our community. This year, we hope to go even bigger. Can you join our community of ODFI supporters this year to help us reach 100 gifts on March 25?

At any time between now and 11:59 p.m. March 25, you can give at this link: https://1dayforiowa.org/srm26 to support UISRM during ODFI. Be sure to follow the ODFI website here: https://1day.uiowa.edu/ as well as our UISRM social media pages to follow the leaderboard and learn about all the ways you can support UISRM through social media challenges and matching challenges that can help multiply the impact of gifts to the program.

Thank you to everyone in our community who supported UISRM during ODFI in 2025; last year’s support established a critical foundation for UISRM’s incredibly successful academic year that you’ll read more about in the newsletter. And thank you in advance for helping UISRM reach new heights during ODFI this year on March 25. In the meantime, please enjoy and share the newsletter and let us know of updated email addresses or new recipients to add to our list. 

If you have feedback, questions, achievements to share or story recommendations, please contact one of the members of the UISRM newsletter committee listed below:

Alex Voss // Anna Jensen // Kara Kehe

Add me to the UISRM Newsletter List

Thank you for reading and being part of the UISRM community!

Dan Matheson

Professor of Instruction and Program Director