Speaker #1 1/23, Jeremy Gray When Jeremy Gray came into to speak to our class, I had no idea what to expect. As our first presenter, the options could have been endless but I knew that hehad the ability to sway my opinion about this class from the start. If he would’ve been bad then it might have made me dread coming to hear a presenter each week; thankfully I found him to be incredibly informative and could not have asked for a better first impression on the presenters of this class. Mr. Gray serves as the assistant athletic director specializing in broadcast services for IU Athletics. When he was telling his story, he shared with us how he started out doing play by play for Notre Dame and the paths he took through the Big Ten Network to get to his positionnow. I’ve always been interested in the broadcast side of athletics and his information about the major networks and the Big Ten Network as a competitor interested me immensely. I’ve always aspired to be on television but still struggle sometimes how to exactly start. He gave us an incredibly helpful hint that helped him in his life. He said that when it comes to broadcasting we should learn how to call games on the radio first because it will be an easier transition into television. He then proved this by comparing an IU basketball play that he would have to broadcaston the radio to one that would be aired on television and the difference was incredibly noticeable. Aside from giving us some hints and answering all the questions we had, he seemed to be a very personable and approachable person. He left his email and said he would try and help answer our questions as much as possible. I really liked this because it showed that he genuinely cared even though heis a busy man. For myself especially, his talk will influence my career because I plan on emailing him about more information with IU athletics and will take his advice to heart and work on my play calling. Speaker #2 1/28 and 2/4, Dr. Phil HensonWhen looking at the schedule of guest speakers for this class, I was excited to see Dr. Henson’s name on the list because I thought his topic would be incredibly informational. Dr. Henson spoke over two class periods with a focus on the history and philosophy of the Olympic games and the Olympic organization as a whole. Not only did I find it amazing to have an insight on something as gigantic as the Olympics, the timing of his presentation was perfect. He spoke around the same timeas the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. Although I have never even thought about working in the Olympics games it was incredibly informational to hear about his experiences and how much time and effort he put into the games in the Athletics department. People always tell you that a career within sports makes you give up a lot of your time and energy, but when speaking about his experiences it was obvious that sleep was barely an option, especially when it came to the actual time for the Olympic games. A thing I learned from his presentation specifically was about how the event first began. It was eye opening to realize that in order for the first games in Greece 756 BC a truce needed to be passed in order for all the countries to come peacefully. The Truce of Gods was put into action saying that you could not kill someone when coming to worship theGods. The games were able to fall under this law because the Olympics went hand in hand with worshipping the Gods with a ceremony every four years. While I loved learning about the Olympics, I disagreed with certain points that Dr. Henson made. He was very upfront before making certain remarks and even warned us that he would make some of us mad with his thoughts, but continued to make his points anyway. He seemed to be completely biased with his track and field background and felt the need to inform us that he didn’t like subjective sports in the Olympics and that the Winter Olympics seemed like Jackass movies and the X games.There’s nothing wrong with having these opinions, but there is also nothing wrong with disagreeing with him. Personally, I think without subjective sports, the Olympics would fade away because interest would fall incredibly. Dr. Henson also spent the entire class speaking and didn’t really leave anything open to question. At times it seemed as if he believed that anyone that thought differently than him was wrong. With all this in mind, however, I do think he should still be brought back as a speaker in the future. He has experienced something so amazing, something most of us will never get the chance to. If he were to return I would tell him that he could only speak for an allotted amount of time and must leave the rest open to questions. Speaker #3 2/11, Barry KingWhen the head coach of the IU Women’s Water Polo team, Barry King, came to talk, I felt as if his talk did not exceed my expectations. King was an incredibly relaxed man and his time speaking was rather short and sweet. He gave us a little bitof background but didn’t go much into detail. He left a lot of time open forquestioning but it seemed to be dominated by questions about IU sports in general rather than about him and his experiences. This was most likely because he was the first coach to speak in the class, but as Women’s Water Polo, he did not have all the inside scoop. However, King brought forward a concept that hadn’t been talked about in detail in this class so far. As an IU student interested in athletics, I like to believe that I know more about sports than most, but I had never even realized that IU doesn’t have a Men’s Water Polo team. Although I had never thought it about it, after King’s presentation it now it all makes sense to me. The lack of a men’s team is because of Title 9. King explained that with Title 9 comes a 3-prong test. This test shows through numerous factors including historically, proportionally, student body interest, the athletic department must have the same percentages at the student body population. Indiana is 55% women and King stated that the Women’s Water Polo team solely exists because of the Title 9 Act. Aside from the low-key presentation, King acted like he was purely lucky to be where he was now and didn’t have much to say about getting the job and where to go from this level. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend Barry King to come back andspeak to the class again as his information and advice didn’t seem relevant to everyone. With that in mind,