When Tim Franklin left the Baltimore Sun in December of 2008 to join the journalism department at Indiana University, his mandate was both clear and challenging.
“The charge I was given by the university was to make this the premier sports media program in the country,” he said.
A year later, Franklin appears well on his way toward achieving that goal.
Franklin is the director of IU’s new National Sports Journalism Center, which opened its doors this fall on the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) campus.
In addition to offering its first four undergraduate courses, the center kicked off a big-name speakers series and launched a Web site that Franklin hopes will become a “one-stop destination for sports editors and sports writers.”
A total of 90 students at the IUPUI and Bloomington, Ind., campuses are enrolled in the center’s first undergraduate offerings. The curriculum is designed to meet the demands of a new kind of sports journalism — one that no longer relies primarily on the printed page.
“They (the students) are real excited about the opportunities in digital journalism,” said Franklin, who has worked as an editor at the Sun, the Chicago Tribune, the Indianapolis Star and the Orlando Sentinel. “Pro sports teams, college teams, they are all creating Web sites and hiring news journalists.”
In addition to classroom instruction, the center offers internships with The Associated Press, the Chicago Tribune, USA Today, MLB.com, the Big Ten Network, the Indiana Pacers and Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
“Even though other schools will argue their sports curriculum is as strong as ours, we think our location makes us unique,” Franklin said.
Among the bevy of sports-related organizations headquartered in Indianapolis are the NCAA, the American College of Sports Medicine, the National Federation of State High School Associations, USA Track and Field, USA Gymnastics and the Black Coaches Association. The city also is set to play host to the 2010 Final Four and the 2012 Super Bowl.
“With all these assets in the city, it creates a great opportunity for students to get field experience,” Franklin said.
But training the next generation of sports journalists is just part of the center’s focus. The center also created a speakers series that draws prominent media members, athletes and academics from around the country. Recent speakers included former UCLA basketball coach and current ESPN commentator Steve Lavin, Emmy-winning broadcaster Joe Buck and Richard Lapchick, the founder and director of the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport. The series is broadcast on the Big Ten Network.
The center also launched an ambitious Web site — sportsjournalism.org. Modeled after Romenesko, the site is designed to provide breaking news and commentary related to sports media, as well as valuable links for working journalists.
The site boasts three columnists with heavyweight credentials: Red Smith Award winner Dave Kindred on sports writing, former Wall Street Journal writer Jason Fry on sports new media, and St. Petersburg Times TV and media critic Eric Deggans on sports broadcasting.
”They really have given the site a unique voice and in some cases a critical voice on what’s happening in sports,” Franklin said.
Despite all that has been accomplished in a year, there is work still to be done.
“I still think I would like to add a fourth voice to the (Web) site,” Franklin said. “And I would like to add book reviews.”
On the academic side, the IU Board of Trustees recently approved the creation of a masters degree program in sports journalism. It’s believed to be the first of its kind in the nation, Franklin said.
Also in the works are seminars aimed at professional journalists. Franklin and the folks at IU currently are working with Arizona State University on a one-day program on “investigating the business of college athletics.”
Through it all, Franklin, a former sports editor at the Chicago Tribune, clearly is enjoying himself.
“First of all, I’m an IU grad,” Franklin said, “so it’s exciting to come back and build something at a place you love. And to do it at time of (major changes) in the industry, makes it both more challenging and exciting.”
