COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA — Called a “pioneer” in the sport management discipline,
Winthrop University President Dan Mahony has been recognized with the Academic Achievement in Sport and Entertainment Award from Sport and Entertainment
Venues Tomorrow (SEVT).
The president traveled to Columbia on Nov. 15 to accept the award, which recognizes a scholar whose research and/or teaching has made a significant positive impact in the fields of sport, entertainment or venue management.
Mahony is the first university leader in the United States to hold a Ph.D. in sport management, the main factor that led Florida State University’s Dean of the College of Education Damon Andrews to nominate him for the award.
Matt Brown is chair of the University of South Carolina’s Department of Sport and Entertainment Management, which hosts SEVT, an annual gathering of sport and entertainment industry leaders, faculty and students.
Brown commented that Mahony is “a pioneer for our discipline. The award recognizes his research work, but also his administrative work and how he’s grown. He’s a role model to deans, associate deans, etc., [in this field] everywhere.”
“This award is very humbling,” Mahony noted, “especially when I see that Dallas Branch, the long-time sport management program director at my alma mater, West Virginia University, is a past recipient. He and other deserving winners have elevated our discipline, and I’m thankful for their example and how they’ve led the way. It’s truly an honor to be included among their ranks.”
Mahony became Winthrop’s 11th president on July 1, 2015. One of his first major accomplishments was establishing the Winthrop Plan, Winthrop’s strategy to become a national model for a student-centered university experience.
Prior to Winthrop, Mahony served as dean of the College of Education, Health, and Human Services at Kent State University and as a sport management faculty member and administrator at the University of Louisville. He is also an extensive researcher and has published more than 60 articles in various refereed journals, several book chapters and one book. He won the Earle F. Zeigler Award in 2007 from the North American Society for Sport Management for his career contributions as a researcher.
Additionally, he received the 2015 McInnis/Ryan Award from the American Association of University Administrators (AAUA) for his principled and ethical leadership practices, and his scholarship regarding issues of justice and ethics in college, high school and professional sport. He is also a member of his college’s Hall of Fame at West Virginia University and Pi Kappa Alpha’s Order of West Range for his career achievements. In 2015, he was the inaugural recipient of the Daniel Mahony Award for Social Responsibility from the Office of Diversity Outreach and Development in Kent State University’s College of Education, Health and Human Services, and the award is now named in his honor.
For more information, contact Nicole Chisari, communications coordinator, at 803/323-2236 or chisarin@winthrop.edu.
