The Jesuit Path to Broadcasting
Rich Cellini is part of the Sport Management faculty at the University of San Francisco (USF). It’s the largest Sport Management Program in the country with more than 200 graduate students pursuing Master of Science degrees. Kevin Curran is on the Journalism and Communication Studies faculties at Loyola Marymount University (LMU). Twice a year, Rich and Kevin come together to put the University of California Berkeley men’s basketball games on the radio. In honor of March Madness, we are pleased to share this new joint reflection piece on their #JesuitEducated paths toward broadcasting.
Kevin Curran: I first became interested in radio as a teenager on Long Island. I was so impressed by a Fordham University student I befriended at a local station that I ended up pursuing my Bachelor’s degree at Fordham’s Rose Hill campus in the Bronx.
My parents have three Fordham degrees, so they were very happy with my decision. A Fordham commencement tradition allows children of alumni to walk with their parent, who takes the degree from the dean and presents it to the graduate. When I graduated, I got to bring both my father and mother on stage. That dean (Rev. James Loughran, S.J.) later became the president of Loyola Marymount.
Fordham and its public radio station, WFUV, have been preparing the best of news and sports broadcasters since Vin Scully and Charles Osgood graduated from there in the 1940s and 1950s. I was more interested in the news side and took my experience working as a WFUV reporter to a career in news and management in radio and television before earning a doctorate and moving into academia.
The goal of a radio game broadcast is to make the listeners feel as though they are in the arena or stadium themselves. Announcers like Rich Cellini paint the word pictures. Engineers like me create the soundscape.
Coming to LMU brought my life full circle. I tell my students I have been where they are, facing the joys and struggles of an undergraduate’s life on a Jesuit campus. I share the lessons of my sports and news experience.
I have been fortunate to work with hall of fame announcers in baseball, hockey, and basketball. I am a big baseball fan and it has been my luck to have been the Oakland Athletics’ Cactus League engineer for 30 years. This part of my life keeps my skills sharp and introduces me to people my students need to know. The people I work with at games become guests in my classes and have spoken individually with my students as well.
My Fordham classmates included the NBA’s Mike Breen, the NY Yankees’ Michael Kay, and Charlie Slowes of the Washington Nationals. LMU’s Journalism program is young, with the major first offered in 2018 and separate department status granted in 2022. I have enjoyed crossing paths with alumni and guiding students to work in the NFL, professional soccer, and other opportunities in sports.
Rich Cellini: Broadcasting was always a great interest of mine, ever since watching Howard Cosell narrate the half time highlights on Monday Night Football. Even while playing sports growing up, I was always broadcasting the games to myself. The path to earning the headset and becoming a play-by-play announcer is a long one with many twists and turns, which is very similar to the path our graduate students take during their time in our program at USF. Traveling the same journey as our students puts us on the same path and allows me to relate to them.
One of the best parts of our Sport Management program is the flexibility it allows students to pursue opportunities in the industry while earning their degrees. With classes one night a week, they are free to take on internships or part-time jobs and work their way up to a full-time position while in school.
USF graduate students are required to complete 160 hours to fulfill the internship requirements, but on average, they complete 1,140. They really embrace the idea that the best way to learn is to do. Get out there, roll up your sleeves, and figure out what part of the industry works best for you. Many will work for four to five organizations in different roles over the two years spent in our program.
Broadcasting games for the Cal Bears is always enjoyable and yes, it’s more fun when your team is winning and getting ready for the NCAA Tournament. But each season is like a book, and each game is like a chapter. Kevin makes the games sound good, while I try to make them interesting and, hopefully, if the game cooperates, exciting.
There isn’t a stop during the season where I don’t come across a USF alum working in the area, often several of them. Connecting with them is always the highlight of the trip. It’s always rewarding to see them moving forward with their careers. Go Dons!
