Former CBS Sports Chairman Sean McManus Named McCormack Department Executive-in-Residence

Sean McManus, former chairman of CBS Sports and Sports Broadcasting Hall of Famer, will serve as the Mark H. McCormack Department of Sport Management Executive-in-Residence at the Isenberg School of Management this fall, visiting campus Dec. 3 and 4.

“We’re truly honored to have Sean McManus join us,” said Nicole Melton, PhD, chair of the McCormack Department of Sport Management. “His vast experience promises to be invaluable for our community.”

Professor of sport management Steve McKelvey, JD, the faculty member responsible for securing McManus’s involvement, said, “Sean follows in a long and impressive line of sport industry icons who have generously shared their insights and experiences with our students and faculty, and he is uniquely positioned to reflect on McCormack’s lasting impact on our industry.”

After McCormack’s passing in 2003, McManus was quoted as saying, “I don’t think it’s an overstatement to say that, kind of like Henry Ford and Bill Gates, Mark McCormack literally created and fostered and led an entirely new worldwide industry.”

The keynote event of McManus’s visit is the Mark H. McCormack Sport Innovators Fireside Chat, to be held Tuesday, Dec. 3, at 6 p.m., in room N151 of the Integrative Learning Center. This event is open to the UMass and Five College community and will be live-streamed. McManus’s residency activities will also include classroom visits, roundtables with McCormack students and faculty, and participation in the McCormack Collection Oral History Project.

A SPORTS TV LEGEND

McManus’s journey into sports television started when he was young, spending summers traveling with his father, legendary broadcaster and fellow Sports Broadcasting Hall of Famer Jim McKay. McManus experienced not only the world’s greatest sports events but also many of the more niche events that made ABC’s Wide World of Sports such fascinating viewing week after week. By the time he was 15, McManus was working on a freelance basis as a gopher (a production assistant), had worked his way into the production department, and was sure that sports television was the industry for him. But his parents insisted that he spend a summer interning with Solomon Brothers on Wall Street to at least open his eyes to other careers.

McManus began his career in 1977 as a production assistant and associate producer for ABC Sports. Two years later, he joined two of his ABC mentors, Geoff Mason and Don Ohlmeyer, at NBC as an associate producer assigned to the NFL, Wimbledon, the PGA Tour, and more. He then transitioned into a production/management position, where he had more free rein over content. At 27, McManus became the youngest vice president at NBC Sports, overseeing program planning and development. He was instrumental in the rights negotiations for the Olympics, the NFL, Wimbledon, the Orange Bowl, auto racing, and NCAA college basketball. McManus held that role from 1982 to 1987.

In 1987, he took the next step in his career, becoming senior vice president of U.S. television sales and programming at Trans World International (TWI), the television division of International Management Group (IMG). The division was rapidly growing, and the move gave McManus a chance to round out his skill set on the sales side of the industry. He also learned how to work with athletes like Arnold Palmer and Greg Norman as well as with sports entities like All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club and the Olympics.

“It was a good experience and a good step in accomplishing my ultimate goal, which was to be the president of a sports network,” said McManus. “And I went from working with men like Roone [Arledge], [ABC director] Chet [Forte], and Mason at ABC and NBC to work with [IMG’s] Mark McCormack and Barry Frank. It was really incredible.”

With an understanding of both the selling and the buying side of the industry, McManus also understands a lot about negotiating a deal.

“If a deal isn’t good for both parties, it probably isn’t a good deal, and you need to leave a little on the table for the next round of negotiations,” he said. “You can’t be afraid to do that.”

In 1996, McManus fulfilled his life-long dream of becoming the president of a network sports division, accepting the role at CBS Sports. In 1998, he played a key role in the return of the NFL to CBS Sports, and the network has retained NFL rights ever since. He also worked closely with the NFL on the creation of Thursday Night Football in 2015.

In 1999, he led CBS to sign an unprecedented landmark agreement with the NCAA, which extended the exclusive over-the-air broadcast rights and also covered rights to the internet, marketing and corporate sponsorship, merchandising, licensing, cable television, radio, satellite, digital, and home video for the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship until 2014. In 2010, that deal was renegotiated to bring Turner Sports on as a partner, and it now runs through 2032.

McManus helped launch CBS Sports Network in 2008 and had a six-year stint, from 2005 to 2011, as president of both CBS Sports and CBS News. Only McManus and the legendary Arledge have held the sports and news division titles simultaneously (Arledge was ABC president of news and sports from 1977 to 1986). McManus retired as chairman of CBS Sports in 2024 after 28 years of running the division. He is a 22-time Emmy Award winner.

Recent McCormack Executives-in-Residence include:

• Former NFL Players Association Executive Director DeMaurice Smith (fall 2023)
• Trailblazing marketing and sport sponsorship executive Harlan Stone (fall 2022)
• International Olympic Committee Board Member Anita DeFrantz (fall 2021)
• NBA Commissioner Emeritus David Stern (fall 2019)
• Sport marketer and The Aspire Group founder Dr. Bernie Mullin (fall 2018)

For a complete listing of former Executives-in-Residence, click here.