GETTING INTOTHE GAME By Judith Kelliher


A SPRINGFIELD COLLEGE EDUCATION carries with it more than just textbooks and classroom learning from dedicated faculty members. Thousands of students have engaged in internships, practicums, fieldwork, and other types of real-life, hands-on experiences that prepare them for a career. Those opportunities do not occur by accident. They are embedded in the academic culture of the College. They are made possible through the curriculum, faculty, and especially by relationships with alumni who value their connection to the College long after they have graduated—and pay it forward.


Nathanael Harris


A self-described “basketball nut,” Nathanael Harris ’08 grabbed every chance he could to weave the sport into his learning experiences while a sport management major at Springfield College, including an internship with the New York Knicks his senior year. Before the Knicks gig, he partici-


pated in fieldwork his first year assisting players participating in the annual Spalding Hoophall Classic, a nationally renowned event that showcases the top high school basketball teams in the country. A sophomore year practicum gave him the opportunity to help schedule games for the College’s varsity football, soccer, and volleyball teams. And his senior year he volunteered as the team manager for the Pride’s women’s basketball team, gaining experience on the operational side of collegiate athletics. The 28-year-old Philadelphia resident’s connection with women’s


basketball coach Naomi Graves G’85 indirectly helped him land the New York Knicks internship. Graves put him in touch with her former player, Catherine Proto ’01, who was then working as an assistant coach for the WNBA’s New York Liberty. Proto forwarded Harris’s


TRIANGLE 1 Vol . 85, No. 2


Two Springfield College alums are working together at Comcast-Spectacor, the Philadelphia-based sports and entertainment firm. They are Shawn Tilger ’96 (left), chief operating officer of business development for the Philadelphia Flyers, and Nathanael Harris ’08, senior marketing manager for Global Spectrum. The Flyers and Global Spectrum are both subsidiaries of Comcast-Spectacor, and based at the company’s flagship arena, the Wells Fargo Center.


resume to her connections at the Knicks, which led to an interview for him and then an internship in the summer of 2008. As a team operational intern, he


created a resource for new players and coaches that included a variety of infor- mation, such as places to live, local restaurants and banks, and practical day-to-day needs in a new community.


“That experience was really eye opening for me. I learned a lot


about the operations of a professional sports team,” he said. Later he landed jobs as a marketing manager at the MassMutual


Center in Springfield and as director of marketing at the Mullins Center at the University of Massachusetts, both operated by Global Spectrum. He currently is a senior marketing manager at Comcast-Spectacor at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. His responsibilities include


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