One look around the office of Dr. Andy Elrick reveals much about the new director of the Center for Sports Communication.
Elrick moved into his new home at Marist College in July. After nearly two years since former director Jane McManus left to take a similar position at Seton Hall, the college underwent a thorough search for a permanent director while Chris Riviezzo served as the interim director.
One of the traits that makes Elrick a fit for the job is rather obvious: he is a huge sports fan. Elrick’s larger interests in sports communication remain true to his roots: the intersection of sports and fandom.
“I think what Dr. Elrick brings to this is a critical perspective on fandom,” said Dr. Jaqueline Reich, dean of the School of Communication and the Arts at Marist. “We’re all fans of a squad, but what does it mean to be a fan?”
The evident signs of his fandom appear as soon as you enter his office. On the left side is a coat rack with various soccer jerseys hanging instead of typical outerwear.
One of the jerseys is an ACF Fiorentina jersey, representing the professional club closest to Marist’s branch campus in Florence, Italy. More personally, a Queens Park Rangers F.C. jersey also hangs on the rack, a sign of Elrick’s most dedicated fandom after meeting a group of dedicated American fans at a bar in Midtown. He still communicates regularly with the group, supporting the club since being in the third division of English football.
Long before he entered the sports media industry, Elrick’s love of sports originated from his upbringing with his father, who Elrick labeled a “Baseball Poet.”
“He’s one of these people that think baseball is not just a fun thing to watch or do, but that it says something about the American character,” said Elrick.
Growing up in what he dubbed the “unsexiest” area of Vermont in Franklin County, far from Burlington and the state’s many ski resorts, his dad was a Yankees fan. Not affiliated with Chicago in any way, the younger Elrick picked the Cubs to root for. He distinctly remembered shedding some tears when they lost.
“I think there’s a lot of value actually in supporting unsuccessful teams,” said Elrick. “It says something about your character and teaches you something.”
Other than the Cubs, Elrick did not attach himself to any specific teams during his youth, acting more as a nomad. Yet, he still became fully enthralled with sports fandom.
“I think different fans have different ways of engaging in sports,” said Elrick. “The itch it scratched in my brain for knowledge and statistics. I like the community aspect too, but those are separate things.”
Elrick got his education started at the University of Connecticut, originally as a history major. He explained that though UConn is at the forefront of college sports media, it barely had a college media department when he was a freshman. In a “right place, right time” situation, Elrick began attending meetings of a newly-created college radio station club, and weeks later was calling basketball games within five seats away from Dick Vitale on press row.
While gaining experience, he secured an internship at a radio station and later received a job offer from the same station to be on air for $4.25 an hour.
“I just thought, I don’t know if I’m good enough for this, and the pay isn’t very good, and maybe I’ll stick with it but think about doing something more behind the scenes,” said Elrick.
After graduating, Elrick sent a resume to SportsCenter in hopes of leveraging the network’s connection to UConn and his own experience in radio, but never heard back. Simultaneously, Elrick sent a resume to ESPN Radio, a much smaller operation at the time he applied. Immediately after signing a lease for an apartment in Philadelphia, he got a call from Bristol that launched his career.
While Elrick could do the job well as a radio producer, sticking with it for over four years caused him to feel limited. In a time when sports media, especially college sports media, continued to constantly evolve, he felt he could do the same.
Feeling like it was the right move, Elrick took a job at a startup known as College Sports Television (CSTV). A very raw product, the company’s goal involved broadcasting shows based on discussing non-revenue college sports in the form of a radio show on television.
“It was not at all [successful],” said Elrick. “It got canceled before it even made it. Which is the best thing that ever happened to me, because there was no infrastructure there at all.”
A failed product opened a new door for Elrick. He spent the next few years working for FIBA, traveling all over Europe while working in public relations.
While he traveled, Elrick became homesick and yearned to return to a production role. He received a call from Tyler Hale, who is now the senior vice president of studio production of CBS Sports, about kick-starting a radio-on-TV show. By this time, CBS Sports had bought CSTV and converted it into CBS Sports Network.
For the next eight years, Elrick served as a producer for the company, helping produce startup shows and handing them off to other producers to run with. He worked his way up to a coordinating producer role at the end of his tenure before starting the next phase of his career.
With a plethora of sports media experience and a fan of sports himself, Reich commented on another key component of Elrick’s background: he is an academic. Elrick recently completed his Doctorate at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute specializing in communications and rhetoric. While he is a new academic, Elrick’s larger interests in sports communication remain true to his roots: the intersection of sports and fandom.
“The Center for Sports Communication has a long tradition of both using theory and practice, and having an academic at the helm, or someone who has performed research, allows us to have that,” said Reich.
Reich also was sure to acknowledge the accomplishments of interim director Riviezzo in his two-year tenure with the center. Riviezzo, a studio producer for ESPN for 23 years, will still be teaching his sports broadcasting class as well as overseeing the Red Fox Report, a student-run ESPN+ production of Marist athletic highlights.
“He is phenomenal, and I’m really glad he’s staying on,” said Reich.
After the hiring process concluded and having finally settled into his office in the Lowell Thomas Communications Center, Elrick has clear goals in mind.
“My beginning game plan is to listen,” said Elrick. “I’m really thankful to Chris [Riviezzo], and to Jane [McManus], and to Keith [Strudler] before that for building this. I could tell just in the interview process that there is great stuff going on here, and it’s not my intention or plan to blow anything up because it’s working.”
Along with providing his expertise with radio and podcasting production (Elrick served as the head of the University of Vermont’s media center), Elrick wants to take advantage of the abroad programs offered at Marist and the emphasis on international studies at the college, with the hope to provide sports communication students opportunities during their time abroad.
“I love to travel, I love to investigate all these places that Marist students go [abroad],” said Elrick. “One of my main goals to start with is to try and bring those two things together in a more intentional way.”
Elrick is fascinated that students interested in media typically enter higher education with experience in media or content creation, and at the level of media students create while involved with the center. To help with that, Elrick also wants to bring in guest speakers to the center that create connections and opportunities for students as soon as they graduate.
—
While there is much to come, his initial goals are as clear as his passion for sports. The deep interest in sports knowledge of the past is easily recognizable when pivoting toward Elrick’s bookshelf. Two signed baseballs, one of Chicago Cubs legend Ernie Banks and one of all-time Yankee great Mickey Mantle, sit proudly on the shelves next to his vast collection of sports history books.
On another shelf, a long, skinny cardboard box sits, containing hundreds of baseball cards, just a small chunk of his collection back in Vermont.
“I find it very relaxing. If I have trouble working something out in my mind, I will just take out a box of baseball, basketball or soccer cards and just sort them.”
Edited by Luke Sassa
Photo Credit: Sophia Balunek
Graphic Credit: Gavin Hard
For more coverage of Marist athletics, follow @cfmarist on Instagram, X and TikTok, and sign up to receive daily alerts here.