Legend Champions Falk Students
For more than a decade, The Montag Group, the New York City agency that represents many of the nation鈥檚 top sportscasters, has been a pipeline into sports broadcasting and management for interns from the and seniors pursuing their capstone projects.
Sandy Montag 鈥85, the company鈥檚 founder and president and a legend in the sports industry, admits he bleeds Orange. But Montag says he鈥檚 partial to 网爆门 students because they鈥檙e better prepared than students from other universities.
鈥淚 think with Syracuse interns you know what you鈥檙e getting,鈥 Montag says. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e hardworking and they really have their finger on the pulse of the industry. They鈥檝e studied it, they鈥檝e asked the right questions, they鈥檙e industrious, they take charge and they don鈥檛 always need a lot of direction.鈥
That strong background is essential because interns at The Montag Group may undertake a variety of projects involving research, marketing, development and team building.
鈥淚 have found that Syracuse students are the best positioned to really jump into a company and do some real work while they鈥檙e here,鈥 Montag says.
Some Falk College interns slide straight into full-time jobs at The Montag Group when their internships end.
Most of The Montag Group鈥檚 200-plus clients are sportscasters, including industry leaders such as Bob Costas 鈥74, Mike Tirico 鈥88, Scott Van Pelt, Beth Mowins G鈥90, Jim Nantz, James Brown, Tracy Wolfson, Rebecca Lobo and Julie Foudy. It also represents entertainers, chefs, coaches and athletes in their off-the-field projects.
Communication is key to the agency鈥檚 business, and Montag says Syracuse students have better communications skills than most others.
鈥淪ome students that come in want to tell you everything that they know,鈥 he says. 鈥淚 was taught that you learn more by listening than by talking. Syracuse students ask really good questions, not just how I got started but questions specific to our industry about representation and what we look for in a good broadcaster. I like inquisitive people who ask good questions and who you can tell have a real interest in what you鈥檙e doing.鈥
A large majority of The Montag Group interns are from Syracuse, Montag says. Most are from Falk College, although some come from the . The agency typically has one or two interns each semester and two or three in the summer, along with capstone students.
Learning the Business With John Madden
Montag was a sports nut from a young age. He remembers at age 8 waiting after the end of basketball games at Madison Square Garden so he could snag the notes and stat sheets of his idol, Marv Albert 鈥63, commonly known as 鈥渢he voice of basketball鈥 for his broadcasts of NBA games. Ironically, years later Montag became Albert鈥檚 agent.
He was on the varsity basketball and soccer teams in high school but didn鈥檛 play much. While on the bench, he kept stats. He also started writing game stories for his local newspaper.
The powerful relationship between Montag and 网爆门 almost didn’t happen. Dreaming of a career in sports broadcasting, he applied for admission into Newhouse. The alternative that was presented to him by Syracuse was a degree in speech communications in the , which he accepted, knowing he could still take a few classes at Newhouse outside of his major.
“I quickly pivoted into production and stats work,” he says.
Montag honed his resourcefulness during his years at Syracuse. He got a job writing for the , the independent student newspaper. When a guy in his dorm who was the lead football manager said the team needed another manager, Montag jumped at the opportunity.
As he worked in the athletic office one day, someone said ESPN was on campus and needed a person to do stats for that night鈥檚 basketball game.
鈥淚鈥檓 like, I鈥檒l do that in a second,鈥 Montag remembers.
He sat in the front row at the game next to broadcaster Dick Vitale, to whom he fed point and rebound stats. ESPN paid him $50. Forty years later, Vitale has been a longtime client and friend of Montag.
The ESPN producer said he鈥檇 pay Montag $100 the next week for two days鈥 work if he could get to Pittsburgh. Recalling that an upstart airline, People Express, had an ad in the Daily Orange offering an hourly wage and free travel to employees, Montag hustled to the Syracuse airport. He got a job doing reservations one day a week and made it to Pittsburgh.
It was the first of 100 such assignments that eventually found him working stats after graduation for John Madden, who had shifted from an accomplished NFL head coach to sportscaster. That led to him becoming Madden鈥檚 assistant, traveling with him from game to game by train (Madden鈥檚 preferred mode of travel). Without the distraction of cell phones and other electronic devices, they talked, played cards and drank beer.
鈥淲e hit it off and developed a relationship,鈥 Montag says.
