Mitch Mann ‘Felt Called’ To Come Back To Baylor
6/26/2018 10:44:00 AM | General
Associate Athletics Director Leading All the Resource Generation Areas.
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Foundation
Selling game programs and hot dogs at Mary Hardin-Baylor events at an early age, Mitch Mann developed a love for the business side of athletics that has never left him.
"I was never really the traditional fan," said Mann, now in his second year as Baylor's Associate AD for Resource Development. "I always kind of appreciated the business side of it. And once I did that, I hated sitting in the stands and not feeling like I played a role in what was happening."
The son of UMHB Vice President for Athletics Randy Mann, Mitch has followed in his dad's footsteps and now they enjoy the chance to "bounce stuff off of each other."
"I always thought I wanted to work in pro sports. My dream was to work for the Texas Rangers or Dallas Cowboys," said Mitch, who actually started his Baylor career as an undergrad intern with IMG under then-general manager Doug McNamee. "Then I met Doug, and he gave me an opportunity one summer, and that kind of changed my life."
After spending his freshman year at UMHB, playing for his dad on the Crusader golf team, Mitch transferred to Baylor and got his start working as an intern with ticket sales and IMG sponsorships.
"It reinforced what I really wanted to do," he said, "so I'm always grateful to Doug for giving me that shot."
Just attending Baylor had been Mitch's dream "since I was a little kid," when he would tag along with his dad to football, basketball and baseball games. Harry Miller, who had worked with Randy Mann at Temple High School, was Baylor's head basketball coach (1994-99) and "would take us into the locker room. I'm 5, 6 years old, so I fell in love with Baylor and Baylor Athletics."
Growing up as a Baylor fan through some dark days, especially for football and men's basketball, Mitch said it wasn't always fun.
"Especially in the lean years, when all your buddies are Texas and A&M fans," he said. "But, we loved it and we believed in what they were doing. For Baylor people, at least for me, it was kind of like that Chicago Cubs mentality. I don't care, I'm rooting for Baylor no matter what. We're doing it at some point, and it's going to be that much better when we do. You had the mindset of 'there's always next year.'''
At the end of his internship, Mitch was hired to work alongside McNamee and current general manager Matt Iazzetti with IMG in corporate sales and sponsorships.
"Once I started, I knew I wanted to be an athletic director at some point at the Power 5 level," he said. "Looking back, (IMG is) probably the department that touches more departments than almost anyone, because you have to be so synched up with marketing, fundraising, media relations, working with the coaching staffs, the training room, academics.
"Corporate partners always want to be involved in different things, so it was a really good experience to get a broad, diverse – not really deep understanding, but a general working knowledge of the whole athletic department."
With the arrival of eventual Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Robert Griffin III in 2008, "we were selling a lot of excitement," Mitch said.
"You could see where we were headed, and you could see that the future was going to be very, very bright for Baylor," he said. "At that time, McLane Stadium was just a dream, but we were selling the future."
In 2011, when IMG acquired the sponsorship rights at the Air Force Academy, Mitch got an offer to move to the campus in Colorado Springs to help get it started.
"It was terrifying," he said. "I've never been away from home. I went to school 30 minutes away from where I grew up. I never really thought I was going to leave Baylor and never really had a desire to do that. . . . But, just the chance to work at such a special place was something I couldn't say no to. And I ended up being there for six years."
Working at one of the service academies gave him the chance to "see the big picture and learn to process things from a different view."
"It was invaluable to be able to go somewhere else and get some experience," he said. "It's very similar to a university setting, they just had another layer over it. Not only was it higher education, it was higher education plus the Department of Defense. It's really cool to see how the people that are really good in that place navigate the bureaucracy and red tape. I think that really helped prepare me for the future."
Mitch left IMG to became the Assistant AD of Development at Air Force in 2013 and rose to Associate AD for External Operations before coming back to Baylor in March 2017.
"I got to do things that I had always had a hand in but had never directly overseen," he said. "I learned a lot about managing people, which is what it's all about. You learn that people are everything and nothing happens without a great team. It was really cool to be able to do it at Air Force and take on some pretty big challenges at a young age. . . . I was lucky that they trusted me to do my job, and I kind of learned as I went."
Even a time zone away, it was tough on Mitch to hear about the struggles with the Baylor football program and athletic department that surfaced two years ago. But, those struggles were part of what brought him back to Waco 15 months ago.
"I really felt called to take this opportunity after everything that had happened," he said. "For me, it was personal, when you know what Baylor is and what it means. I think (Baylor football coach Matt Rhule) said it before: When you see a problem, some people run away from it, some people run to it. I felt the sense of duty that now is the time to move back."
Mitch says his wife, Miranda, a Colorado native who played volleyball at Ole Miss, was a "real trooper" about the move to Texas.
"She kind of knows the business and that you can't really predict the future, what it looks like," Mitch said of his wife. "But, she was willing to come down here. . . . In the span of like two weeks, I got the job, moved to Texas, we got married, bought a house. It was crazy. But, she's been awesome. She's really learned to appreciate the university and what it stands for. We couldn't have asked for a better spot to land."
With McNamee leaving Baylor last week to head up the executive team at Magnolia with Chip and Joanna Gaines, Mitch has taken on some additional leadership duties in overseeing IMG and licensing, along with the Bear Foundation, capital giving, ticket office and ticket sales.
"I'll oversee all aspects of fundraising . . . whereas before there were a couple little one-off areas that we didn't have," he said. "It will be good to get our team where we're all focused on revenue generation. I don't really care where it comes from as long as we get to the final goal we need to get to."
Jeramiah Dickey, Baylor's Associate Vice President of Intercollegiate Athletics, calls Mitch "an eager learner and a confident leader who quickly earns the respect of everyone he engages with."
"His humility and work ethic are unmatched," Dickey said. "Mitch has been a game-changer for Baylor Athletics and the Bear Foundation, and we're grateful to have him on our team."
While it's been a bit of a whirlwind over the last year, Mitch said one thing that has stood out to him is "just how great Baylor people are and how much they love this institution and what it means to them."
"We are about to announce another record-setting fundraising year, in the midst of turmoil and challenges on the field," he said. "That's been really invigorating for me to see how much people love this institution."
Starting a family and having children is "probably in the near future," Mitch says, but for now the Manns have a pair of dogs, Lexi and Denver. "She's our tie back to Colorado. Denver just turned a year old."
Baylor Bear Foundation
Selling game programs and hot dogs at Mary Hardin-Baylor events at an early age, Mitch Mann developed a love for the business side of athletics that has never left him.
"I was never really the traditional fan," said Mann, now in his second year as Baylor's Associate AD for Resource Development. "I always kind of appreciated the business side of it. And once I did that, I hated sitting in the stands and not feeling like I played a role in what was happening."
The son of UMHB Vice President for Athletics Randy Mann, Mitch has followed in his dad's footsteps and now they enjoy the chance to "bounce stuff off of each other."
"I always thought I wanted to work in pro sports. My dream was to work for the Texas Rangers or Dallas Cowboys," said Mitch, who actually started his Baylor career as an undergrad intern with IMG under then-general manager Doug McNamee. "Then I met Doug, and he gave me an opportunity one summer, and that kind of changed my life."
After spending his freshman year at UMHB, playing for his dad on the Crusader golf team, Mitch transferred to Baylor and got his start working as an intern with ticket sales and IMG sponsorships.
"It reinforced what I really wanted to do," he said, "so I'm always grateful to Doug for giving me that shot."
Just attending Baylor had been Mitch's dream "since I was a little kid," when he would tag along with his dad to football, basketball and baseball games. Harry Miller, who had worked with Randy Mann at Temple High School, was Baylor's head basketball coach (1994-99) and "would take us into the locker room. I'm 5, 6 years old, so I fell in love with Baylor and Baylor Athletics."
Growing up as a Baylor fan through some dark days, especially for football and men's basketball, Mitch said it wasn't always fun.
"Especially in the lean years, when all your buddies are Texas and A&M fans," he said. "But, we loved it and we believed in what they were doing. For Baylor people, at least for me, it was kind of like that Chicago Cubs mentality. I don't care, I'm rooting for Baylor no matter what. We're doing it at some point, and it's going to be that much better when we do. You had the mindset of 'there's always next year.'''
At the end of his internship, Mitch was hired to work alongside McNamee and current general manager Matt Iazzetti with IMG in corporate sales and sponsorships.
"Once I started, I knew I wanted to be an athletic director at some point at the Power 5 level," he said. "Looking back, (IMG is) probably the department that touches more departments than almost anyone, because you have to be so synched up with marketing, fundraising, media relations, working with the coaching staffs, the training room, academics.
"Corporate partners always want to be involved in different things, so it was a really good experience to get a broad, diverse – not really deep understanding, but a general working knowledge of the whole athletic department."
With the arrival of eventual Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Robert Griffin III in 2008, "we were selling a lot of excitement," Mitch said.
"You could see where we were headed, and you could see that the future was going to be very, very bright for Baylor," he said. "At that time, McLane Stadium was just a dream, but we were selling the future."
In 2011, when IMG acquired the sponsorship rights at the Air Force Academy, Mitch got an offer to move to the campus in Colorado Springs to help get it started.
"It was terrifying," he said. "I've never been away from home. I went to school 30 minutes away from where I grew up. I never really thought I was going to leave Baylor and never really had a desire to do that. . . . But, just the chance to work at such a special place was something I couldn't say no to. And I ended up being there for six years."
Working at one of the service academies gave him the chance to "see the big picture and learn to process things from a different view."
"It was invaluable to be able to go somewhere else and get some experience," he said. "It's very similar to a university setting, they just had another layer over it. Not only was it higher education, it was higher education plus the Department of Defense. It's really cool to see how the people that are really good in that place navigate the bureaucracy and red tape. I think that really helped prepare me for the future."
Mitch left IMG to became the Assistant AD of Development at Air Force in 2013 and rose to Associate AD for External Operations before coming back to Baylor in March 2017.
"I got to do things that I had always had a hand in but had never directly overseen," he said. "I learned a lot about managing people, which is what it's all about. You learn that people are everything and nothing happens without a great team. It was really cool to be able to do it at Air Force and take on some pretty big challenges at a young age. . . . I was lucky that they trusted me to do my job, and I kind of learned as I went."
Even a time zone away, it was tough on Mitch to hear about the struggles with the Baylor football program and athletic department that surfaced two years ago. But, those struggles were part of what brought him back to Waco 15 months ago.
"I really felt called to take this opportunity after everything that had happened," he said. "For me, it was personal, when you know what Baylor is and what it means. I think (Baylor football coach Matt Rhule) said it before: When you see a problem, some people run away from it, some people run to it. I felt the sense of duty that now is the time to move back."
Mitch says his wife, Miranda, a Colorado native who played volleyball at Ole Miss, was a "real trooper" about the move to Texas.
"She kind of knows the business and that you can't really predict the future, what it looks like," Mitch said of his wife. "But, she was willing to come down here. . . . In the span of like two weeks, I got the job, moved to Texas, we got married, bought a house. It was crazy. But, she's been awesome. She's really learned to appreciate the university and what it stands for. We couldn't have asked for a better spot to land."
With McNamee leaving Baylor last week to head up the executive team at Magnolia with Chip and Joanna Gaines, Mitch has taken on some additional leadership duties in overseeing IMG and licensing, along with the Bear Foundation, capital giving, ticket office and ticket sales.
"I'll oversee all aspects of fundraising . . . whereas before there were a couple little one-off areas that we didn't have," he said. "It will be good to get our team where we're all focused on revenue generation. I don't really care where it comes from as long as we get to the final goal we need to get to."
Jeramiah Dickey, Baylor's Associate Vice President of Intercollegiate Athletics, calls Mitch "an eager learner and a confident leader who quickly earns the respect of everyone he engages with."
"His humility and work ethic are unmatched," Dickey said. "Mitch has been a game-changer for Baylor Athletics and the Bear Foundation, and we're grateful to have him on our team."
While it's been a bit of a whirlwind over the last year, Mitch said one thing that has stood out to him is "just how great Baylor people are and how much they love this institution and what it means to them."
"We are about to announce another record-setting fundraising year, in the midst of turmoil and challenges on the field," he said. "That's been really invigorating for me to see how much people love this institution."
Starting a family and having children is "probably in the near future," Mitch says, but for now the Manns have a pair of dogs, Lexi and Denver. "She's our tie back to Colorado. Denver just turned a year old."
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