By Racheli Jian, Senior Arts & Culture Editor and Layout Editor
Professor Abby Tufts is an adjunct professor at the Sy Syms School of Business who started teaching this fall. She currently teaches a Sports Marketing class inspired by her work in public relations (PR), marketing and media throughout the industry. She has 15 years of experience in PR and has a legacy in the sports industry with her dad, Robert Tufts, being a Major League Baseball pitcher for the San Francisco Giants and Kansas City Royals in the ‘80s. After retiring from baseball he became an Assistant Professor at the Sy Syms School of Business and taught various courses surrounding sports and management. His daughter has taken over his class, Sports Marketing Management, which hasn’t been taught since his passing in 2019.
In the short time you’ve been at YU, is there anything different for you here compared to other institutions and companies you have worked at?
In reality, I didn’t grow up Orthodox. I’ve always been in a co-ed environment. So [I’m] making sure I’m doing everything by the book. Yes, I’m working here and you guys should listen to me and respect me, but the respect should be mutual.
Why do you think it’s important to have this class specifically at an all-women’s college?
I was very blessed to grow up with a father who believed in my rights to anything I wanted. He didn’t push me to play sports, it’s just what happened. Connecting with my Judaism, my female-Judaism, connecting with my fellow female Jews, I just want to make sure they know they can do anything they want to do.
No matter where you live, I want to help women believe they can do anything they set their mind to and there shouldn’t be anything stopping them. If they want to go into tech, business, law, sports, especially sports, there’s nothing that should stop them from feeling empowered to do that. That’s why I wanted to bring in female speakers. I wanted you all to see there’s a ton of women in high positions or just starting out who are getting these tools to succeed. I really want to do my part in that, because I didn’t have that when I was starting out.
You were saying everyone has their own trajectory to get into this industry, what was yours?
It really did stem from my dad; that’s always the genesis of everything. Him being a professional baseball player, that was something I grew up with and loved since I can remember. Baseball was my life and I thought that was gonna be the be-all-end-all for me.
I had gotten into communications by chance. It was right after college when I worked in the Phillies communication department and something felt really aligned with me. I left baseball to go into agency life and realized that, at least at the time I was working, when you work for teams, it’s very niche and you wouldn’t get real work experience. So I went to Ogelvy and worked on writing skills, client management, time management, organization, everything that’s necessary not just for work but for life. Once I combined all that together, I was able to take that back into a sports job. Agency life was really impactful for me because I had so many clients. Some clients I really liked doing work for were lululemon and the Empire State Building. I’ve done agency work for so long and I got to a point where I want to create my own path.
As you said, you haven’t been in a teaching position before, what made you want to take this position?
I recently left my full-time job in sports to freelance. I really wanted to figure out how to incorporate teaching because one, ,my dad taught here and was a very big part of this university and passed away in the middle of the semester. This particular class was his that he built himself. When I was thinking about teaching I didn’t want to go anywhere else first. Two,. I’ve been in agency life and most recently I was in a VP position and had a lot of interns and people working for me. I notice in the past couple years anyone in the entry-level positions didn’t understand the role. I wanted to figure out how to do my part to make sure that you guys are getting the best experience possible with real-world knowledge to be able to take that job right after graduation and be as ready as you can be.
Is there anything you do specifically to prepare students for the workforce?
Bringing in guest speakers has been the biggest one. I think it’s really great for you guys to hear what people’s trajectories, especially women’s, have been… Everybody’s path is different. For instance you can get a job at a school and then five years later you decide you want to work for the Mets. There is nothing that should stop you from doing that.
In what ways is your iteration of this class different from your dad’s?
He was very studious, I’m not. He was very by the book. He worked on Wall Street and brought a lot more numbers into it. I’m bringing in more real-world experience. There’s only so much you can read on a piece of paper. Learning by doing was what was really successful for me… Just because you do well in class it will only get you so far… If you don’t look at the world around you, you’re gonna have a really tough time.
What’s something you want the students to know?
That this class is available. It’s more just me helping people learn more about life… especially in a sports marketing class. This class has been very meaningful and teaching has been very fulfilling for me.
Photo Caption: Professor Abby Tufts with Guillermo Rodriguez
Photo Credit: Professor Abby Tufts