Longtime sports business professor and mentor Bill Sutton today will announce that he is retiring from his post as director of USF’s Vinik Sport & Entertainment Management Program at the end of the school year. Sutton will be succeeded by Michelle Harrolle, an assistant professor who since '13 has coordinated the program’s sports residency component, which places second-year MBA students in 20-hour-a-week jobs at area sports and entertainment properties.
Hired in '12 to start the first-of-its-kind program, funded at startup by the Lightning, Sutton created the blend of traditional B-school education and industry application that became his calling card through a 40-year career that has included stops at Robert Morris, Ohio State, UMass and UCF, along with a four-year stint at the NBA’s TMBO division and a steady flow of consulting projects.
Sutton endorsed the selection of Harrolle, a former D-I swimmer and swim coach who helped develop the program’s relationships with area employers while managing the residency program. “If God had made me a woman, I’d have been Michelle,” Sutton said. “I’m 100% confident. Otherwise I wouldn’t be retiring.” Harrolle chuckled when considering the comparison. “It’s not how I would say it, but I appreciate the sentiment behind it,” Harrolle said. “People will ask how you fill such big shoes. You don’t. He is the best mentor and friend and the best teacher I’ve ever had. So I cannot fill those shoes. I have to create new shoes and fill them myself.”
