All Around Sports
Radio Show Host
Please CLICK HERE to listen to John Ingoldsby’s All Around Sports radio show every Friday at 1 p.m. ET., where guests like NBA Hall of Famer and Boston Celtic Legend Robert Parish (below) could call in, like “The Chief” did the night before Celtics-Lakers Game 7 in June 2010.
John Ingoldsby talks with NBA Hall of Famer Robert Parish, for whom John has obtained frequent appearances on Turner Sports Network's NBA coverage.
WCTV Sports Forum Reporter/Color Analyst
IIR Sports Inc. President John Ingoldsby is a long-time correspondent for WCTV in Boston, serving as an in-studio and call-in guest on the station's Sports Forum show, while also contributing as a Color Analyst on college basketball broadcasts and sideline/post-game interviewer for football games.
March-On for Midshipmen & Cadets Kicks Off Army-Navy Game
By John Ingoldsby
December 10, 2012
My first Army-Navy game began bright and early when I arrived at Philadelphia's Lincoln Financial Field four hours before kickoff, where I settled into my Press Box seat before walking down to the field level for the traditional March-On. As pictured above, each and every Midshipmen from the Naval Academy and Cadet from West Point march in precision onto the field with accompanying announcements identifying each unit with its leaders and hometowns. After starting the day with this pageantry, the USMA and USNA students then settle into their seats in the stadium corners at the same end awaiting the next spectacle of the Invocation, National Anthem, the two teams taking the field, and the coin toss with Vice President Joe Biden. In the meantime, the stadium fills with soldiers and sailors in every conceivable uniform towards its traditional sellout, as the buzz builds to a fever pitch unmatched in American sports. Then, as daylight turned toward darkness, the purest game of all began as the two institutions battled for the first time in years to take the Commander-In-Chief's Trophy, awarded yearly (including Air Force) to the winning service academy in football. With the annual backdrop of almost every senior playing their last football game ever, the game went down to the final minute when Army fumbled in the red zone while driving for the potential winning score, and Navy pounced on the loose ball to win their 11th straight game over Army, the longest winning streak in the 113-year series.
IIR Sports & Entertainment President John Ingoldsby (above, left) talks with Jim Nantz of CBS Sports at a Great Fenway Park Writers Series luncheon during the broadcaster's first visit to Fenway Park, where they discussed John's first visit to Augusta National for the 2009 Masters (below).
The Sports Section
John Ingoldsby writes about NFL Player Engagement
in Bloomberg Businessweek Special Advertising Section
John Ingoldsby Featured
in College Alumni Magazine
By MARIE YOUNG
Fall 2012
St. Francis Magazine
49ers Owner Greets Military Before Patriots Game
By JOHN INGOLDSBY
December 17, 2012
Armchair General Magazine
December 16, 2012. San Francisco 49ers Owner Dr. John York, right, greets members of the military before the New England Patriots Sunday night game, presenting a Niners pin to one soldier on the field at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro. Dr. York is the Chairman of the NFL's Health & Safety Committee, which includes the joint study now under way between the NFL and the U.S. Army to study Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI), story below. Dr. York has been conducting this pre-game of greeting 49ers fans and giving them pins and Field Passes for the past eight years. (Photo by John Ingoldsby)
Neither snow nor rain keeps 49ers Owner from finding fans
San Francisco 49ers Owner Dr. John York braved the elements in Foxboro to give San Francisco fans Field Passes and Team Pins before the epic Sunday night game against the New England Patriots. Dr. York was greeted warmly by legions of 49ers fans as he circled Gillette Stadium, including the two shown above on the field who had traveled from Mexico City, and who had met Dr. York previously during his eight years of finding Niners fans before every game. (Photos by John Ingoldsby)
NFL & Army teaming up to tackle Traumatic Brain Injuries
By JOHN INGOLDSBY
September 7, 2012
Armchair General Magazine
NFL & Army Stage Panel at West Point. The West Point panel included, from left: Dr Richard Ellenbogen, Major Sarah Goldman, Bart Oates, General Raymond Odierno, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, Major Christopher Molino, Troy Vincent, and Staff Sergeant Shawn Hibbard. (Photo by John Ingoldsby)
WEST POINT, NY, Sept. 7, 2012 – The National Football League and the U.S. Army have shared a storied history of working together, and now have formed perhaps their most important alliance ever in teaming up to tackle Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI).
The two iconic institutions chose the hallowed grounds of the United State Military Academy at West Point for the announcement, which included a panel discussion on this timely topic before an audience that included 200 Cadets.
The event was kicked off by Army Chief of Staff General Raymond T. Odierno and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, who both stressed the complete collaboration they envision to implement a culture change to reduce brain injuries, including most importantly concussions.
General Raymond Odierno (left), U.S. Army Chief of Staff, and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell hold an outdoors press conference at West Point following a panel discussion regarding their new alliance to study Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBIs). (Photo by John Ingoldsby)
By emphasizing the importance of shared responsibility, self-regulation and peer pressure in battling this issue, the General and the Commissioner spearheaded a candid conversation by a star-studded panel that advocates players and soldiers seek help for a head injury to either themselves or those around them.
This call for healthy behaviors was echoed by the panel that included former players Troy Vincent and Bart Oates, Neurologist Dr. Richard Ellenbogen, a Co-Chair of the NFL's Head, Neck & Spine Committee, and Major Sarah Goldman, Major Christopher Molino, and Staff Sergeant Shawn Hibbard, all of whom contributed their perspective from the trenches.
In launching this initiative, both organizations created the websites www.NFL.com/military and www.army.mil/tbi, while also pledging to hold forums at NFL team facilities and Army bases, increasing awareness through PSAs and social media, pairing retired players with soldiers transitioning out of the Army, and sharing medical research and information.
John Ingoldsby, a leading writer on the intersection of sports and the military who attended this event, is president of IIR Sports, Inc. (www.IIRsports.com) in Boston, a media & public relations firm. As a former newspaper reporter covering Fort Devens, he was the first New England media representative ever chosen by the Pentagon to cover NATO war games in Europe. His father was a Lieutenant Colonel in General Patton's legendary Third Army during World War II.
IIR Sports conducts PR & Media activities at U.S. Army All-American Bowl
IIR Sports Inc. President John Ingoldsby, stands on the San Antonio Alamodome field immediately following The U.S. Army All-American Bowl in January 2012, where he worked all week for the Bowl organizers conducting a variety of public relations and media activities for the renowned high school all-star game.
John Ingoldsby Covers 2012 & 2011 Deutsche Bank Championships
John Ingoldsby was on the 18th green to take these photos of PGA Golfer Rory McElroy, left, displaying the 2012 Deutsche Bank Championship trophy, after defeating, among others, Tiger Woods, center. In photo at right, Webb Simpson accepts trophy from Seth Waugh, CEO of Deutsche Bank Americas, moments after he won a sudden death playoff to win 2011 Deutsche Bank Championship. (Photos by John Ingoldsby)
John Ingoldsby, left, attended a United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley event during the NFL Fall Meeting in Boston, that also included NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and Myra Kraft, second from right.
The sport with a game-plan for tackling the recession
As the NFL prepares to play its third regular season game in the UK, John Ingoldsby
reports on American football's moves to expand its fan base and revenues.
By JOHN INGOLDSBY
October 22, 2009
The Financial Times
At last week’s National Football League owners meeting in Boston, one of the regular gatherings of the high-powered executives who run the league and its 32 teams, the agenda included adding games to the schedule, whether to include sponsors’ logos on practice kit and plans for a new collective bargaining agreement with players.
But underlying all this, the mood was bullish. One of the biggest businesses in sport, announced Roger Goodell, league commissioner, was bucking the economic recession.
“We started the session this morning as we traditionally do with a report on the status of the season, and we had a very upbeat report, not only on the quality of the games but also with fan engagement,” he says.
Ratings for all four of the networks that televise NFL games – CBS, NBC, Fox and ESPN – have increased from last year, and the viewership records have been set in three of this season’s first five weeks, with the most watched Sunday night game ever on September 20 between the New York Giants and Dallas Cowboys on NBC.
The league has also in the past few months showed it is surviving a weak sponsorship market by signing a new deal with Proctor & Gamble, while renewing long-standing agreements with Visa and IBM.
But as the New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers get set to play each other at London’s Wembley Stadium on Sunday, the third regular season game to be played there in as many years, Mr Goodell appears convinced that the health of the sport will benefit from global expansion.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell speaks during NFL Fall Meeting in Boston. (Photo by John Ingoldsby)
“The progress we are making internationally, in particular our efforts in the UK, show that the fans have really responded,” he says. “The fans in the UK look like they could have a second game, and we are looking as early as next year. It could be Wembley, or it could also be some place else in the UK, and we have talked about other spots in Europe also.”
Steve Tisch, owner of the New York Giants, a team that played in the inaugural London game two years ago, is an enthusiastic supporter of the commissioner’s strategy. “The way Roger has set it up with the London games is a great start, and the experiences over there have been terrific.”
For a domestic league with revenues of $8bn (€5.3bn, £4.8bn) that culminates in the Super Bowl, one of the marketing world’s marquee events – in the midst of the global recession, 30-second ads for last February’s game cost an average of $3m, up from $2.7m the year before – it is perhaps a surprising strategy.
What is more, previous efforts to expand the sport abroad have been unsuccessful. NFL Europa, a Europe-based branch of the league which included teams in Germany and the Netherlands, closed in 2007, and the NFL turned instead to the current strategy of playing regular season games outside the US.
Still, Mr Goodell points to the more than 140m NFL fans outside the US and 120 broadcasters from 230 countries and territories that will carry NFL programming in 2009 as evidence of its continuing global appeal.
But he also recognises that “we are not played as broadly as some other sports, particularly soccer and basketball, but when people have the opportunity to see our game and be engaged, they love it and want more of it”.
In this respect, the National Basketball Association, another North American league that has pursued an international strategy in recent years, has been more successful. The sport is well established in Europe and, perhaps more significantly for the long term, in China. Last year, the league formed NBA China, an organisation designed to conduct all its operations there and it claims that NBA.com/china, its local website, is the single most popular sports website in the country.
For the time being, the NFL remains focused on expanding the business in Europe, but for the fans set to turn the home of English football into a home for its American version, the only numbers that count will be on the scoreboard.
A global pull: the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (left) and New England Patriots will play in London on Sunday
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell takes global view after climbing corporate ladder to reach mountaintop
By JOHN INGOLDSBY
BOSTON, Massachusetts – NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has reached the mountaintop both literally and figuratively, and his view from the top is surely spectacular.
Professionally, after a 24-year career climbing the corporate ladder at the National Football League, Goodell reached the peak of his profession when he was elected Commissioner four years ago.
Personally, he trained rigorously to successfully scale the 14,411-foot summit of Mount Rainier 15 months ago as part of a group supporting United Way, an NFL partner for more than 35 years.
With the mountains behind him, the 51-year-old Commissioner is now crisscrossing the ocean with the “great American game of Football,” and London has become the league’s new world—one apparently worthy of further exploration.
Q&A with NFL CMO Mark Waller
By JOHN INGOLDSBY
In October, 2009, during the NFL’s Fall Meeting in Boston just two weeks before the NFL’s International Game in London, Boston-based writer John Ingoldsby sat down with Mark Waller, the National Football League’s new and first-ever Chief Marketing Officer, for an exclusive interview.
Mark Waller makes a point during MIT Sports Analytics Conference. (Photo by John Ingoldsby)
NFL CMO Mark Waller Goes Global at MIT Conference
By JOHN INGOLDSBY
BOSTON, MA—The National Football League has already taken its game across the pond, and is now intending to “accelerate massively the education” aspect of American football worldwide.
This revelation, and many other components of the NFL’s commitment to growing its game globally, were put forth by NFL Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Mark Waller during the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Sloan Sports Analytics Conference in Boston in March 2010.
From intern to dream job: NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell
By JOHN INGOLDSBY
June 1, 2010
LOWELL, Mass. – College graduates take note.
An internship can lead to arguably the greatest job in the world. Literally!
For it was an internship that was the first step undertaken by Roger Goodell nearly three decades ago that ultimately led to his current job as Commissioner of the National Football League (NFL).
Phone: 508-359-2280 Cell: 617-513-7177 Fax: 508-359-4529 IIR@comcast.net