Eight Slippery Rock University students earned a coveted opportunity at one of the largest spectacles in sport by joining the staff that brought Super Bowl LX to life in Santa Clara, California, for more the than 90,000 fans attending the NFL’s marquee event.
Jonathan Wess , a senior sport management major from Portage (Central Cambria HS), was among the SRU sport management majors who served on a team that managed game day fan experiences outside of Levi’s Stadium. Wess and his classmates staffed the surrounding premium tailgate areas, directing pedestrian flow and maximizing attendee satisfaction.
“It’s definitely something you can’t see inside a classroom,” Wess said. “Coming out to the Super Bowl, it’s so different from what it looks like on TV, and you really can’t read that out of a textbook.”
Wess and his classmates spent several days in the Bay Area touring prominent sports facilities, networking with alumni like Brett Rubash, ‘16, who works with the PGA Tour, and partnering with On Location, the experiential hospitality company behind events like the Super Bowl, Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 and FIFA World Cup 2026.
“It was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience that you really can’t get anywhere else,” Wess said. “There’s so many people, and so many detail-oriented tasks.”
The trip, led by SRU faculty members Brian Crow and Robertha Abney, is a summation of the classroom knowledge sport management majors cultivate in the classroom. The sport management program’s coursework emphasizes large-scale events and the marketing, logistics and security requirements that make them possible.
“The Super Bowl is the kind of event that encapsulates all of the different classes we take as well as practicum experiences,” Wess said. “It all comes together, and you can see it on the big stage.”
California’s office of the governor projected the Super Bowl to generate more than $500 million and exceed last year’s record-breaking television audience of 127.7 million viewers.
Other SRU students who worked at Super Bowl LX included:
- Kylee Copley, a junior from Oil City (Oil City HS).
- Carley Dinsmore, a senior from Saint Thomas (James Buchanan HS).
- Haley Dunlap, a senior from Cadiz, Ohio (Harrison Central HS).
- Delaney Ruth, a senior from California (California HS).
- Kaylee Smith, a senior from New Castle (Neshannock HS).
- Calvin Tate, a senior from Pittsburgh (Keystone Oaks HS).
- Josh Tedrick, a senior from Plum (Plum HS).
More information about sport management at SRU is available on the program’s webpage.
