Scott Rosner has taken his love of sports from the playing field to the classroom.
For the Wharton professor -- a former high-school soccer player and sports camp coach -- "teaching was a natural extension of coaching." His athletic experience served as a natural segue to life as a professor.
Remnants of his passion for sports lay scattered on his desk in the form of baseball bobbleheads and football-shaped paperweights.
Rosner, who teaches courses on sports business and legal process, begins the first 15 minutes of his "Sports Industry" course conversing with students about current sport events before delving into his lecture. One of his goals is to create a friendly classroom environment.
"There is no reason why education can't be fun," he says.
During class, Rosner often engages in playful banter with anyone who pokes fun at his beloved Eagles, Flyers and Yankees.
"He's really enthusiastic, extremely energetic," College junior Deborah Low says. "He's always making jokes during lectures and being actively engaged with his students in class."
However, Rosner did not always have aspirations to pursue a teaching career. He began his undergraduate career at the University of Michigan as a pre-med student.
"I would have been a great doctor -- but I wasn't good at science," Rosner says.
Rosner's first teaching experience came during his second year of law school. It was his work as a teaching assistant for an NBA sports industry course that ultimately propelled him towards his profession.
Believing in the "idea that you can use sports as a vehicle to further education," Rosner became engaged with the North Philadelphia community, participating in a youth program for the Nike P.L.A.Y. Corps while in law school.
"I think Scott is a teacher at heart ... someone that enjoys the process of learning and wants to give back," childhood friend Michael Klein says.
As a professor of sports business -- a fairly new academic discipline -- Rosner sometimes struggles to compile teaching materials for his class. To combat this problem, Rosner has co-authored The Business of Sports with colleague and Legal Studies professor Kenneth Shropshire.
"It's ideal to [work with] someone who has the same scholarly interest as you," Shropshire says, noting the scarcity of scholars in the field.
In addition to his book, Rosner has published research on topics that examine the intersection between sports business and the law.
Rosner finds that the breadth within the field, which encompasses sociopolitical issues of race and gender, is interesting enough to keep him both "off the streets [and] out of the pool halls."
While achieving a balance between effective teaching and research is a concern of many professors, Rosner's commitment in the classroom has not taken a back seat to his research endeavors.
Former student and College junior Zack Rosenblum said, "The passion, and the knowledge, and the personality that he brings to the class truly makes it what it is."
