From: Mike Counter, St. Norbert College, http://www.snc.edu, (920) 403-3089, mike.counter@snc.edu
Aaron Popkey, Green Bay Packers, http://www.packers.com, (920) 569-7211, popkeya@packers.com
De Pere, Wis.: Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig will be one of the featured speakers at the academic conference “A Mirror of Our Culture: Sport and Society in America.” This national conference will be hosted by St. Norbert College and the Green Bay Packers, May 22-24, 2012.
Selig will speak on Wednesday morning, May 23, from 9:15 to 10:15 a.m. at the Walter Theatre in the Abbot Pennings Hall of Fine Arts at St. Norbert College. Selig’s talk will be open to the public, but advance registration will be required. More details will be coming soon.
Allan H. (Bud) Selig was named the ninth commissioner of baseball on July 9, 1998, by a unanimous vote of the 30 Major League Baseball club owners. Prior to his election as baseball’s commissioner, Selig served as chairman of the Executive Council and was the central figure in Major League Baseball’s organizational structure dating back to September 1992.
Selig has led the way toward implementation of many of the game’s structural changes, including the wild–card playoff format, interleague play, realignment, restoration of the rulebook strike zone, consolidation of the leagues’ administrative functions and limited instant replay.
Selig has expanded the reach of the sport in numerous ways. Under his guidance, in January 2000, MLB took the unprecedented step of centralizing all of the sport’s Internet rights under MLB Advanced Media. On January 1, 2009, MLB Network launched as the largest debut in cable television history. In 2006 and again in 2009, MLB and the MLBPA staged the World Baseball Classic, the most important international baseball event ever undertaken, in which major league players competed for their home countries for the first time.
In 1970, Selig bought the one-year-old Seattle Pilots baseball team out of bankruptcy for $10.8 million, and announced that the team would become the Milwaukee Brewers. Selig was hailed as a hero in his hometown, for bringing big league baseball back to Wisconsin after the National League’s Milwaukee Braves had left for Atlanta four years earlier.
Upon his assumption of the commissioner’s role, Selig transferred his ownership interest in the Brewers to his daughter Wendy Selig-Prieb in 1992.
In 2005, major-league owners unanimously approved the $223 million sale of the Milwaukee Brewers from the family of commissioner Bud Selig to a group headed by Los Angeles investor Mark Attanasio.
In August 2010, the Milwaukee Brewers unveiled a statue in Selig’s likeness outside Miller Park, honoring all of his efforts for his hometown and for his leadership of the Brewers and the game of baseball.
This is the second conference of its kind put on by St Norbert and the Packers. The first conference was held in 2010. This partnership between an NFL team and an institution of higher education brings together academics and business professionals from around the country.
The Packers have held their summer training camp at St. Norbert College for 54 years, the longest such relationship between a pro football team and a college in the NFL. For more on the connections between St. Norbert College and the Green Bay Packers go to http://www.snc.edu/communications/specialreports/packerconnection.html.
Presentation or paper abstracts will be accepted until Jan. 23, 2012 with notification of acceptances shortly thereafter, following review by the conference steering committee. Formal conference registration will open on Feb.1, 2012, and close on April 1, 2012. Registration will be limited.
For more information on the conference, go to http://www.snc.edu/sportandsociety, or contact Karen Cleereman, conference administrative coordinator, at sportandsociety@snc.edu or (920) 403-3777.
###
St. Norbert College History:
The only Norbertine college in the world, St. Norbert is a four-year, Catholic liberal arts college, devoted to the Norbertine traditions of community, prayer and service to others. Founded in 1898 by Abbot Bernard Pennings as a school to prepare men for the priesthood, St. Norbert College became coeducational in 1952. Today the residential campus serves approximately 2,100 undergraduate and graduate students, hailing from throughout the United States and more than 30 countries, and offers study abroad opportunities in 37 countries.
St. Norbert College is nestled on the banks of the Fox River in the residential community of De Pere, Wisconsin, neighboring Green Bay—a metropolitan area of more than 200,000 rich in culture, business and opportunity. The academic excellence of the college is nationally recognized by U.S. News & World Report’s America’s Best Colleges, Princeton Review’s Best Midwestern Colleges and the Templeton Honor Roll for Character Building Colleges. http://www.snc.edu
