In 2005, after a Turnkey Sports leadership event in Cleveland moderated by Dr. Kenneth Shropshire with local pro sports senior leadership, team members from the Cavaliers became emboldened in their frustrations in the lack of representation of Black professionals on the business side of the team. Weeks later, a survey is shared about the need for an industry association for Black sports professionals goes out and gets the overwhelming response needed to move forward in starting an organization. They decide to reach out to the survey’s creators about meeting.
On Martin Luther King, Dr. Day in 2006, team members from the Cleveland Browns, Cavaliers, and Guardians meet with the originators of the survey, Kristi Stepteau and Rosetta Ellis-Pilie, currently Vice President, Assistant Chief Counsel at ESPN. Close to 15 Black sports professionals—who all didn’t know each other—met at the Ritz Carlton for a powerful moment of awareness, community, and a commitment to create a change. From that meeting, the decision was made to become the charter chapter of the National Association of Black Sports Professionals, and help other city chapters through the development process.
The remainder of the year included BSP Cleveland working to hone its chapter development process by finding professionals beyond the pro sports ranks and to include college athletics, brand agencies, sports media members, and most importantly, undergraduate and graduate college students. From there, the chapter put into place its executive board, launched membership, and held regular meetings and special events, along with attending games together.
With a chapter blueprint established, 2007-2008 focused on the pursuit of the full vision of BSP, building a national network of Black professionals and students. Utilizing industry resources, chapter directories in other major sports markets were built and the chapter blueprint was shared with Atlanta, Chicago, Washington D.C., and Orlando/Central Florida. Each chapter formed a leadership team, launched membership, and became consistently active with professional development programming and community engagement. BSP also created a national advisory board of senior industry leaders in various segments of sports business to advise the organization’s growth.
In 2009, the vision of BSP as a national network of sports professionals of color came further into view as the organization, and BSP Cleveland hosted a national leadership retreat for 60 sports professionals from 12 different cities. The weekend included meetings of BSP’s advisory board, a panel discussion on leadership with the advisory board and chapter leadership in attendance, additional professional development programming and networking opportunities with cities’ three pro teams. TeamWork Online founder and president, Buffy Filippell, hosted a fireside chat and committed to help the organization grow.
BSP had an incredible amount of momentum heading into a new decade.
