Braedan Shea
@braedan_shea
When Matt Tuthill first stepped foot on the campus of Springfield College in 1999, he had no intention of actually enrolling at the school. It wasn’t even on his radar.
He was instead tagging along with some friends from home out of boredom. They wanted to check out the Physical Education and Physical Therapy programs, but when Tuthill saw the extremely long lines for prospective students to meet professors in their chosen major, he couldn’t justify waiting any longer.
Instead, Tuhill wandered over to an empty table, free of any lines. He was met by a man sitting there alone with a sign that read “Sports Journalism.”
Tuthill already knew that he wanted to go to school to do something English-related. He had grown up reading local newspapers – specifically the sports sections – and figured he would just follow in the footsteps of his older brother, who studied English at a local college in Long Island.
When Tuthill left campus that day, Springfield College had not just been added to his list. It shot all the way up to his top choice.
A great conversation with the man at the table, who introduced himself as Dennis Gildea, persuaded Tuthill about the newly added program and saw the potential it had.
“[Gildea] seemed so cool,” Tuthill said. “He just seemed like someone I really wanted to learn from, and kind of convinced me on the spot that I should be doing that. I’m very gung ho about it.”
When Tuthull enrolled the following fall he became part of the first class of Springfield’s Communications/Sports Journalism program, the brainchild of Gildea, who began his time on Alden Street as a Professor of English in 1994.
Gildea had been teaching journalism classes long before the major existed. He knew the potential that journalism had, and believed that there should be a separate program dedicated to it. He proposed this concept to the provost at the time, and after some time the administration saw Gildea’s vision, agreeing to add the major to the then-Humanities department.
Few could have predicted what the major would become. This year, the Communications and Sports Journalism major is celebrating its 25th anniversary.
Even in those early days, sports journalism quickly became the biggest part of the department, surpassing the amount of English majors.
“We had very little in place at the time, but there was just a feeling that this was a campus where this would work,” Professor of Communications Marty Dobrow said. “Given the athletic heritage here, this was a piece of the communications pie that we were well suited to take on. I don’t know that we had grand plans initially, but it was exciting from the beginning. And it’s just built and built over the years.”
Dobrow also jumped on board in that fall of ‘99 after seeing an ad in The Daily Hampshire Gazette, where he worked as a sports writer.
“I may be the last human being who ever got a job from an ad in a newspaper,” Dobrow said. “I wasn’t even really looking for another job. I was working up at the Gazette. And I happened to see this ad for a Communication Sports Journalism professor. I worked as a high school English teacher and I worked in journalism, mostly doing sports, and I thought ‘That sounds like me.’”
With Gildea at the helm, and Dobrow by his side, the major was poised to produce some remarkable talents – one of the most impressive being that same student who only came to hang out with his friends.
When Tuthill enrolled, his aspiration was to write for a newspaper. By the time he graduated in the spring of 2003, that dream had changed quite a bit.
His writing was improving, and he felt that he was getting everything out of the major he wanted. It wasn’t until he had the opportunity to cover the Basketball Hall of Fame inductions that he realized that beat reporting was not the path he wanted to follow. The event headlined by such basketball legends as coaches Bobby Knight and Mike Krzyzewski, and center Moses Malone, Tuthill felt that the experience wasn’t as intimate as he hoped.
Instead, Tuthill decided to follow his passion of strength and conditioning combined with writing. As a member of the Springfield football team, he became infatuated with the strength and conditioning, specifically with the improvements he was seeing within himself. Mixed with his love for writing and exclusive interviews, he has forged an impressive path for himself.
After extensive success writing feature stories for Muscle & Fitness and Men’s Fitness magazines – including cover stories on big names such as Michael Strahan, Terry Crews, Drew Brees, Dwayne Johnson and Springfield College’s own John Cena – Tuthill worked for Muscle & Fitness for five years, then became the General Manager of Robert Irvine magazine, a free digital publication delivering workouts, recipes and motivational content, in 2016.
In 2015, Tuthill’s profile on transgender powerlifter Janae Marie Kroczaleski was named to the list of Notable Sports Writing in the anthology The Best American Sports Writing 2016.
Today, Tuthill still works at Robert Irvine, where he is the VP of Content & Communications. He oversees all aspects of talent booking, content creation and design for the magazine.
Tuthill might have been one of the Communications and Sports Journalism program’s first success stories, but he’s far from its only accomplished alum. The list of COSJ alumni who have gone on to do big things is long.
Dave Seronick ‘10 and Ryan Matlack ‘12 currently work at ESPN as an Assistant Producer and Production Assistant II, respectively. Mike Cole ‘10 is a Senior Editor at NESN. Kristen Linnartz ‘16 is the Executive Producer at NBCUniversal Media. As a Sports Reporter for the Dallas Morning News, Shawn McFarland ‘18 is covering the Texas Rangers as they make a deep run in the MLB playoffs.
Even very recent graduates have already made their mark. In his first year as a basketball beat writer for the Hartford Courant, Joe Arruda ‘22 covered UConn’s national championship. Irene Rotondo ‘22 is a breaking and trending news reporter for MassLive.
Since he graduated in 2021, Kris Rhim has worked as a features reporter for the Atlanta Falcons, as a sports reporter and member of the 2022-2023 New York Times fellowship class. and now covers the Los Angeles Chargers for ESPN. His work has appeared in The Boston Globe, ESPN, Men’s Health Magazine, and Oprah Daily Magazine.
And Gabby Guerard ‘20 has already won an Emmy Award for her team’s coverage of the Olympics in Tokyo.
Guerard ultimately chose to attend Springfield for a multitude of reasons. For one, she wanted to continue playing field hockey. She also really enjoyed writing, a talent and passion she developed in high school. That, along with the fact that her fear of tornadoes prevented her from applying anywhere down south, made Springfield an obvious choice.
But during her first tour, Guerard learned that not only had Springfield had been struck by a tornado, but the campus itself had been severely damaged from one. Although it took some convincing from her mother, she stuck out the rest of the tour.
Guerard was intrigued enough to come back for an overnight visit with the field hockey team. As that concluded, she knew she was in the right place.
“I fell in love with the vibe of the campus,” Guerard said. I loved how athletic everybody was. It was a lot of athletes or former athletes, people cared about their wellness and I loved that everybody was wearing sweatpants and T-shirts. I really enjoyed being a part of the community, and I could see myself on this campus.”
Although Guerard had to hang up her cleats earlier than she expected thanks to a career-ending concussion at the end of her sophomore season, the injury became a blessing in disguise. The time away from the sport allowed Guerard to immerse herself more into the campus newspaper.
While she was already considered a star writer at the paper, and getting the chance to cover high-profile sports and stories in the winter season. Her senior year, she was named Editor in Chief of the student newspaper, adding her name to the short list of female Springfield Student EICs.
“I was just always very fortunate that I was able to have those opportunities, and that people saw me for my work and for me,” Guerard said. “I was really able to thrive in the major and I had a lot of people who believed in me – which just meant the world to me.”
After graduating in 2020, Guerard interned at NESN, where she worked with digital media. Five months later, she was hired by NBC Sports. In just three years there, Guerard has continued to see the same growth as when she was at Springfield.
Including winning an Emmy for Outstanding Event Coverage for her team’s coverage of the Olympics in Tokyo.
Currently, Guerard is an NFL Digital Linear Editor at NBC, serving as a “middleman” between the digital teams and the writers, as well as overseeing the publication of videos on the NBC Sports website and app.
And like Tuthill, Guerard humbly credits her success to her time spent at Springfield.
“I took so much from the major,” Guerard said. “First and foremost, just storytelling. It sounds very basic, but storytelling is the root of literally everything you do. And if there is one thing I learned from this program, it is how to tell a damn good story.”
Guerard also points to Assistant Professor of Communications Kyle Belanger’s Internet Journalism class. In the course, Guerard learned skills such as content aggregation, trolling for news and writing a story off of it and working on the backend of websites – all things she still uses daily.
“We have just been so fortunate to attract so many terrific young people over the years, and people who’ve gone on to big careers in journalism and communications,” Dobrow said. “People who have written books and have won prestigious regional and national awards – including sports Emmys – people who have published in places like The Smithsonian and The Atlantic and The New York Times and The Boston Globe. People who’ve done great work in television and radio, it’s become this very powerful network.”
During Homecoming weekend, on Oct. 21 at 4 p.m. in the Campus Union’s Dodge Room, Dobrow and the rest of the COSJ faculty will welcome more than 30 program alums and host a panel discussion to honor some of the notable alumni in its rich history. One key person will be missing, however.
After battling glioblastoma – a rare, fast-growing brain tumor – Gildea died in 2020 at 77 years old. But Dobrow believes that Gildea would be proud of the foundation he laid.
“Dennis was a sort of crusty dreamer,” Dobrow said. “He had a great love for old-school journalism. He had this orange and white, very dirty hat that said “Press” that he would put on from time to time, and he was very old school. He was a very fine writer. And he was really delighted with student success. It’s a big loss not having him here for this.”
Tuthill credits his post-Springfield success to the way he was taught, and to who was teaching him.
“You really are taught not just by exceptional professionals, but by exceptional human beings that have big hearts,” Tuthill said. “Springfield always felt like home, and that faculty always felt like family. They felt less like people who taught me as their profession, and more like relatives who you didn’t want to disappoint.”
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