July 28, 2008
Reggie Garrett, the Director of Marketing at the University of Virginia, has been named Director of Marketing and Promotions at Vanderbilt. He begins his new role August 11.
“Reggie Garrett is a rising star in collegiate athletic administration,” says Vanderbilt Vice Chancellor David Williams. “He was an excellent student-athlete, became a Fulbright Scholar while earning his law degree and his performance in marketing has been outstanding. We are extremely pleased he agreed to join our administrative team.”
“I am thrilled to be coming to Vanderbilt University,” Garrett said. “I have the highest regard for the institution and am excited about the opportunities in front of us. I look forward to building great relationships with the University leadership, the faculty, our student-athletes, coaches and staff, and the Nashville community.”
Garrett was captain of the Seton Hall basketball team before getting his Juris Doctorate degree at the University of Houston. It was there that he became a Fulbright and Jaworski Scholar and also began working in athletic marketing, a move that resulted in a steep career ascent characterized by success.
He joined the Virginia staff in October, 2006 where he created, developed and implemented the marketing plans for several sports. His women’s basketball plan helped boost student attendance by 86% with a 59% increase in season ticket sales and 35% overall attendance hike.
Garrett also recruited and supervised a student staff of 25, negotiated sponsorship and trade agreements, helped redesign the athletic department website, was liaison for the athletic department’s online team store and earlier this year was selected to speak at the national marketing conference on the topic of utilizing student athletes in your marketing efforts.
Previously Garrett had been Director of Ticket Sales and Promotions at Saint Louis University. During his tenure men’s basketball saw a huge jump in student attendance, overall attendance and ticket revenue. There was similar success with the women’s basketball attendance and ticket sales.Garrett also helped enhance the athletic department’s group sales efforts with revenue increasing 130% from the 2004-05 season.
At Houston, Garrett served as Marketing Coordinator from January 2004 to October, 2005 as he gained his introduction into collegiate athletic marketing. He assisted with the development of marketing plans with revenue sports and created others while supervising a student staff of 12 and full-time staff of two.
The 29-year old Garrett was a versatile high school athlete and highly recruited in several sports. He once high-jumped 7-feet while gaining interest from major conference football powers as a potential wide receiver before choosing to play basketball.
At Seton Hall he played for two years with Chuck Moore – who later transferred to Vanderbilt. Garrett was a National Dean’s List member and Big East Academic All-Star as a political science major.
