You may know this week’s Campus Celeb as the founder of the Boston Sports Blog or as a current senior here at Bentley! I had the opportunity to meet Jimmy this year as one of my residents in Orchard South and interviewed him about his experience of starting an awesome sports blog and about his time at Bentley. Check out his site, Boston Sports Blog, here!
Name: Jimmy Tully
Hometown: Dracut, MA
Major/Graduation Year: IDCC/2012
HCB: What inspired you to start Boston Sports Blog? How did you start it?
JT: The biggest factor was definitely my passion for sports. For a while I wanted to do something with blogging but couldn’t figure out if a sports blog was a route I should take. Then my internship last fall with the Celtics brought me really close to sports as an industry and it sort of just came together. I started it by myself and actually waited two weeks before making it public. Within a few days one of my buddies from home reached out to me about contributing and it just sort of took off from there. Now we have a total of seven writers including myself.
HCB: Why do you think that Bentley students should read Boston Sports Blog?
JT: With Bentley so close to Boston there are plenty of Boston sports fans on campus. On the other hand, plenty of Bentley students hate Boston sports, which is fine too. The Boston Sports Blog naturally tends to be biased towards Boston, but it also allows an open forum for discussion for any sports fan. We have people commenting and interacting with each other, sharing their own thoughts, regardless of whether they agree with us or not. In a way it’s created a small, sports focused community much more close knit than the larger sports sites like ESPN.
HCB: What is your favorite sport to write about and why?
JT: I enjoy writing about all of them, but I’d have to say basketball’s been my favorite. I got really attached to the Celtics last fall and love writing about them, and I’d also consider it one of my favorite sports.
HCB: What is your favorite memory involving sports/writing about sports?
JT: Actually playing sports, even just pick up games, has always been a favorite, even more so than writing about them. But in terms of my favorite memory writing about sports, I’d have to say it was early February when things really got going for the blog. We were invited by the Boston Sports Apparel Company to join them for a signing event featuring the Bruin’s Brad Marchand. Four of us were given full media access to cover the event and we even got to chat with Brad for an exclusive interview. Definitely something I didn’t picture in my head when I began back in November.
HCB: Do you plan to work in the sports industry after graduation? If so, doing what?
JT: If I end up working in the sports industry I’d be thrilled. It’s certainly right up my alley, but I’m not exactly sure what my plans are post-graduation yet. If anything I’d love to end up back with the Celtics organization.
HCB: What will you miss most about Bentley when you graduate?
JT: Definitely my friends here. I know we’ll all stay in touch after graduation but nothing beats living with your best friends or having them a short walk down the hall.
HCB: What do you see in the future for Boston Sports Blog?
JT: With the semester winding down and six senior writers, I know it’ll be hard to keep the blog up and going to its full potential. Everyone’s busy with the final weeks of school and post-grad plans so it was only expected that things would slow down, but we’re going to ride it out and see what happens. After all, we started it for fun and that’s exactly what it’s been. We’re all good friends so who knows, maybe we’ll be sitting at work still posting an article here or there six months from now. Either way it’s been a great experience, beyond what I could have expected at the beginning.
Interested in hearing more about Jimmy and Boston Sports Blog? Check it out here.