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Dec. 12—CHARLOTTE, N.C. — As the director of football creative media at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Dakota Wesleyan alum Zakk Ryherd operates as a do-it-all man in the busy world of collegiate athletics.
Ryherd, a former Tiger football player and 2019 DWU graduate, handles the 49ers’ social media, including a X.com account with 46,000 followers and an Instagram account with 30,000 followers, on which he creates interesting content and vies to build the program’s brand. He is also involved with marketing, basic recruiting, and day-to-day operations of the football team.
And despite working until 2 a.m. some days, the Minnesota native, who has deep family ties to Olivet, South Dakota, has “never been happier” in his new gig.
It all started when Ryherd was an undergrad at DWU, tasked in one of his classes to start his own business and make money.
While watching the ESPN 30-for-30 “Catholics vs. Convicts,” Ryherd was inspired by a group of 1980’s Notre Dame students, who were shown in the documentary creating their own Irish-themed T-shirts, and selling them for a lot of money.
“And for some bright idea I thought, ‘yeah, I can do that.’ So I started a T-shirt company,” Ryherd said.
Upon learning the DWU logo wasn’t trademarked, he began designing t-shirts with the Tigers’ logo, along with other wild designs that he said, “you couldn’t get at the bookstore.”
Believing he was following university protocol, Ryherd planned on selling the shirts for $20 apiece, and was generating a lot of demand. That was, until he got called into one of his professors offices, who proceeded to tell him he was getting a cease-and-desist from both the university and the NAIA, because he was violating what they called a “cloud copyright,” and, in the pre-NIL era was going to be illegally making money.
“I was about to pay my…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/dwu-alum-zakk-ryherd-relishing-005000852.html
Author : The Daily Republic, Mitchell, S.D.
Publish date : 2023-12-13 00:50:00
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