ice vision
Bryant McBride '88
"I didn't realize it
early in my career, but I just love to create something from
nothing."
By Steve Veshosky
Photographs by Stanley Rowin
Bryant McBride likes to
build things from scratch, whether it involves taking advantage of
an unconventional business opportunity or opening an ice hockey
rink in an inner-city neighborhood. As the president and CEO of
Vision Sports and Entertainment Partners, a sports marketing firm
with offices in Boston and new York, McBride is an entrepreneur in
the truest sense of the word. “I didn’t realize it early in my
career, but I just love creating something from nothing," he
explains. “That’s the challenge, and the fun, of life. My greatest
reward is bringing an idea from the drawing board, or the computer
screen, to fruition. That feeling never gets old." McBride, who
recently ran his 18th marathon, has been making things
happen for most of his life.
“I knew if I stuck with
it I could do it."
McBride spent his first five years in a tough Chicago
neighborhood, until his mother remarried and the family moved to
Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. "I was already way behind most of the
other kids in playing hockey when I got there," he says. "I was
just learning to skate and they already had hockey skills. I had a
lot of catching up to do, but I knew if I stuck with it I could do
it. And I did." McBride, who along with his wife, Tina, now has a
six-year-old son and a one-year-old daughter of his own, fondly
remembers skating home in the dark on icy roads, hockey stick in
hand, for a quick supper before heading right back out to play
some more. "My parents put up with a lot of that kind of stuff and
never complained. They've always been willing to sacrifice to help
me succeed—I owe them everything." Hockey is more than mere sport
in Canada—where practically every kid dreams of suiting up as a
professional-it's a national obsession. While he might not have
been quite as good as the kids he played with in Sault Ste. Marie
who ended up in the National Hockey League (NHL), McBride figured
his considerable skills on the ice could at least get him to
college. He was right about that.
"My parents put a lot
of emphasis on education."
While playing in a high school all-star game, McBride was
approached by a recruiter from West Point; because he was an
American by birth and had good grades, he was offered an
opportunity to become a cadet at the U.S. Military Academy. It was
an experience that he treasures. "I very much wanted to go to
school in the U.S.," he says. "We lived right on the border of
Michigan, and I remember hearing Keith Jackson call Michigan
football games. I loved it. Plus my parents put a lot of emphasis
on education, and I wanted to see if hockey could help pay for
college." After approximately a year and a half at the academy,
however, he came to the realization that he didn't want a career
in the army. Despite being named the best new cadet in Cadet Basic
Training at West Point in 1985 and being elected class president,
the first minority student to be so honored, McBride decided to
move on.
He spent several months
picking apples on a farm in Vermont, where he "demilitarized"
before enrolling at Trinity. He subsequently led the Bantams to
three straight Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Hockey
Championships and was
named All-NESCAC as a senior. He was also the first student of
color to be elected class president at Trinity. He went on to earn
a master's degree in public administration from the Kennedy School
of Government at Harvard in 1991. "I really didn't even know what
a liberal arts college was," he says with a laugh, "but I fell in
love with Trinity as soon as I got there. I was able to get an
incredible education, and I played hockey with a great bunch of
guys, many of whom I still keep in touch with regularly. I can
honestly say that I use the skills I learned at Trinity every day
in the normal course of doing business."
Founded in 2001, Vision
Sports and Entertainment Partners represents major corporate
clients such as United Technologies, Kraft Foods,
Sunkist, Snickers,
Spalding, Upper Deck Trading Cards, The Hartford, and the Choice
Hotels chain. Through a variety of sports-related marketing
initiatives, including strategies intended to appeal to family
decision-makers through organized youth sports programs, McBride
and his staff work to improve their clients' profits and position
in the marketplace. The firm has also represented several NHL
players. Prior to starting Vision, McBride was senior vice
president for My team.com, a company that allowed parents with
children involved in sports to buy equipment, register for
leagues, and coordinate travel arrangements online. My team
founder Elliot Katzman, whose son, Matt, is a senior at Trinity,
is a member of the College's Board of Fellows. "As soon as I met
Bryant, I knew he was an individual I wanted as a partner," says
Katzman. "He has that rare combination of qualities-leadership,
integrity, creativity, passion-I could go on. He is one of the
most genuine individuals I've ever met. I feel very privileged to
have him as a close friend."
Giving more kids a
chance to get into the game
One thing that McBride is passionate about is spreading the game
of hockey to kids in parts of America that otherwise might not
have access to it. From 1993 to 1999, as the NHL's vice president
of new business development, he oversaw the league's community ice
and in-line rink initiatives, its international professional
league development, and founded the NHL/USA Hockey Task Force for
Diversity in Hockey. Through his successful lobbying of the
federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, McBride
raised money to build ice and in-line hockey rinks in cities
across America. Within four years, the project grew from four to
36 programs. He also went out of his way to locate Willie O'Ree,
the first black player in the NHL. McBride hired O'Ree, who was
working at a hotel in San Diego, to head up the diversity task
force.
It is to the College's
advantage that McBride is passionate about the Community Sports
Complex (CSC), a Trinity Southside Institutions Neighborhood
Alliance (SINA) partnership project currently under construction
near the corner of Broad Street and New Britain Avenue on the
south side of campus. Scheduled to open in the fall of 2006, the
CSC will feature an ice rink that will be home to the men's and
women's hockey teams, a rock climbing wall, a community fitness
center, and community meeting rooms. While serving as a
combination of technical adviser and cheerleader for the CSC,
McBride has mustered his considerable resources, financial and
otherwise, to help ensure that the project will be a success.
"The College and the
neighborhood both needed this to happen," he says. "They deserve
it. The Community Sports Complex will be a great resource for the
people in the neighborhood to have access to something that wasn't
available to them before. And it will obviously be great for
Trinity-for the teams, the students, everybody. And it's another
example of the College doing its part in Hartford. I'm just happy
that I was able to help. I can't wait to walk into that building
when it opens-what a great day that's going to be."
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