By Ryne Rickman, UT Martin Sports Information Director
MARTIN, Tenn. – University of Tennessee at Martin athletic director Kurt McGuffin has announced the hiring of Ryan Menley as the department’s new associate athletic director for external operations.
Menley, who will join Skyhawk Athletics on Sept. 1, has spent the last 12 years at Missouri Western State University in St. Joseph, Mo. He served as the athletic department’s director of communications from 2011-17 before transitioning into the director of creative content for the last five years.
“I worked with Ryan at Missouri Western and his video content is as high-quality as I’ve ever seen,” McGuffin said. “Every hiring decision is crucial but what makes this job so important is that he is involved with all of our sports while working with every head coach and every student-athlete. He’s a talented storyteller and he brings a vision that will excite our fan base, alumni and student-athletes.”
A St. Louis, Mo. native, Menley is an award-winning sports and news journalist who brings 20-plus years of experience in the broadcast and video production field. At Missouri Western, he created an innovative athletic video production department from scratch as he was responsible for all video content creation, including highlights, commercials, hype videos and feature stories. At the time, the department was one of the first of its kind at the NCAA Division II level.
Menley oversaw and directed live video board production and live broadcasts while also taking on an administrative role, serving as Senator for Missouri Western’s Staff Association Senate. He was an adjunct professor in the university’s department of communications and was also a co-advisor for MWSU’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, helping raise tens of thousands of dollars for community service projects.
“I am humbled, honored and thrilled to join the Skyhawk family,” Menley said. “I want to thank Kurt McGuffin for trusting me with this opportunity. He and I go back a ways and I have a ton of respect for his work ethic and leadership style. These are really cool times at UT Martin right now. From a content standpoint, we will go way deeper than highlights and hype videos – we will celebrate our success by telling genuine, authentic stories.”
In addition to his experience at the collegiate level, Menley worked in the sports media field for 15 years. He was a radio color analyst for ESPN 1550 AM in St. Joseph for five years after spending a decade in the television business. He served as the sports director at KQTV in St. Joseph from 2002-10 and was a sports producer for KSDK-TV in St. Louis from 2000-02.
In the span of seven years, Menley won six National Association of Collegiate Marketing Administrators (NACMA) digital video content awards. He was the 2020-21 Service to the University Award recipient at Missouri Western and was also the Griffons’ SOAR Advisor of the Year honoree that same year. In his sports media role, he received four Emmy Awards and was a three-time winner of the Missouri Broadcasters Award for feature reporting.
Menley attended Maryville University, where he was a baseball student-athlete while majoring in English education.
Graphic courtesy of UT Martin Sports Information