As a child, Jeff Rubin was fascinated by sports. But that fascination didn’t translate to the playing field — as Rubin said he was a scrawny kid who lacked sports skills.

But Rubin, now a School of Information Studies professor of practice, was able to merge his interests in sports with his passion for technology when he created SIDEARM Sports in 2000. SIDEARM Sports, which stands for Sports Information Distribution Engine and Archive and Record Management, creates official college athletic websites.

“I was able to try to find a way that technology could intersect with my love of sports where I can still be on the courtside during games,” Rubin said. “I may not be on the court scoring the winning three but when that winning three goes in I’m supporting the infrastructure and communication going out to those who were not at the game.”

Each website the company creates is different. SIDEARM Sports provides the software so the college can manage every aspect of the website including rosters, schedules and stories. There are 775 colleges that currently use SIDEARM Sports.

This past July, Rubin sold the company to Learfield Sports, though he’s still the CEO. Learfield has strong relations with Division I schools, and 13 new Division I schools will begin working with SIDEARM Sports this year.

Since his clients are people involved with events such as Final Four games and the Heisman Trophy ceremony, Rubin attends many big events in the sports world.

Rubin believes success follows the P words: passion, people, persistence and patience.

“Passion — I love what I do. I love sports. I love technology,” Rubin said. “People — you have to surround yourself with incredible people. If I got hit by a bus tomorrow, SIDEARM would be fine. It’s the team that makes SIDEARM.”

Published on February 25, 2015 at 12:01 am

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