Athletic Departments Apply Disney Principles to Game Day

Paul Steinbach Headshot

A young boy attending an Arizona State University football game last fall slipped and skinned his knee. Nothing unusual about that, except for what happened next. An usher at Sun Devil Stadium flagged down Sparky, the ASU mascot, and introduced him to the child at a first-aid station. The costumed character promptly cleaned the wound, applied a bandage and escorted the boy to field level for a photo.

Oor 213 Ab2 Web250x181Soon after, a copy of that snapshot arrived in the email inbox of Rocky Harris, ASU's first-year senior associate athletic director for external relations. "The parent sent it to us and said it was a life-changing experience, because the kid wanted to leave the game and never come back," Harris says. "It was his first game, and instead he was now saying, 'I want to go to every game.' And it was something as small as using our mascot to put the Band-Aid on."

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