Transfer students become trailblazers in Purdue sport management’s first graduating class

Garrett Pave, left, and Lucca Agate are the first graduates of Purdue University’s new master’s in sport management degree program. Both students got much hands-on experiences and opportunities to tour and work in Indianapolis and West Lafayette’s top sports venues.(Photos provided)

Written by: Tim Brouk, tbrouk@purdue.edu

Garrett Pave and Lucca Agate transferred to Purdue University in 2025 in time to join the inaugural cohort of the university’s Master of Science in Sport Management program housed within the Department of Health and Kinesiology. Because Agate and Pave brought previous graduate credits with them from Miami University and Belmont University, respectively, the pair are the first students to graduate from Purdue’s sport management master’s program this spring ahead of their classmates who will graduate in December or spring 2027.

During their year at Purdue, both students combined coursework with hands-on experiences through internships and practicum opportunities. The experiences helped build professional connections and opened doors to future careers in the sport industry.

Agate said she now has contacts in the NFL as well as potential NCAA opportunities. Pave said the program’s emphasis on networking helped him develop job leads in college athletics fundraising through his internship work with the John Purdue Club. He also volunteered at the Big Ten Football Championship, gaining experience with large-scale event operations.

“It’s a lot of getting out and taking tours and encouraging us with our practicum experience to go out and seek out internships and volunteer opportunities,” Pave explained. “If you have an opportunity to volunteer in Indianapolis during a weeknight class, they’re going to tell you to go do it. … That is how you’re going to make your future and your career: getting to meet those people and experience that in person. There’s a heavy focus on experiential learning, which I think is good.”

On the career track

Agate stands on the Gainbridge Fieldhouse floor before a Big 10 basketball tournament game.(Photo provided)

A former track-and-field student-athlete in Ohio, Agate’s desire for more competition made her want to finish out her NCAA career at a Big Ten school. She had one year of eligibility left when she came to Purdue, but an injury ended her competitive career. While unfortunate, the runner from Toronto, Canada, was able to sprint through class after class, opportunity after opportunity in Purdue sport management.

“They’ve given us a lot of different experiences. We went to the Indiana Sports Corp State of Sports networking event in November. Garrett and I were able to be a part of the (Purdue) Presidential Lecture Series with (top executive for Pacers Sports & Entertainment) Mel Raines and asked her some questions,” recalled Agate, citing connections sport management faculty like Jeanne Boyd and Patrick Tutka share with their students. “It gives us an advantage because we’re able to experience so much more than students in other sport management graduate programs.”

In March, Agate was selected as one of six student-athletes to participate in the CBS Big Ten Sports Immersion Program, which gives participants hands-on experience in sports media, broadcasting and production during the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments.

“They brought us to help with the men’s and women’s Big Ten basketball tournaments and shadow CBS (Sports) executives and Big Ten executives,” Agate remembered. “Everybody who has come to speak to our classes, they’re paying it forward and they try to help us any way they can — even with how busy all of them are. They always make time.”

All the experience and connections have Agate feeling like she has the “upper hand” as she begins her career. Although she spent just one year at Purdue, Agate already sees herself staying connected to the program.

“Dr. Boyd and Dr. Tutka, they joke all the time, ‘Just know I’ll be emailing you. You will be a guest speaker in one of our classes.’” Agate smiled. “I think it will be really exciting, especially when it’s students who are in classes two or three years from now, being able to share our early experiences, paying it forward and giving them advice.”

Interest behind the scenes

Pave stands on the Ross-Ade Stadium field for a picture.(Photo provided)

While Pave played football and basketball in high school in his hometown of Nashville, Tennessee, the microphone was his preferred piece of sports equipment.

“Growing up, sport broadcasting was what I wanted to do. It was, ‘I want to be on ESPN, I want to do radio, TV.’ I loved it,” said Pave, who studied sports broadcasting at University of Missouri during his undergrad.

Broadcasting led to other “behind-the-scenes” interests in sports — the areas in arenas and stadiums few ticketholders get to see, how a national championship game is run and how a city even gets such a championship event. Enter Purdue sport management. After starting his graduate studies at Belmont University, Pave transferred to Purdue for the opportunity to work around Big Ten athletics and gain firsthand experience inside venues such as Mackey Arena and Ross-Ade Stadium.

“I catch myself going to events, going to games, still watching on TV and being fascinated with the behind-the-scenes environment of how do we get people in the doors? How do we put on the production?” Pave said. “Everything you see on the field or the court is the final product. So, what does the before, during and after look like? I really wanted to get invested with that, which is why I decided to switch (schools). I figured it’d be a good way for me to get in on the ground floor and see it all and hopefully pivot that into a career moving forward.”

Pave said Purdue’s connections with athletics administrators, coaches and industry professionals helped reinforce his career goals. “Getting to do all of that in a sport-based environment where you’re around coaches, administrators and people who work in the industry is neat,” Pave said. “And Mackey too. Seeing and experiencing the back-of-house operations, what it takes to make an event run and what it looks like before game days, is a unique experience. We’ve gotten a chance to see a lot of that.”