Forty Under 40: Matt Shanklin

When Matt Shanklin joined the University of Arkansas in 1990 as the director of marketing, he was the youngest person in America to fill that role at any major university.

Fifteen years later, the 39-year-old St. Louis native is an assistant athletic director and oversees licensing for the Razorbacks. He is also the general manager of Sports Shows Inc., a Razorback Foundation-funded company that produces the Houston Nutt and Stan Heath TV shows.

Since licensing was added to his plate in 1998, the UA has seen increased revenue from the segment all but one quarter, he said. The 2003-2004 fiscal year brought in more than $1 million in licensing revenue.

Shanklin played baseball in high school, and was ready to try out for the baseball team at the University of North Carolina in Wilmington when he decided he didn’t want to miss “the college experience.”

“If I can’t play sports, then I want to work in sports,” he told himself, and 18 months later was the women’s sports information director for UNC. Shanklin then earned a master’s in sports administration from Ohio University in 1998, and worked as the assistant marketing director at East Carolina University for a year before coming to Arkansas.