Razorback Legend Leaps to Marketing

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On the eve of this year’s Super Bowl, Mike Conley called his latest client, former University of Arkansas running back Darren McFadden.

The two-week prelude to the biggest game of the year is a star-studded affair featuring endless parties and nonstop glad-handing between agents and potential corporate sponsors for their athletes.

In theory, it was a perfect place to take McFadden, the two-time Heisman runner-up expected to be one of the top picks in the 2008 NFL Draft.

But following a second incident at a nightclub in as many years, McFadden and Conley were in image repair mode. Questions about McFadden’s character dominated talk by teams and media.

“Darren,” Conley began, “We have this all set up. But these events are social functions. What are the headlines going to say tomorrow? ‘Darren McFadden, a 20-year-old kid, seen at party instead of training for draft.’

“What do you want to do?”

McFadden didn’t think twice.

“I’ll stay in Dallas and train,” he told Conley. “I won’t go near it.”

Conley — a Razorback legend in his own right with the 1992 gold medal in the triple jump, nine NCAA titles and a statue in Bud Walton Arena — said he still wishes McFadden could have gone.

But things didn’t turn out too badly for the leading rusher in Arkansas history.

He was the fourth pick in the draft, later signing a six-year, $60 million contract with $26 million in guarantees with the Oakland Raiders negotiated by agent Ian Greengross, who was brought on board by Conley and McFadden’s parents.

Conley, McFadden’s lead agent who handles all marketing decisions, landed him on the national cover of the EA Sports NCAA Football 2009 video game, shoe and trading card deals and a commercial about to hit the air for Dick’s Sporting Goods and Nike.

McFadden made his first $1 million through a trading card endorsement deal Conley said is better than those for Adrian Peterson or Reggie Bush, the top running backs selected in 2007 and 2006, respectively.

It has been a rapid rise for Conley in the world of athlete representation, who became an NBA agent and launched his MAC Management Group in 2007 in time to handle the deals for a trio of Ohio State University teammates — his son, Mike Conley Jr., Daequan Cook and Greg Oden. The former Razorback is also leading the effort to land the 2016 Summer Games in Chicago (see sidebar).

Oden went on to become the No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft, Conley Jr. was the fourth pick by the Memphis Grizzlies and Cook also went in the first round at No. 21 to the Miami Heat.

“I’ve always wanted to be an agent,” Conley said. “It wasn’t just because I wanted to be these guys’ agent. I wanted to create a company that is the best in the business.”

For those around the sports world who weren’t familiar with Conley, it was an easy leap to figure he was cashing in a lottery ticket in the form of his son’s 7-foot tall best friend.

In fact, this is a role he’s been preparing for since he first landed in Fayetteville as a freshman out of Chicago’s south side in 1982.

Once a Businessman

“I wasn’t a normal college kid,” Conley said. “Instead of going out and partying, I monitored the stock market, bought up a lot of real estate and spent a lot of time doing that while competing in track and field.”

In between winning silver in 1984 in Los Angeles and the gold in 1992 in Barcelona, Conley won nine jumping titles at Arkansas and helped start coach John McDonnell’s run of 42 NCAA team championships.

He started the Tyson Track Club, eventually signing up as many as 20 former Arkansas athletes to run for the club. He represented himself to land endorsement deals with Nike and Foot Locker and later wrote the agent certification program for USA Track & Field.

He oversaw the business aspects of track and field from the athlete side, handling drug testing, insurance and the national team.

He started the Arkansas Hawks AAU basketball team and continued to coach his son when he moved to Indianapolis to work for USATF, where he first met Oden.

Eventually, Conley headed up USATF’s elite athlete program and is currently the president of the track and field athletes union he started.

Conley — who along with wife Regina recently purchased 17 acres in east Fayetteville to build a home — had a real estate license for 15 years and owned rental houses and apartments.

He even sold land to McDonnell and former UA basketball coach Nolan Richardson, who each built ranches outside of Fayetteville during the 1990s.

That business acumen is why Conley, who loves basketball and even won three Foot Locker dunk contests with a repertoire that included jumping from the free throw line, felt prepared to advise his son and Oden not only before college, but after.

“I feel there is more to the job than getting them a deal and putting my hands on someone’s money without them understanding responsibility,” he said. “That is to do them an injustice. You hear all the time about guys who run through $80 million and are broke. Making a guy $80 million is not the end goal for me.”

As it became obvious Oden was going to be a highly sought-after college prospect and professional, Conley sat down with Oden’s mother and prepared her for what was to come.

“I said, ‘You know, in a couple years, we’re going to have to find financial advisers, agents, this and that,’” Conley recalled. “And she gave me a look and said, ‘You mean you’re not going to be our agent?’”

Marketing Moves

Oden hasn’t played a second in the NBA, but is already a star.

He sat out last season recovering from knee surgery, but that didn’t keep him out of the limelight.

During preparations for the 2007 NBA Draft, Conley worked closely with ESPN to provide as much access to Oden and Conley Jr. as the sports broadcasting giant desired.

Throughout the 2006-07 college season, Oden was simply known for looking far older than his 18 years. He later said his favorite taunt heard from an opposing fan was “What was World War II like?”

An agent with less knowledge of Oden off the court may have tried to craft an image for him, but Conley saw natural potential for Oden to follow the size-22 footsteps of gregarious pitchman Shaquille O’Neal.

“Way early in the game I told Greg normally the big guys don’t get the deals,” Conley said. “They don’t get the shoe deals because the shoes are too big. No one wants a center’s shoe. They are typically not the exciting player that people tend to gravitate to — with the exception of Shaq.

“Why Shaq? Because of his personality. He’s humorous, he’s funny, a good guy, you don’t hear about him getting in trouble. He break dances. I said, ‘Greg, you’re like that when you are around your friends.’”

ESPN went on to shoot a humorous commercial with Oden in which he plays off his stoic expression while touting himself as a versatile pitchman and he was invited on stage to play piano and accompany Justin Timberlake at the recent ESPY Awards.

Oden also took part in the ESPY “host audition” segments when he said, “I like Barack Obama, but I’m torn because I went to high school with John McCain.”

Conley’s take?

“ESPN is in love with Greg Oden,” he said. “Now there’s all these articles written on ‘the transformation of Greg Oden.’ But I know he’s a personality. He’s witty and intelligent.”

Oden was also tabbed for the cover of a video game, 2K’s NCAA Basketball 08, and Conley helped him secure a shoe deal with Nike and an exclusive $3 million trading card deal with Topps.

Conley Jr. signed a deal with Adidas in a testament to Conley Sr.’s close ties across the shoe industry spectrum from his track days. He knows Nike CEO Phil Knight and has known Adidas’ U.S. marketing chief Mark Brewer for more than 20 years.

“Shoe companies, they just want a fair shake and my guys need to know I’m not just rigging for one company,” said Conley, who added that his shoe contacts were helpful in landing McFadden as a client.

“There are some guys who do that. With me, they know the proof is in the pudding.”

South Side Summer Games

The biggest marketing push Mike Conley is involved in is back home. He is the president of Worldwide Sports Chicago, which is dedicated to bringing the 2016 Summer Olympics to the Windy City.

Chicago is up against Tokyo, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro and a decision will be announced next October in Copenhagen.

For the last few years, Conley and Worldwide Sports have been bringing Olympic events like boxing, beach volleyball, wrestling, table tennis and sailing to Chicago to show the city in a different light.

“We’re a city that never focused on hosting amateur sports,” he said. “The city isn’t educated to them. Our mandate and goal is to bring those Olympic events to city of Chicago from all around the world and expose youth and parents of city to those events.”

The proposed site for the Olympic Stadium is a block from where Conley grew up.

“I played in the sand pits where it is going to be sitting,” he said.

He even may have an ace in the hole at the International Association of Athletic Federations. After a Grand Prix meet in Paris years ago, Conley gave a shoe to a kid in the stands.

Turns out that was IAAF president Lamine Diack’s grandson, something Conley didn’t learn until a meeting to discuss the track and field plans for the stadium.

“I believe you guys,” Diack told the Chicago group. “You’ve got Mike Conley here and I know he’ll represent the sport well.”