Sport Law Professor Gil Fried Joins University of West Florida Faculty

The University of West Florida (UWF, Pensacola, FL) has announced that Gil Fried has joined the faculty in the College of Education and Professional Studies (CEPS), starting in the fall 2021 semester.  Professor Fried will not just teach sport management courses, but will also Chair the Administration & Law Department, which includes sport management, construction management, public administration, and legal studies.

Professor Fried Joins UWF after spending 22 years at the University of New Haven (UNH). While at UNH, Professor Fried became a major national figure in the sports safety area working on topics such as foul ball safety, crowd management best practices, and buffer zone safety in various sports. He has taught thousands of students in classes such as sport law, sport facility management, sport finance, and event management.  Professor Fried is also prolific author. He has written over 12 textbooks on topics such as sport law, sport facility management, sport finance, sport analytics, and even Esport business management. His textbooks are currently used at over 140 universities throughout the United States as well as being translated into various language such as Chinese, Korean, Russian, and Spanish.

While Professor Fried has had a strong academic focus, he is often best known for his work outside the classroom.  He has served on various boards both with for profit corporations and nonprofit organizations. For example, he is on the Executive Board of the National Council of Youth Sports (NCYS) where he helps lead over 60 million young Americans who participate in youth sports.  He also has worked on some of the most important sport law cases over the last 30 years ranging from deaths at stadiums to nationally regarded cases involving assaults and injuries at both major and minor sports, entertainment, and recreation venues.

“I am so happy to be part of a team where I can leverage not just my sport management background, but also my legal background with UWF’s nationally ranked legal studies program, my facility management background with our construction management program, and my experience working with cities/counties for UWF’s public administration degree,” said Professor Fried.

CEPS Dean, Dr. William Crawley said, “[W]e are excited to have someone with Professor Fried’s knowledge, experience, and background joining us.  He can leverage our existing resources and faculty, and help grow stakeholder engagement and partnership opportunities to help our students and the programs thrive.”