Tom Stallings joined the Department of Sport Management as a Professor in the Practice in 2007. His duties include overseeing the Sport Management intern program and career development for Rice Sport Management students, and teaching the Sales and Revenue class and a Sport Practicum class. Both classes include classroom lectures and practical application of classroom theories. The sales class has consisted of implementing ticket sales projects for the professional teams in Houston and writing a consultative sales paper for a sports organization. The Sport Practicum class consists of shadow opportunities and a mini internship of 100 hours of experience outside of the classroom.
Prior to joining the faculty at Rice, Stallings enjoyed a 15-season career in professional sports sales. His sales expertise includes cause marketing, value added packaging and sales maximization. Stallings began his sports sales career with the Houston Astros Baseball Club in 1992 and was responsible for group and season ticket sales as well as providing statistical support to the nightly post-game radio show.
Stallings joined the Houston Aeros Hockey Club in their inaugural season in 1994 on a staff that set International Hockey League records for regular season attendance. He progressed to sponsor sales while overseeing the intern program, before moving back to the ticket department as Corporate Sales Program Manager in 1997.
Stallings conceived, planned and implemented the largest group nights in Aeros history both in total tickets sold and revenue earned during his tenure in corporate ticket sales before being named Vice President of Ticket Sales in 2003. Specializing in group sales, the Aeros group ticket sales department saw a 171% increase in four seasons, ranking second in total group sales revenue in the league in the non-traditional Houston hockey market.
On campus, Stallings served on the Rice University Athletic Committee (RUAC) for five years and is currently in his eighth year serving on the admissions committee. Stallings is also the faculty sponsor for the Rice Chess Club, a new student mentor, a Social Science Divisional Advisor, an Owl Days Volunteer and faculty volunteer for the admitted student call-a-thon. Stallings is very involved in the Residential College system at Rice where he has been an Associate at Baker College for the past twelve years and was the 2012-13 Baker Outstanding Associate of the Year. He was also named the Rice University Faculty Divisional Advisor of the Year for the 2015-16 school year. Tom is also a recipient of the George R. Brown Award for Superior Teaching for the 2022-23 year.
Stallings earned a Bachelor of Arts in English at the University of Texas at Austin and a M.Ed. in Education with an emphasis in Sport Administration from the University of Houston.
Stallings was married for 31 years to his late wife Kathy with whom he shared with four children (Stephanie, Mary Kate, George and Charlotte). In the past, Stallings has served on the Texas Bowl advisory board and Dynamo Charities Board of Directors.
COURSES:
SMGT 276 (Sport Management Practicum)
SMGT 360 (Sales and Revenue Generation in Sport)
SMGT 376-379 (Sport Management Internship 1-4)