AU-playbyplay

10/27/95

By Bob Lowry (lowrygr@mail.auburn.edu)

MARKETING PROFESSOR INSPIRES AU FOOTBALL TO STAR IN BUSINESS

Marketing instructor Michael Kincaid had asked Crawford and his classmates to write a short paper during fall quarter 1993 on how they would establish, operate and market a mock business.

Crawford, a former star linebacker at Auburn, came up with the concept -- at the gentle but persistent nudging of Kincaid -- for a new magazine about Auburn sports.

The rest, as they say, is history. Today, Crawford is publisher and editor-in- chief of Auburn Play By Play , a slick quarterly, full-color magazine about Auburn athletics.

"I've always thrived on challenges," says Crawford. "I just became intrigued by the marketing concept, and my enthusiasm grew during the 10 weeks of the class. I had little interest in the beginning, but it just became more and more fascinating. Dr. Kincaid brought something different to the classroom -- the entrepreneurial spirit. He brought marketing to life."

Because Crawford -- a hard-hitting tackler -- was familiar to Auburn football fans, Kincaid said he suggested that Crawford "use his name equity" to create a new business.

"I just casually tossed out that there was market niche not being satisfied by existing Auburn publications," said Kincaid. "I thought there were some sophisticated readers who would appreciate the point of view of someone who played the game and someone they had identified with over a period of four years."

Crawford, who is from the Mobile area community of Montrose, took the ball and ran with it. After getting his degree in education from AU in December 1993, Crawford doggedly set out to bring his idea to life.

But it wasn't as easy as hanging his diploma on the wall and announcing he was open for business.

"I got on the road and lived out of my car for about three months -- driving all over Alabama and Georgia, trying to find capital to support my idea," said Crawford. "But it didn't happen. Plenty of people thought it was a great idea and a great investment, but they wanted 51 percent of the company in return."

Kincaid advised him to use "sweat equity" and not to give away control of the business.

"I told him not to take any money from anybody -- to figure out a way to do it on his own," said Kincaid. "If it was going to work, it was going to work, and if it was his, it would be much more valuable to him."

Crawford, with help from former Auburn teammates Reid McMilion and Quentin Riggins, then set off in a new direction to get his magazine off the ground.

"I headed for the library," he said. "My degree is in education, so I had to go back and learn about various kinds of marketing, accounting, strategic planning and statistical analysis of my target audience. "It was all a learning process, a lot of trial and error. By going through that entrepreneurial process -- and I'm still doing it every day -- I've learned more than I could ever tell you."

By pre-selling four advertisements for his proposed magazine, Crawford was finally able to secure a bank loan.

"I took those four contracts to the bank and said, 'This is my collateral. This is what these four contracts are worth. How much money can you give me?' They responded by offering $3,000. My jaw dropped because I knew I needed at least three times that much."

Despite his disappointment, Crawford accepted the loan and moved his business from the trunk of his car to a two-bedroom apartment in Auburn in early 1994.

"I rented out one of the rooms because I didn't know whether I'd be able to afford it," he said. "The close quarters began to take a toll as the staff started to grow, and people were in and out all the time. We sat on the floor for a week until we got some donated office chairs. The whole experience taught us so much about ourselves, where we'd come from and how far we had to go."

After publishing the first magazine in spring 1994 with a pool of free-lancer writers and photographers, Crawford moved his operation to a 1,000-square-foot office in Auburn.

Kincaid said he never provided any financial backing for Crawford, and has resisted Crawford's urging that he become more formally involved.

"Basically all I did was lay out a marketing strategy and answer every question, and he has a million questions," Kincaid said. "If I didn't have the answer, I'd tell him where to get it."

"There's no hidden source of financing. I've given him about $400 to eat, buy a tire for his car, have it towed from a wreck when he was coming back and forth from Mobile"

Even though Kincaid has not been a financial backer, Crawford credits his former professor with keeping him focused on his goals.

"In a sense, he was my biggest investor because I knew when I got to Auburn I had a meal and a place to stay," said Crawford. "He went beyond being just a teacher. We spent time together. We talked just about the project and the product -- what could I do with it, how could I go about doing it. In doing that, he stimulated more ideas and allowed me to take it further."

During the 1994 football season, the magazine added a weekly scouting report on each of Auburn's opponents. And less than 18 months after launching Play By Play, Crawford says the magazine will be sold at newsstands across the state, beginning in December.

"It's great when we get calls from people who read the magazine and tell us how much they love it and appreciate all the blood, sweat and tears that go into it," he says. "The whole operation has already exceeded my expectations. A year ago, I could hardly let myself even imagine that we'd be where we are now.

"My sole purpose for doing Play By Play is to provide something totally different. I looked at other sports magazine and all kinds of other publications. I even looked at Better Homes and Gardens . I want to bring the fan down the field, I want to put them on the high dive, on the pitchers' mound. I want to make this personal, to share what it felt like to be part of Tiger Walk or suffer through two-a-days or play in the Sugar Bowl.

"A lot of people probably thought it (magazine) would be a two or three page thing written in crayon. I think we surprised them. And we have more surprises on the horizon because Play By Play is only going to get better."

One person who is not surprised at Crawford's success is his old marketing instructor.

"I use to watch him play football. He was very tenacious, and he handles this business venture the same way," says Kincaid. "For having one business course, he is extremely well prepared. He's a serious professional about this magazine. Look at the quality of it.

"Darrell puts it together, writes the symphony, if you will, and then gets the musicians to play the parts. He's done a very good job in getting people to do that. This is the first non-athletic thing he's done, and he's got to feel an enormous degree of self-esteem about it."

Even though Play By Play only covers Auburn athletics, Kincaid says there may be a market for a similar publication at other colleges and universities.

"I think one natural growth path for it would be to replicate it at all the major Southeastern Conference schools, and have athletes publish it," he says. He's going to go far and do well with this. After all, he is an Auburn man."

oct95:AU-playbyplay

CONTACT: Mike Kincaid, 334/825-5315; and Crawford, 334/826-2214