Jim Host Shares Stories of His Success

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Bill Straus

Jim Host, who was instrumental in building Rupp Arena, the Kentucky Horse Park and the KFC YUM! Center, is writing a book about his prolific career.

Jim Host, the Lexington entrepreneur who practically invented modern collegiate sports marketing and built three of Kentucky’s most iconic sports venues, is writing a book about how he did it. “It will be the story of my life: growing up, baseball, radio, all the years in sports marketing, building Rupp Arena, the Kentucky Horse Park and the KFC Yum! Center,” Host said.

It’s a remarkable legacy that many Central Kentuckians will be interested to hear, with perspective from the man himself. Host is working on the book with author Eric Moyen, a Kentucky native who previously wrote a biography about former University of Kentucky President Frank McVey. Host and Moyen are nearly finished with a first draft. There’s no title yet, though Host kind of likes “Connecting the Dots.”

“Connect dots is basically what I always did,” Host said. “The key to everything was getting from A to C and figuring out what B is along the way.”

Some connections took a while, while others hit in a flash of inspiration. Setting up to broadcast a UK football game in 1974, for example, Host noticed workers on the field communicating with walkie–talkies. He hit on the idea of having sideline reporters electronically feed stories to the press box during games. It became standard practice. Other connections came when people sought Host’s help. Southwest Conference officials once asked his advice on creating a radio sports network and then hired him to build it.

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Bill Straus

Host helped advance collegiate sports and sports marketing with many contributions throughout his career. 

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Bill Straus

Host helped advance collegiate sports and sports marketing with many contributions throughout his career. 

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“Sen. John Sherman Cooper taught me to never tell anybody ‘no,’” Host said. “If someone asks for your help, you say, ‘I’ll do everything I can.’ I’ve used that lesson my whole life.”

Early airwaves

Host was born November 23, 1937, in Kane, Pennsylvania, and his family settled in Ashland, Kentucky, when Host was in eighth grade. He still considers Ashland his hometown. Growing up there, he delivered newspapers, played baseball in the park, worked part-time at the YMCA and went to bed at night listening to baseball games on a radio hidden under the covers.

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Bill Straus

In 1955, Host received one of the first full baseball scholarships the University of Kentucky awarded. He later won a contract with the Chicago White Sox, but a shoulder injury ended his pitching career in the minors.

Host studied radio arts at Kentucky, and as a freshman started doing color and play-by-play broadcasts for Kentucky ball games on the student radio station. In 1959 businessman Garvis Kinkaid hired him to create a statewide radio network for UK games, sponsored by Kincaid’s Kentucky Central Insurance Co. Just 22 at the time, Host was doing on-air work, radio engineering and production, selling radio time on the new network, and learning marketing and sales in the process. “I knew what a broadcast should sound like, I knew what a color analyst should sound like, and I understood how to put it all together,” he said. “I didn’t tolerate much that wasn’t perfection, because I knew what perfection was from doing it all myself. I guess that’s where the tenacity and all that started.”

Gov. Louie B. Nunn named Host to his cabinet in 1967. Host became state parks commissioner and chaired the new Kentucky Horse Park Commission. Host said Nunn asked him if the park could really work. “I said ‘yes,’ and he said, ‘Go for it.’” The park opened in 1978, and Host helped bring the World Equestrian Games there in 2010.

Building on strengths

In 1971, Host ran for lieutenant governor and lost. Afterward, he had no income, owed $76,000 on a campaign loan and had just $107 in the bank. His answer was to start a company: Jim Host & Associates. “There were no associates; I just wanted it to sound like a big company,” Host said. “My only assets were that I really knew college sports, and I knew tourism from being in the parks department. But I never lacked the feeling that there wasn’t anything I couldn’t accomplish.”

Within weeks, his company, which eventually became Host Communications Inc., had a contract with the Lexington Tourism and Convention Commission, and later the Lexington Center Corp. Host became executive director of both, overseeing development of the Lexington Civic Center and Rupp Arena. After that, everything sped up.

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Host with University of Kentucky coach Adolph Rupp. As executive director of the Lexington Center Corporation, Host oversaw the development of the Lexington Civic Center and Rupp Arena.

Host acquired broadcast rights to UK sports in 1974, adding NCAA network rights a year later. He started doing other jobs for the NCAA, like publishing all programs for the NCAA basketball tournament. In the early 1980s, Host started urging the NCAA to adopt corporate sponsorships, but then NCAA director Walter Byers opposed it. Host ultimately changed Byers’ mind, and sponsorships began generating millions for the NCAA and member schools. Former NCAA executive vice president Tom Jernstedt says it was maybe Host’s best idea ever. SportsBusiness Journal once called Host’s move “the greatest sales job in a career marked by smarts and determination.”

“The main thing was credibility — always telling the truth, avoiding conflicts of interest, always letting the schools know exactly how they were doing.” — Jim Host

Host says he had two rules for himself and employees: Never lie and never pad expense accounts. “The main thing was credibility — always telling the truth, avoiding conflicts of interest, always letting the schools know exactly how they were doing,” he said.

Although Host officially retired in 2003, he has kept right on working. He was commerce secretary under Gov. Ernie Fletcher, who put him in charge of developing what became Louisville’s KFC Yum! Center when it opened in 2010.

Sports marketing executive Tom Stultz, who ran Host’s old company after he retired, said Host “basically created collegiate sports marketing as we know it today.”

“He brought tremendous energy and creativity and did it with total integrity,” Stultz said.

Host, who turned 81 in November, said he still has ideas to work on and will stay active after his book is done.

“I’ve never had a bad day in my life,” he said. “As long as my mind is good, why would I quit?”