By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
March 26, 1995
Stedman Graham. You know his face. You know that he’s basketball-player tall (6-foot-6) and handsome.
And you certainly know his girlfriend Oprah Winfrey. But beyond the obvious, there are so many other aspects to Graham’s life the public knows little about.
For instance, he is the president and chief executive officer of S. Graham & Associates, a management, marketing and consulting firm specializing in sports. He also is the founder of Athletes Against Drugs and serves on the boards of directors of numerous national organizations, including Junior Achievement, the Jane Addams Hull House Association and the National Urban League. Graham also is the director for the Forum of Sports and Special Events/Management and Marketing at George Washington University and a partner in Kemper Golf Management Chicago.
Then there were the years he spent in a German pro basketball league (he was a forward). Oh, and he can write, too. Besides his regular contributions to Inside Sports magazine, he has been published in various newspapers across the country.
In his spare time, Graham, 44, co-authored (with Lisa Delpy and Joe Jeff Goldblatt) the recently published book “The Ultimate Guide to Sport Event Marketing and Management.” He’s donating his share of the profits to Athletes Against Drugs, a not-for-profit organization of athletes and community leaders committed to eliminating drug abuse. (Thankfully there is one thing he can’t do: Sing. He says so. So does Winfrey, who helpfully advises friends to run out of the room when he attempts an aria.)
“I didn’t write the book for the money or power,” he said. “I wanted to present opportunities to kids.”
“Stedman is very ambitious and driven,” Winfrey said. “He’s very different from me in that he’s very vision-oriented and sets goals. I live in the moment and expect it to carry me. And one of the things I admire and love about him is that once he gets something or figures it out, he always wants to give back and share. And he feels very strongly about the sports world and particularly athletes being able to work beyond athletics.”
Graham’s friend Jeffrey Jacobs, president and chief operating officer of Harpo Entertainment Group, believes the timing couldn’t be better for a book about sports marketing.
“I used to represent athletes many years ago, so I know how important a book like this is,” Jacobs said. “The book fills a niche in the marketplace because sports is such a huge business and there are no reference books that anyone can go to for sports marketing. It’s become big business.”
Though Graham has a master’s degree in education from Ball State University, he said when he was a teen growing up in Whitesboro, N.J., he thought of college only as a means to play pro basketball.
“The only reason I was able to make it though school was because I wanted to be a basketball player,” he said in an interview in his spacious office at NBC Tower. “And in order to be a basketball player, you have to go to school. I know there are a lot of young people out there who think that same way, and that’s fine. But we need to change the message.
“The fact is, only a small percentage of all the kids who want to become athletes will qualify to play in pro leagues. So let’s give our young people some alternatives. That’s what I’m trying to convey to people with this book, by opening up the sports-marketing industry and getting people, especially students, to understand there are other opportunities in sports besides being on the court. Sure, you can try to become like Michael Jordan, but don’t throw your life away chasing just one dream. Keep on studying and learning and pursuing all the options.”
Graham imparts these ideas to his daughter Wendy, 20, a sophomore at Wellesley College majoring in economics. Wendy is his daughter from a marriage to his college sweetheart.
“If I’ve inherited just a fraction of his drive, then I know I can make something of my life,” said Wendy Graham, who hinted she might join her father’s business. “If there’s something he believes in, he doesn’t worry about whether he can accomplish it or not. He just does it.”
That opinion is seconded by Winfrey.
“Stedman is always in control,” she said. “When he has a goal, he meets it. I have to say that he is the one person I know who did not see the Bronco chase. He called me from a library in (Washington) D.C. the night O.J. (Simpson) was in the Bronco. And I go, `Are you watching?’ He’s like, `Watching what? I’m in the library.’ I said, `You’ve got to get to a TV.’ He said, `I’m not going to a TV. I’m doing research.’ And I’m screaming, `Get to a TV!’ But he never saw it. He never left the library. That’s how calm he is. When he’s got his mind set on something, he just does it.”
About his book, Winfrey said, “I haven’t read it cover to cover yet. But I’ve read his parts. And I thought it was wonderful.”
His nine-year relationship with Winfrey has thrust him into the limelight, a position he never coveted but handles with aplomb. He knows some people may view him simply as “Oprah’s boyfriend,” but he just shrugs his shoulders as if to rhetorically ask, “What can I do?”
“I’m with a very powerful woman – I would say the most powerful woman in the world,” Graham said. “She reaches 20 million people a day. She’s smart and beautiful and kind. And when you’re with someone like that, you just want the best for her, so I support her 175 percent. But I also have a very full life of my own, so whether people know what I do or don’t do isn’t that important to me. It never has been. Who has time to worry about things like that?”
At a reception earlier this month at Michael Jordan’s restaurant to tout his book, Graham, 44, took the opportunity to show off his dry wit.
“I’d like to say a special thank you to someone who’s been with me through thick and thin,” he said, looking at Winfrey. “No pun intended.”
