AKRON — In the four times R.J. Nemer has reinvented himself, his decision initially walked hand in hand with doubt.
“You’re like, ‘Am I in the right place? Was this the right thing? Is this the right pivot? Can I do this?’” Nemer said.
But when the former sports agent recently moved into the University of Akron College of Business dean’s suite, validation greeted him at the door.
On the wall outside hangs a plaque designating it “The Edward G. Elias Office of the Dean.”
“I walked in and saw that and suddenly it occurred to me this is where I’m meant to be,” Nemer said. “It’s about as full circle, it’s about as poetic as you can view a career journey.”
Akron-born Eddie Elias, a 1951 UA graduate who passed away in 1998, founded the Professional Bowlers Association. A lawyer, he also operated Eddie Elias Enterprises and represented athletes and entertainment celebrities. With a golf client list that included Tommy Bolt, Chi Chi Rodriguez, and Fuzzy Zoeller, Elias was Nemer’s idol. Nemer worked with Elias’s daughter, Rainy, at the agency after Elias suffered a stroke in 1995.
“He was who I wanted to be when I grew up. He was my inspiration for pursuing a sports agency,” Nemer said in a Jan. 29 phone interview.
When he saw the plaque, Nemer immediately took a picture and texted it to Rainy Elias Staniszewski.
“My hand was shaking a little bit as I was texting,” Nemer said. “It’s something that I will see every day and will look at as a reminder to take a minute, stay entrepreneurial, to keep with UA’s mission. It’s special. It’s overwhelming. It’s meaningful. It’s inspiring.”
Staniszewski got tears in her eyes when she saw the photo.
“I said, ‘No way. It’s not coincidence. That feeling of that connection is still alive,'” she said in a Jan. 29 phone interview from Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. “I was thinking about how truly happy my father would be to know this.
“My father loved the University of Akron with all his heart. I feel like knowing that R.J. is there as a dean, it makes me feel as if he’s carrying on Eddie’s spirit and keeping my father’s memory alive. It’s just so exciting. I felt very emotional, but warm feelings at the same time because I feel comfort in knowing that.”
With business administration and law degrees from UA, Nemer achieved his dream to follow in Elias’ footsteps. Nemer abandoned his career as an estate tax attorney in 1998 to found ICON Sports Management. In 2015, he sold ICON to William Morris Endeavor/IMG and headed its global golf brand out of its Cleveland office. In December 2019, he accepted a position as chief marketing officer for MAI Capital Management in Cleveland.
But eventually, Nemer wanted to teach. When a friend texted him about the UA opening, he took another leap and applied, knowing he was an unconventional candidate. He left MAI on Jan. 28 and started at UA on Monday hoping to put Elias’ favorite quote into action.
In his office, Nemer said Elias had a piece of paper under the glass top of his marble desk that read, “Genius is eternal patience,” words that came from Michelangelo.
“Nothing inscribed. Not gold-plated. Just a quote. I think about that quite often,” Nemer said. “I remember feeling that as I was starting my agency. I was the quintessential outsider in golf, which is very much a closed circle that heavily values pedigree. I didn’t grow up at the right country clubs, I didn’t play golf at the right schools. But I remained patient.
“Patience is not doing nothing. Patience is just nose to the grindstone, working as hard as you can, but being patient for the results and it paid off. I guess as I now look at this job in academia, I’m not part of the circles. I don’t have the pedigree to say I’ve published X amount of research papers. I know that I will need to work really hard, stay tenacious, listen twice as much as I talk, and be patient for the results to shine through.”
Starting this fall, UA will have an undergraduate major in sports business and another in sports analytics, both operating under the department of management in the College of Business. Nemer’s sports connections set him apart from the other three finalists, all associate deans from around the country.
As the search firm went through what Nemer said was “close to 100 applicants,” he encountered one issue. It needed a reference from a boss, and Nemer essentially had none for 20 years. At IMG, he reported to a Hollywood agent in Beverly Hills, California, who signed off on his quarterly financial reports.
So Nemer put his fate in the hands of a golfer he managed. He chose his second client, Matt Gogel, over others more well-known.
A former Nike Tour player, Gogel brought Nemer his first PGA Tour victory at the AT&T National Pro-Am in 2002. Now playing the PGA Tour Champions, which stops at Akron’s Firestone Country Club in July, Gogel gave Nemer part of his purse, an Omega Constellation watch.
“Nobody had ever given me anything that big, that expensive, that decadent in my life. That was a big deal,” Nemer said. “With a note and all he wrote was, ‘R.J., you are the real champion,’ which was really sweet but not really true.”
Gogel was surprised to learn Nemer still has the watch.
“R.J. is a little bit of a renaissance person. He likes nice things. I’m thinking, ‘I think he’d like this more than I would,’” Gogel said Sunday in a phone interview from Kansas City. “It was not even a second thought. I didn’t know it would mean that much to him. I’m glad it does. He’s done a lot more for me than I’ve been able to do for him.”
Gogel said he was honored to give a recommendation for Nemer.
“R.J. is one of those refreshing people in a world where sometimes people can take an edge and be misleading,” Gogel said. “His organizational skills are top-notch. He doesn’t get flustered. His advice and the way that he handles sticky situations are a great asset for the university.
“I still have things where I go, ‘What would R.J.’s approach be here?’ because he’s so calm and calculated where I’m kind of knee jerk. His favorite words to me always were, ‘Calm down now, Matt, calm down.’ I might not even be riled up about anything. He just takes a very calm approach, and he’s a winner.”
After his first victory, Gogel recalled being offered a contract from a friend working for a global golf brand that was higher than the norm for a player at his level. He turned it down.
“I said, ‘I can’t sign that.’ He said, ‘Why not?’ and I said, ‘Because R.J. has already set me up with a couple other companies and they’re going to pay me a lot more.’ He about fell out of his chair,” Gogel said. “He said, ‘R.J.?’ He was a one-man show. I said, ‘I’ve been telling you for two years, this is the greatest person you’ll meet.’
“They got to know each other and became good friends. This person didn’t trust agents, always thought they were out to kind of get the biggest deal that they could. R.J. is just not like that. In a sharky business, he was not that type of person. He was upfront, he was honest.”
Gogel had a similar experience last year at an outdoor restaurant in California. He overheard a conversation between six husbands and wives and Nemer’s name came up.
“It was everything that I wish people could hear. He would never sell himself,” Gogel said of Nemer. “They glowed about in that business there’s never been a guy like R.J., as honest … and look what he’s able to do and now he’s turned around this company. That’s what we all want, to be a good person, and that’s what R.J. is.”
Gogel said in his recommendation that his brother-in-law attended Harvard Business School and cited what he told him was the most memorable part of his Ivy League studies.
“The thing that he found the most compelling was the guest speakers, whether it be Bill Clinton, all the way down to leaders of Fortune 500 companies. R.J. has those contacts,” Gogel said. “I’m thinking if I’m a student, I’d be the most excited about learning from the best, and R.J. can bring those types of people in who have experienced real-world businesses, from startups to running big companies. That’s just a tremendous asset Akron will have.”
Nemer said Ohio University has one of the top sports management programs in the country, but he wants UA to compete. When the program launches this fall, Nemer is eager to bring in speakers, which will include agents, corporate executive vice presidents with sports connections, team owners or business heads and ESPN personalities. He wants to set up UA students with internships, perhaps cultivated during meet-and-greet sessions.
“He’s just like my dad where he treats everyone alike,” she said. “He will be there and involved and talking to everybody and having an open-door policy. I can see him being so approachable.
“He can do anything. He’s such an entrepreneur, just like my father. He’s got the personality, he’s got the connections, he’s got the energy, and he wants this. When he wants something, he just goes after it.”
If doubt creeps in again as Nemer starts down another unfamiliar path, he can look at Elias’ plaque, which some would call a God wink.
“I read that book, the whole thing about no coincidences, and I’m a believer in it,” he said. “I think my life has been full of them, so I’ve been pretty lucky that way.”
