Sam Fullerton was awarded BBA and MS degrees in marketing from Memphis State University. He earned his doctorate in marketing from Michigan State University. Dr. Fullerton is currently a professor of marketing at Eastern Michigan University, where his teaching emphasis includes courses in sports marketing and sponsorship. He also has taught sports marketing and sponsorship courses at the University of Michigan and Waikato University in New Zealand. He occasionally serves in the role of a staff writer for Michigan Golfer magazine.

By his own admission, he played a lot of sports as a kid but never excelled at any. He did once bowl on TV (and lost) as a 12-year-old. However, he was—and remains today—an avid sports fan. Over the years he has achieved some measure of sports success. He has several rounds of even-par golf, including his most recent at the University of Illinois course. He is also an accomplished bowler; his official average in league play exceeded 200 for over 15 years, with his highest average of 216 recorded during the 2001–2002 season. His accomplishments include three perfect games that have been certified by the United States Bowling Congress and a fourth in nonleague play.

Among his favorite diversions are travel, photography, and classic cars. He has visited more than 30 countries, which provided the opportunity to learn about and enjoy sports such as rugby, cricket, and netball. And the travel has presented numerous opportunities to use his camera. While textbooks do not necessarily represent the best forum for displaying these creative abilities, he took the majority of the photographs in this book. Finally, he still loves fast cars. He maintains a 1982 Corvette that he bought new, but his treasured vehicle is a red 1967 Plymouth GTX. The muscle car takes him back to the late 1960s when he once won his class in an NHRA national drag racing meet in his native Memphis, Tennessee.

Dr. Fullerton is the president of the Sports Research Institute of Plymouth, Michigan. In this capacity, he has consulted for numerous organizations, including sporting goods retailers, publications, golf course operators, and the state of Michigan. His research on fans and sponsorship has been published in journals and presented at conferences across the globe. He feels fortunate to work in a profession that provides so much gratification. The ability to teach college students the intricacies of marketing, coupled with the opportunity to focus on sports, has meant that there has never been a morning when he dreaded to go to work.