James McClinton III joined Furman as its Assistant Athletics Director for Marketing in the fall of 2022.
McClinton will be responsible for the athletic department’s brand visibility, increasing ticket sales and revenue, and growing campus and community partnerships. He will also oversee promoting the Paladin athletic programs, competitions, student-athletes, and coaches.
McClinton comes to Greenville after spending the past year at North Carolina Central as its Director of Marketing and Fan Engagement. He directed marketing, promotions, gameday programming and fan engagement strategies for all 13 intercollegiate athletic programs. While at NCCU, McClinton helped develop and implement marketing strategies that led to a 58 percent increase in fan engagement while increasing ticket revenue by 21 percent.
Prior to working at N.C. Central, McClinton served as a Multimedia Designer and Web Content Administrator for three years at Albany State. He helped create and manage graphic design, video, and website projects, and assisted with the fan experience for football, men’s basketball, and women’s basketball. McClinton came up with, and implemented, marketing strategies for enrollment management and student success that led to a six percent increase in enrollment, which was the largest from the previous three years.
He served in two different capacities at his alma mater, South Carolina State, from 2009-18. He was the Director of Enrollment Marketing and Student Media from 2014-18 and the Director of Athletics Marketing and Fund Development from 2009-14. While on the university side, McClinton developed and implemented innovative design themes to attract prospective students and retain current students. Working with athletics, he directed all marketing and fundraising efforts for the school’s 15 intercollegiate athletic programs. McClinton developed a sales campaign that ranked in the top 15 for FCS football attendance over four years while increasing ticket revenue 20 percent.
He also had stints as the Assistant Director of Marketing and Promotions at Akron (2008-09), Marketing Coordinator at Marquette (2007-08) and Marketing Graduate Assistant at Arkansas State (2005-07).
McClinton received his Bachelor of Science in Marketing from South Carolina State and holds a Master of Business Administration with a concentration in Management from Arkansas State.
