Life & Work with Jeremy Swick

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jeremy Swick.

Hi Jeremy, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I’m originally from Guatemala, City Guatemala. I was adopted by the most amazing parents from Wisconsin and spent most of my life there. Which the more I reflect on it, my career path makes more and more sense. I’m not sure if you’ve ever been to Wisconsin, but it’s a land of beer, cheese, Badgers, Bucks, Brewers and the Green Bay Packers. I’d be remised to include that I am in fact an NFL team owner of the Green Bay Packers. They are currently offering 300,000 shares of dead stock. Which means that there is no value and in reality, it’s just a way to support the team. The fandom runs deep up there and almost everyone I know has “helped the boys out”. With a love of history from an early age and a love for sports, Wisconsin was the perfect incubator for a future sports hall of fame historian and curator.

Becoming the Historian & Curator at the Chick-fil-A College Football Hall of Fame has been a journey. My first career was in education in the high school and middle school setting teaching social studies at various grade levels. I earned my B.A. in History & Education from the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire. While I enjoyed working with the kids the rest of it wasn’t for me and I decided to return to graduate school at Eau Claire where I earned my M.A. in Public History. During graduate school, I worked at the McIntyre Special Collections & Archives and loved it. I ended up having the opportunity to intern at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2016 and that got me involved in the sports hall of fame sphere. Once I graduated, I worked at the H.H. Bennett Studio & Museum in the Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin. I absolutely loved my time there. Unfortunately, that internship ended, and I moved home. I was working second shift cleaning bathrooms and putting up gas station posters during the day. If you’ve ever seen those ads for haircuts or credit cards when you fill up your gas stank, that was me! It was the middle of winter in Wisconsin, and it was awful. Well, the opportunity arose for a job in Minnesota. I still laugh as I remember in college vowing to my Minnesota friends that “I’d never move to that other state” as my Wisconsinite still bleeds through to this day! Well, I accepted the position and moved up Nort.

SwickMedia began out of necessity. As I was working at the Carver County Historical Society in Minnesota. I was happy to finally have a somewhat stable job in my field! (Most early career positions in the museum and public history space are limited term employment with positions lasting somewhere between 6 months and a year or two). This position was a 15-month position. I also was also making very little as most of these positions are also grant funded with limited budget. I knew if I wanted to stay in this field and live comfortably, I needed to figure something out and fast! So, I asked my good friend Dr. Google on ways to make money on the side. I’ve always been a flipper, whether it was sports cards or buying those big packs of gum at Sam’s Club in middle school and selling them to peers for a huge markup (sorry guys). I stumbled upon social media management and was intrigued. 50 hours later of YouTube videos I took my first steps and signed up for the free version of Canva and joined Fiverr (you have to love the gig-economy).

I was eventually offered the position at the Chick-fil-A College Football Hall of Fame down in Atlanta, Georgia. Of course, I had to take the chance and moved myself down South! I’ve been at the Hall of Fame since 2018. However, I still thoroughly enjoyed managing social media accounts, creating engaging content, and learning more with each new opportunity. So, what I started as a way to make rent and have food became something I truly enjoyed.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I know I’ve mentioned a few of the obstacles but this journey has been anything but smooth. From realizing the career, I had thought I was always going to do (teach) was no longer what I was going to do, to attending graduate school on the fly. I decided to attend in August and classes started in September. Thankfully Eau Claire was super accommodating and helped me immensely on my journey. Having that imposter syndrome when I first started grad school, being surrounded by so many smart and intelligent colleagues was a bit intimidating at first. The best way to describe me is that “cool” social studies teacher you had growing up (at least we think we’re cool), I felt a bit out of my element. However, I snapped out of that quickly and realized that I had earned my seat at the table and belonged. Once I realized that school became a lot easier. Mind you I had been at Eau Claire for five years already as an undergraduate, so I reverted to my system that helped me achieve success as an undergraduate.

The other difficulties were what many fresh graduates face… finding a job. I had an impressive resume with a few different respected institutions in my field. However, 189 applications later, about 8 interviews and a few rejections later I moved home. What came back to haunt me is “what are you going to do with a degree in history? Teach?” well what about two degrees in history? I was fortunate I had a great support system and decided to keep the course!

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I also create much of the historical content for the hall of fame to share on social media channels. This includes writing blog posts, interviewing legendary players and coaches (check out our series on YouTube “Not Your Average Hero” where I talk to some of the trailblazers of college football. I also work on partnership obligations. For example, every week we release a new video called “SporTurf Tough Tuesday” where I highlight a legendary college football hall of fame player.

I also do interviews with a wide variety of media personalities from Coy Wire of CNN to talking with local and national radio stations, to Fox 5 Atlanta I enjoy doing it all! The behind-the-scenes job is archival work. I’m in the process of overhauling our extensive museum collection where I’m document and photographing the artifacts in our collection. Every day here at the hall is a little different! One of the exciting parts of the job is the ability to travel to different national activations. The past events have included the Goodyear Cotton Bowl, NFL Draft, National Championship and Super Bowl. This gives the hall an opportunity to showcase what we have to offer on a national stage. I love bringing the artifacts along and sharing their rich and unique stories!

What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
I see the museum space continuing to expand and have an important role in society. I’m excited to see what new technologies will be present in the museum space to enhance visitor experience. I am also hopeful there continues to be a resurgence in visitors as we hopefully move away from all things pandemic.

As it relates to social media I have no idea. I see it continuing to evolve and change which is incredibly exciting. Who knows what the next platform that will see viral success like apps such as TikTok or Club House.

Contact Info:

• Email: jswick@cfbhall.com
• Website: swickmedia.com
• Instagram: @theaveragehistorian
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheAverageHistorian/
• Twitter: twitter.com/realjswick
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/cfbhallatl
• Other: https://linktr.ee/theaveragehistorian