Former sports agent and current executive director of The Sporting News' Legends Poll Andy Curtin will be the featured speaker at Cumberland University on Wednesday, Feb. 17, as part of a continuing lecture series sponsored by Students Helping Achieve Physical Fitness & Exercise (SHAPE).

Curtin will discuss the current landscape of the sports industry as it relates to new media and technology, sports marketing and sponsorship, and the management of sports-related information at 11 a.m. in the tiered classroom in Labry Hall on the CU campus.

Curtin was the founder of the current Legends Poll, hosted on the Legends Channel and a subsidiary of The Sporting News. The poll is a group of 17 retired college football coaches, including Vince Dooley, Pat Dye, Gene Stallings and Don Nehlen, who conduct a weekly football poll and offer commentary on Sporting News Radio and the Legends Channel website.

Curtin has worked as a player agent certified by the NFL, NBA and Major League Baseball player unions, and he was the marketing representative for Joe Montana in his first Super Bowl. In addition to his marketing experience, he has worked as an attorney for No Limit Sports Management, representing NBA players Ron Mercer, Derek Anderson and Jason Terry. He has also worked with the sports information director at Marquette University and helped lead Accurate Pro Appraisals in 2002 with former San Diego Charger General Manager Steve Ortmayer.

Curtin has also published The Relations of Professional Athletes with Their Attorneys along with several articles and manuals in industry periodicals.

Curtin was commissioned as a Naval Officer in 1968 and served in engineering billets on the USS Waldron (DD-699). He earned early promotion to rank of Lieutenant in Vietnam while running the sports and recreation programs for 1,000 men at the Naval Air Facility at Cam Ranh Bay.

Curtin received an ROTC scholarship to Marquette University, graduating with a bachelor's degree in Economics in 1968 before moving on to law school at Fordham University, where he received his J.D. in 1975.