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Who wouldn’t love courtside tickets for their favorite college basketball team? Beth Haag’s passion for sports has led not only to a career reporting those sports, but also swell seats for Cyclone basketball.

And recently, Haag, a lecturer since 2005, shared her passion for all things athletics via a new undergraduate course she created for Greenlee students, “Sports and Media.” “There was a need and that’s my background,” said Haag.

The goal of her new class is to teach students to apply their Greenlee-learned skills — interviewing and article writing — to an athletic setting and to learn to network themselves as sports reporters.

Haag, ’89, M.A. ’95, began working in sports media in high school as the sports editor of Des Moines Hoover High’s newspaper. While an ISU journalism undergraduate, she assisted with public relations for the ISU Athletics Department. In time, she was employed fulltime with ISU Athletics, handling PR for both the women’s and men’s basketball teams.

After seven years with the men’s basketball team, Haag began working for Wells Fargo.

Not interested in leaving her sports expertise behind, Haag soon was working as a freelance television producer for sports shows such as ESPN Regional. Haag left Wells Fargo for the Greenlee School, and is now in her 11th year also teaching visual communication and public relations writing.

A quick look around Haag’s office makes it clear she is a diehard sports fan, from her fervor for the Chicago Cubs to Iowa State basketball.

“It’s who I am, more so than anything I’ve ever taught,” said Haag.