A group of LaGrange College sports management students had the trip of a lifetime over the summer. Professor Clay Bolton and members of the sports management course/club received a hands-on education fit for a king when they traveled to the British Isles for two weeks.

“It took a lot of planning and work to get this whole thing done,” Bolton said.

The travel schedule was packed. They packed a lot into those 12 days, from the British Open to Wimbledon and much more.

“It was a once in a lifetime trip for them to get a look behind the scenes of English rugby. We went to Twiggingham Stadium, the home of English Rugby League. We had the chance to visit Stanford Bridge and the home of Chelsea and their football club, learn about their history, learn what it’s like to see the business side of football and rugby and, you know, have the chance to visit some Olympic venues from the 2012 Olympics,” said Clay Bolton, professor of sport management at LaGrange College.

It was an opportunity for the students to get to know a different side of sport and sports culture. It was also an opportunity for the students to get to know a new culture in general.

““I was hesitant to go on this trip. I had never been abroad before and had no idea what to expect,” said student Tayshawn Pendleton. “Parker Lovett was instrumental in convincing me to go and I’m so glad I did. It was a once in a lifetime experience.”

Lovett, a student at LaGrange College and president of the Sports Management Club on campus, was instrumental in making this trip happen. He recruited students for the trip, gave them the confidence to step out of their comfort zone and, of course, documented the entire trip.

“I’m currently president of our sports management club, and a lot of the planning was me and Dr. Bolton, and then obviously the administration, but we had a lot of stuff planned,” Lovett said. Then it felt like every day as the trip went on, things went better than expected.”

The students had the opportunity to experience such a wide variety of different sporting events that it was difficult for anyone to quantify what the most memorable parts of the experience were. One of the experiences that received almost unanimous praise was the fact that the class got to see Tiger Woods at the British Open. This was just the tip of the iceberg of what they got to experience.

“This trip has allowed me to tick three things off my bucket list that I honestly didn’t know if I would ever experience in my lifetime. I’m 55 and have dreamed of going to Wimbledon since I was a kid and grew up as a junior tennis player,” said Bolton.

““I have two favorite moments from the trip. They are both experiences I will never forget,” said student Jorge Fragoso Jr. “The first was watching England play in the semi-finals of the European Championships. Some of us were able to go to a local pub in London and watch the game with some of the locals. England ended up winning and the place went crazy.”

“The other was an experience I never thought I would have,” Fragoso added. “One of the days we managed to get tickets to the Wimbledon Championships. We ended up getting tickets in the fourth row on Court 1.”

For these people, it is truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Bolton hopes that in the coming years they will have the money to make another trip like this, but there is no guarantee.

“Our sports management club is planning to do something international again in conjunction with our sports management program for 2026 or 2027, I’m not sure what that might be. It might be the Winter Olympics in Italy. Or maybe the Australian Open, the first major tennis tournament of the year, down in Sydney,” Bolton said. “We don’t know yet, but these trips require a lot of planning.”

It wasn’t just fun and games. It was a chance to go beyond the classroom and gain hands-on experience in the field of sports.

“It was a chance for them to learn about sports and the business of sports, because that’s ultimately what this course is. It’s a sports management course. I’m a sports management professor, so this was a chance for them to learn about the passion in the industry and a different perspective on sports in the U.S.,” Bolton said. “This was a cultural sports trip, but it was also a behind-the-scenes look at sports.”

“Many of us spent two or three years sitting in classrooms in LaGrange, Georgia, hearing about stadiums and international sports,” Lovett added. “Instead of just seeing pictures and words in a book, we were able to actually go out and experience it.”