Belle of the Bowl

Steve Carp

Thursday, July 22, 1999 | 10:50 a.m.

Her husband is a high school football coach. Her son is a football player. And she runs a college bowl game.

Looking ahead

Managing director Tina Kunzer-Murphy is taking steps to elevate the Las Vegas Bowl into one of the nation's major bowl games:

*A title sponsor for the game, which would bring in about $500,000, may be announced in mid-August.

*Kunzer-Murphy is also trying to line up more local sponsors to support the game.

*Rob Dondero, who hired Kunzer-Murphy, says she is the right person to lead the bowl game to its next level. "That Tina is a woman never entered into it," Dondero says.

The conversations at the dinner table in the Murphy household must be fascinating -- to Bill Parcells or John Robinson, that is. It's "Pass the gravy" and"Can I take a glance at your playbook?"

This wasn't Tina Kunzer-Murphy's idea. She never saw herself up to her shoulder pads in pigskin. But she's got a lot of responsibility in being the Las Vegas Bowl's managing director.

While husband Greg prepares to build the neophyte program at Centennial High School and son Steven gets ready for his senior year at Silverado, the lady of the house is trying to fill the house at Sam Boyd Stadium Dec. 18 for the eighth annual bowl game.

"I didn't plan this," she said. "My goal coming out of college was to one day be a P.E. teacher at a junior high school."

But the former UNLV assistant athletic director is downright giddy about the opportunity to be back home and working on a project close to her heart.

"I've been involved in this game in one way or another since the start," she said. "It's part of me.

"Since I left UNLV, I haven't felt like I've been home. Now, I'm home, and it feels wonderful."

Kunzer-Murphy doesn't allow herself too many of these warm and fuzzy moments. A lot of people are counting on her to take this game to a higher level and put the Las Vegas Bowl in a position to become a mid-major player in the postseason bowl game mix.

"I've got a lot of work to do," she said. "Ultimately, my goal is to see this become a huge community event like the Fiesta Bowl, where we have people who are totally committed to making it work.

"I see a lot of similarities between Las Vegas and Phoenix. It took the Fiesta Bowl years for it to grow into a major bowl game and it was able to because it had great community support statewide.

"The future of the Las Vegas Bowl is going to depend on the community. If they want it to grow, it can."

The game was created in 1992 as a marketing tool for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. The hope was tourists would come to town during a dead time of the year -- mid-December -- and fill some of the vacant hotel rooms.

It hasn't been a wholesale success. Nor has it been an abysmal failure. The game has survived through seven years. And with the new deal cut with the Mountain West Conference and the three-year pact with the Western Athletic Conference ending, the opportunity is there for the game's future to grow.

"Things in college athletics are changing," said Rossi Ralenkotter, the LVCVA's vice president of marketing and the Las Vegas Bowl's executive director. "It's important that the Las Vegas Bowl position itself to be ready to be part of that change when it takes place.

"One of the reasons we brought Tina in was her knowledge and contacts in the NCAA. She will be the one interfacing with the Mountain West and our spokesperson to deal with the NCAA."

Ralenkotter also admitted the game has to broaden its appeal locally if it is to survive.

"There's no question that tourism drives this event," he said. "But I think it's equally important the community increase its support. We think Tina is the right person to raise the level of local interest."

Kunzer-Murphy's experience in working with the WAC on its football championship game and men's and women's basketball tournaments prepared her well for her new endeavor.

"You learn a lot when you put on an event like a football championship game or a basketball tournament," she said. "There are so many little things that go into putting on a successful event. And the only way you learn is by actually doing them."

Kunzer-Murphy has a plan for the Las Vegas Bowl. And it's not going to happen all at once. She is the interior decorator for a house that has a pretty solid foundation, but can use some sprucing up.

One of the first major steps is to increase the revenue streams for the game. The LVCVA is very close to securing a title sponsor for the Las Vegas Bowl, which would bring in approximately a half-million dollars. An announcement is expected in mid-August when the LVCVA Board officially OKs this year's game.

"That will be huge," Kunzer-Murphy said of the sponsorship deal. "It gives the game credibility on a national scale. It could mean the difference between making it or not making it."

Murphy wouldn't disclose the potential sponsor, but said it is a national company with widespread brand familiarity.

At the same time, she's trying to line up local sponsors to support the game.

"You've got to have commitment from the community," she said. "In the past we've had great sponsors, people like Saturn, Pepsi, First Security Bank -- those are the people who've always made it go from a local perspective.

"We need to build on that support and get more businesses and individuals involved."

The key may be the fact that with the WAC no longer playing a championship game and the Mountain West not planning to do likewise, there's only one game to promote.

"Knowing Las Vegas will host one football game instead of two will make a big, big difference," she said. "By concentrating on one game, we can do a better job of securing local sponsorships and creating local interest."

Kunzer-Murphy said she doesn't plan to change too many of the events that surround the game. The Friday pep rally at the Fremont Street Experience, the golf tournament at Stallion Mountain Golf Club, the wives' shopping trip to the Fashion Show Mall, the welcome to the teams at the All-American SportPark and the luncheon at the MGM Grand hotel-casino will all remain.

"It's become tradition and it's proven to be very popular," she said. "We have to be careful we don't try and do too much because we want our visitors to enjoy what Las Vegas has to offer.

"We want them to gamble, to go see a show, to go out for a nice dinner. Those are things that are part of the Las Vegas experience and we can't forget that."

Otherwise, there would be no need to hold the game, which has essentially been a 3 1/2-hour infomercial for the LVCVA and Las Vegas. But Kunzer-Murphy said it's time to go beyond that kind of thinking and make the game itself a success locally.

The Las Vegas Bowl is locked in for this year with the WAC champion and the No. 2 choice from the Mountain West. And while this format will be gone after this year, Kunzer-Murphy's not throwing in the towel on Dec. 18.

"If we get the right teams, we can have a great game," she said.

If say, Fresno State, won the WAC and Brigham Young finished second in the Mountain West, that would make for an attractive game, because both schools have supported their teams on the road over the years.

Ultimately, the Las Vegas Bowl would like to be able to draw upper-echelon teams from the power conferences -- the Pacific 10, the Big 12, the Big Ten and the Southeastern. And if the game can grow, both in stature and in terms of guaranteed payouts, that could happen.

But the Las Vegas Bowl still has some work ahead of it to be in a position to lure a Nebraska or a Michigan to town.

"You've got to start somewhere," Kunzer-Murphy said. "My job is to put a little more focus into it, make it more financially successful."

That she's one of the few women entrusted with running a bowl game is hardly a deterrent, said her boss.

"This is a critical year for the game," said Rob Dondero, vice president of events for R&R Partners and the person who hired Kunzer-Murphy. "We have a new stadium, it's the ending year of the WAC and the beginning of the Mountain West.

"When we were looking to fill this position (managing director), we needed someone who had a working knowledge of the local market and who understood college athletics. That Tina is a woman never entered into it. Her contacts are impeccable. She can help us get where we need to go."

That she's a woman in a male-dominated area isn't lost on Kunzer-Murphy. The former UNLV tennis player is a product of Title IX, the federal law that guarantees equal opportunities for women in college athletics.

"It's nice to see opportunities continue to open up (for women)," she said. "I was so thrilled to see what the (U.S. Women's) soccer team did. It means so much for the future of women's sports.

"I know my job is very important, regardless of whether I'm a woman or a man. I feel lucky to have this opportunity. But my goal is to make the game better. That's the important thing."

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