Randy McIlvoy Gives Back with Journalism Scholarship

Randy McIlvoy Gives Back with Journalism Scholarship

Years ago, Randy McIlvoy ('89) worried about how he would pay for college. Today, the longtime television sports broadcaster is helping future Sam Houston State University students worry a little less through a $30,000 endowed scholarship for broadcast journalism majors.

 “While at Sam Houston, I saw firsthand some of the struggles students and families go through to pay for college,” McIlvoy said. “It’s not easy and has only grown more difficult to get by. To be able to give back to students at Sam Houston is a real blessing.”

The scholarship grew out of a simple conversation about giving back.

“The scholarship was something I had been considering for many years,” McIlvoy said. “But a conversation with longtime friends of my wife Tammy and me led to the scholarship suddenly becoming even more significant. Within a week, our friends reached back out and felt led to supplement my scholarship - which elevated it to the Endowment level. We are really excited about it, as it will now support deserving students for decades to come.” 

The endowment will be invested, creating a continuing source of scholarship funding for future broadcast journalism students.

McIlvoy's passion for broadcasting began long before he arrived at Sam Houston. While attending Bellaire High School, he was introduced to television production through an unusual opportunity.

“Our band director created a TV studio in the band hall,” McIlvoy said. “This was practically unheard of at the time, and I was fascinated with it right from the start. We put together daily broadcasts shown in school, and that's what got me hooked.”

When he arrived at Sam Houston in 1985, McIlvoy balanced his broadcast journalism coursework with two years on the baseball team. The university's Dan Rather Communications Building had recently opened, and he quickly immersed himself in the profession he had already grown to love.

“I was fascinated by the entire business,” he said.

That fascination became a 37-year career in television sports broadcasting. Today, McIlvoy serves as sports director at KPRC-TV Channel 2, the NBC affiliate in Houston, where he has held that role since arriving back in his hometown in the summer of 2004.

“The industry has changed so much from the mid-'80s,” he said. “Social media didn't exist; now I'm sending feeds to Facebook, Instagram and all the other outlets besides TV just to stay on top of things.”

In the coming months, McIlvoy plans to share his experiences with aspiring journalists through a Sam Houston sports journalism camp.

“It's an exciting time to be in sports journalism, and Sam Houston is taking it in a great direction,” he said.

For McIlvoy, the scholarship is about more than financial assistance. It's a chance to help the next generation of journalists pursue the same dream that launched his career nearly four decades ago.