Super Bowl organizer
Official has a dream job that mixes sports and community outreach.
There are fewer than four months before Super Bowl LI kicks off at NRG Stadium in Houston, which means LaMecia Butler’s life is about to get even busier.
A native Houstonian, Butler gets to help bring home the world’s biggest party as community relations director for the Houston Super Bowl Host Committee. It’s Butler’s dream job mix of sports and community outreach and one she held with Super Bowl 50 in San Francisco.
Butler, a graduate of Waltrip High School, the University of Texas at San Antonio and Rice University MBA grad, recently spoke with the Chronicle:
Q: This role requires true entrepreneurial skills to create and coordinate programs. Where did you get your entrepreneurial streak?
A: My dad always had a full-time job, but his dream was to start his own trucking company. He worked himself up the ranks from dispatcher to truck driver to running the plant. He started a trucking business with my mom in 2004 (FAB’s Transportation). It’s just been incredible to see how he took what he learned and the two of them have built this incredible business.
Q: How did you get involved in sports?
A: My interest in sports came from my mom. If it’s a Saturday and there’s a TV on, she’s watching whatever it is that season. She encouraged us to play sports. In high school, I knew that wasn’t going to be my ticket. (Laughing.) I went to UTSA because San Antonio was going to host two Final Fours while I was there (men’s and women’s) and a regional. If I wanted to be in sports, I needed to be in a place with opportunity.
I ended up working (part time) with the Spurs and graduated in three years. I got a sales job but fell in love with PR … then got a job with Scripps Networks. I knew I wanted to have an impact in Houston, and I came back and started working with nonprofits. I went to Rice with a goal of being a nonprofit consultant.
Q: How did that lead to Super Bowl 50?
A: I got a job with the Roberts Enterprise Development Fund (REDF — a San Francisco-based nonprofit funding group). I was in their L.A. office for two years, but I felt a call to come home. As I left, a colleague joined Super Bowl 50 and asked me to be a consultant. I started in October 2014, and by March 2015 I moved out there full time.
Q: What’s it like to organize a Super Bowl?
A: You’re learning so much every day. You’re learning about events, you’re learning about how to work with the NFL, you’re learning about local vendors, working with local public officials. The focus you have to put on making sure things are getting done, meeting your deadlines and having the right people is really important. My roles have been Business Connect (the NFL’s supplier diversity program), charitable giving and general community outreach: any way we can have a deeper connection to the community. When we talk about the Super Bowl, we want people to have good memories because it touched them in some way.
Q: Does this fulfill your goal of serving Houston?
A: I think what makes this so much different is that it’s home and the excitement people have here. To bring something this big to your hometown is really incredible.
There’s a sense of pride, but there’s a sense of awareness, too. We did an event for literacy at Kashmere Gardens (Elementary). I went to church near there all my life, so to do something for a community I knew and hold dear — it doesn’t get any better than that. ‘Legacy’ really means a lot to me, and I really want this to be a legacy.
LaMecia Butler: “When we talk about the Super Bowl, we want people to have good memories because it touched them in some way.” Michael Ciaglo / Houston Chronicle