Assistant Professor of Organizational Communication (UT-Knoxville) | Religious, Nonprofit, and Member Organizations | Social Entrepreneurialism
Knoxville, TN
Joined June 2008
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Ryan Beaty, Ph.D. retweeted
The greatest tradition in college football started as a two-sentence Facebook post from a fan in Anita, Iowa.
In February 2017, the University of Iowa opened a new children's hospital directly across the street from Kinnick Stadium. It ended up costing $392 million, and on the 12th floor there's a press box where young patients can watch games through the glass. Krista Young kept seeing photos of those kids looking down at the field, so she typed a quick thought into a fan page called Hawkeye Heaven. What if the whole stadium turned around and waved at them after the first quarter?
Her idea had a coordination problem. A wave at a hospital only works if 70,000 people do it in the same moment. A few hundred scattered arms would just look strange. So the page's founder, Levi Thompson, posted a reminder to its 100,000 followers every single Sunday from June until the opener. He was manufacturing common knowledge, getting an entire fanbase to believe everyone else would turn around too.
On September 2, 2017, Iowa hosted Wyoming. The first quarter ended scoreless, the clock hit zero, and 70,585 people stood up, turned their backs on the game, and waved at a building.
Nine seasons later it hasn't missed a home game. Opposing players wave. Opposing coaches wave. On Saturday the entire officiating crew stopped mid-game and raised their caps at the glass.
Nurses on the 12th floor describe the same scene after every wave. The windows are covered in tiny handprints.
The hospital cost $392 million to build. The reason the whole country knows it exists cost two sentences.
Ryan Beaty, Ph.D. retweeted
A única pessoa que vi fazendo discurso decente sobre IA realmente é o papa.
Ele não diz só "não use"
"Use de maneira de que se a IA desaparecer amanhã, vc ainda saiba pensar... criar, existir."
Ryan Beaty, Ph.D. retweeted
“AI can process information quickly, but it cannot replace human intelligence. And don’t ask it to do your homework for you.” — Pope Leo XIV
Ryan Beaty, Ph.D. retweeted
Minnesota's head coach just launched himself into a mob of his own players at full sprint. P.J. Fleck crowd-surfs after every win, today's was his 100th, and the mania took 15 years to build. It started with the worst thing that can happen to a person.
In February 2011, Fleck's infant son Colt died of a heart condition. Fleck was a 30-year-old receivers coach at the time. He came up with a phrase to get himself out of bed. Row the boat. Your back faces the future, you can't see what's coming, all you control is the oar.
Two years later Western Michigan made him the youngest head coach in the FBS. He went 1-11 his first season and people laughed at the boat stuff. By 2016 the same program went 13-0 and made the Cotton Bowl.
When Minnesota hired him away in 2017, there was a catch. Western Michigan had trademarked "Row the Boat." The school owned the legal rights to the phrase he created for his son. Fleck paid them $50,000 out of his own pocket, structured as a scholarship for a walk-on player, to take the words with him.
Nine years of rowing later, today happened. Minnesota beat #24 Michigan 20-14, took back the Little Brown Jug for the first time since 2014, and beat them at home for the first time in 49 years. 51,012 fans stormed the field.
So yes, the man flies into that pile looking slightly unhinged. He knows better than anyone in that locker room that you don't get to choose which days are the good ones. You just keep rowing until one shows up.
Ryan Beaty, Ph.D. retweeted
Honky Chonk Beardonkadonk
ALT A large bear sitting in water fishing for salmon.
Ryan Beaty, Ph.D. retweeted
Years have passed, but the courage of these dogs should never be forgotten. Today, we honor the search-and-rescue heroes of 9/11. 🤍
Ryan Beaty, Ph.D. retweeted
In 1988 Dolly Parton pulled every 7th and 8th grader in Sevier County into a room and told them to pick a buddy.
She made them sign a contract.. if BOTH graduate, she hands you both $500. One fails, nobody gets paid.
The county dropout rate went from 35% to 6%.
She handed out the checks herself.
In 1989 she offered $500 to every kid in the county who wanted to go to the local college.
When Gatlinburg burned in 2016, she sent 900 families $1,000 a month for six months.
You've probably heard that part.
Here's the part you haven't:
The fund raised more than expected, so she showed up in May and handed every one of those families another $5,000 on top.
Then she quietly put $3 million into the recovery group that handles the years after the news trucks leave.
She built her county an entire hospital.
She played a benefit concert in 2007, Dollywood and the Stampede matched it, and LeConte Medical Center opened in 2010 with a birthing unit and a women's center in it.
In 2022 she started covering 100% of tuition, books, and fees for Dollywood employees.
Full-time, part-time, AND seasonal.
In 1991 she paid for a bald eagle sanctuary because the birds couldn't be released back into the wild, no press release.
And when Hurricane Helene came through here in Western North Carolina, she wrote a personal check for $1 million and her companies matched it.
She didn't owe North Carolina anything, but she helped us anyway.
She started the Imagination Library because her daddy couldn't read or write. Before he passed, he told her it was the most important thing she ever did.
Rest in Peace, Dolly 🇺🇸
Ryan Beaty, Ph.D. retweeted
After 38 months of work, today my article on the Chi Alpha sexual abuse scandal was published by the Journal of Applied Communication Research. #churchtoo tandfonline.com/eprint/4EFCZ…
Kinda chic to be teaching a class on #communication through the lens of Star Wars. @UTKnoxville @utkcmst #StarWars
Ryan Beaty, Ph.D. retweeted
Are you a Jedi… or not?
Ahsoka Season 2 premieres January 20 only on @DisneyPlus.
Ryan Beaty, Ph.D. retweeted
if LEGALLY BLONDE and A FEW GOOD MEN were in the same movie 😂👏
I need to know who did this
Ryan Beaty, Ph.D. retweeted
BREAKING: The Dodgers have acquired the Time Stone from Thanos and will be activating Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale.
Ryan Beaty, Ph.D. retweeted
Batman Cleats. 24 Curveballs. Bury Me In The H. TWO TIME Champion.
Thank you 43. The Golden Age of the Houston Astros have a whole chapter on what you’ve given to this city, organization and fanbase. You left everything out there and #43 will always be remembered for that.
Thank you personally from our team here at Apollo. WE are not here at all if you don’t randomly jump into a random twitch stream during the pandemic, WE are not here if you don’t meet up with us before you enter the bubble to grab merch, WE are not here if you don’t pop bottles in an H-Town vs. Everyone shirt. So thank you 43, for everything.
Ryan Beaty, Ph.D. retweeted
One more time for #43.
Thank you, Lance, for all the incredible memories. Wishing you all the best in Milwaukee.
After 38 months of work, today my article on the Chi Alpha sexual abuse scandal was published by the Journal of Applied Communication Research. #churchtoo tandfonline.com/eprint/4EFCZ…