When he was in junior high, Ed Erhardt used to manicure the old Fargo Shanley football field in north Fargo.
"When I was in ninth grade, my summer job was to cut the grass at that field," Erhardt said. "That field is gone and that is what I used to do."
These days, the school has moved to south Fargo and the Shanley football team plays on artificial turf. Erhardt leads the customer marketing and sales for a multi-billion dollar corporation. The 52-year-old is president of ESPN customer marketing and sales, a job he has held since 1999.
"It's never dull," Erhardt said. "I feel fortunate that I have the opportunity to do it. It's a wonderful brand to sell and market."
A 1975 Shanley graduate, Erhardt will be in Fargo on Saturday. He's part of this year's Fargo Catholic Schools Network Hall of Fame class. The son of former North Dakota State and NFL head coach Ron Erhardt, Ed Erhardt played football, basketball and golf for Shanley.
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"There is no question that the lessons and the people that I spent time with in the years I grew up at Shanley High School helped me be in a position where I can do the kinds of things I do now," said Ed, who will be joined in Fargo this weekend by his mom, Rhoda.
Ed and his wife, Laurie, have two kids, Brett, 23, and Colin, 20.
Ed works out of a New York City office, but also spends time in Bristol, Conn., the home of ESPN. His job also calls for steady travel throughout the United States and the world.
"I spend a fair amount of time outside the U.S.," said Ed, who started this week in New York City before a few days in Chicago en route to Fargo.
"It's exciting to be able to come back and see what's happening with Shanley and see what's happening with Fargo," Ed said. "I'm haven't been back in the area or the region for a number of years."
When Ed took his current job in 1999, his task was to merge ESPN and ABC sports sales and marketing teams together.
"You only get so many opportunities to do a job that," Ed said.
He was previously the vice president and group publisher at advertising age magazine.
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"When I did it, people were pretty skeptical because they didn't think you could merge the two together and I wasn't a television person," Ed said. "I was a magazine, print person. Ten years later and I think I have done a pretty good job of that."
