There’s not a day Todd Kober ‘97, M.S. ‘99, can recall where football was not a part of his life. In fact, Kober has never missed viewing an NFL Draft on TV—not once—until 2023. He traded that standing, annual TV date with the draft for a life-changing professional experience.
“I have no idea what happened that weekend (with the draft on TV), but those three days were quite possibly some of the most fulfilling of my life anyway,” said Kober, former Illinois State University senior associate athletics director for external relations (2001-2012).
From April 27-29, 2023, the National Football League (NFL) hosted its 88th annual draft outside of Union Station in Kansas City, Missouri, where top talents like former Alabama quarterback Bryce Young found a new home with the Carolina Panthers. One of the most anticipated events of the year, NFL fans nationwide count down the days until they can watch prospects learn their future teams.
While Kober, currently the senior sports marketing manager at Children’s Mercy Kansas City, would usually anticipate the draft right along with other diehard football fans, he found himself handling a robotics fleet team on the NFL’s Red Carpet the first evening of the draft instead.
Through the use of robotics and the support of the Children’s Mercy telecommunications and child life teams, Kober helped connect Children’s Mercy “top prospects” with the NFL’s future best.
“I had Carlie with me virtually that first night,” said Kober. “She’s in the midst of battling her second round of cancer and just loves people and misses that human interaction. Anybody who was wearing something colorful on the Red Carpet, she wanted to talk to.
“This one guy had on a Miami Dolphins Starter jacket, so I walked her over to meet him and he turned out to be an NFL staffer,” said Kober. “One conversation later and not only had she secured her own Dolphin’s jacket, but she had also connected with one of the commissioner’s security guards. He personally invited all the kids to meet the commissioner on Saturday.”
Children’s Mercy is a nonprofit comprehensive pediatric medical center, integrating clinical care and research for pediatric patients. Kober has worked in its communications and marketing area since February 2019.
When the NFL announced Kansas City as the location of the 2023 draft, Kober knew he was in for a challenge.
“Our new CMO asked me to ‘make something happen,’” recalled Kober. “And then she told me my budget was zero dollars.”
No stranger to innovative thinking, Kober quickly pulled a play from his ISU handbook. “Illinois State taught me how to do more with less,” he said. “I came up with a handful of ideas and three stuck.”
The first idea came to life the Wednesday before the draft.
“We called it the Playmakers Playdate, an event designed for NFL prospects to stop by the hospital and visit with the kids,” he said. “Everyone got to mingle, play games like Connect 4, and autograph footballs.”
Collaborating with the Children’s Mercy philanthropy department, several former NFL players and current Kansas City Chiefs tight end Noah Gray joined in on the action too, as well as local Kansas City product Ikenna Enechukwu, who played at Rice University and was signed by the Atlanta Falcons.
For Kober, the concept of the Playmakers Playdate inspired his second idea.
“Another local player, Kansas State defensive end Felix Anudike-Uzomah, was originally scheduled to attend the playdate,” said Kober, “but, unfortunately, he had a last-minute conflict in his schedule. He texted me and asked if he could come on Friday morning instead. I remember laughing and pointing out to him that he would likely be drafted into the NFL the evening before, but he insisted he’d be there.”
As Kober predicted, Anudike-Uzomah was, indeed, a Thursday first-round draft as pick No. 31, taken by his hometown Kansas City Chiefs.
“At 4 a.m. on Friday though, I got a text message that said, ‘Are we still on?’ Less than 12 hours after experiencing what was surely the highlight of his life, Felix showed up at the hospital with his (K-State) teammate Deuce Vaughn, who was also later drafted in the sixth round by the Dallas Cowboys.”
Just hours after his football dreams had come true, Anudike-Uzomah kept a playdate with kids he’d never met.
“They are both just amazing guys,” added Kober. “But for Felix, coming off the ultimate high of likely the biggest moment of his career, and then to turn around and be so selfless…it’s just amazing.”
Cultivating a relationship with Anudike-Uzomah in the early hours of Friday morning set the tone for the day to come. By the evening, Kober sat in the NFL’s green room, an invite-only area for former players who would later announce the selections of their former teams.
“I’m a Chicago Bears fan, so it was really cool to be part of this experience but not make it about me and instead put the focus of the experience on the kids first,” said Kober. “I was with a child named Nykil that night, and together we got to hang out with (former Bears Pro Bowl stars) Devin Hester and Charles ‘Peanut’ Tillman.”
For Kober’s final idea, he turned to Mercy’s robotic fleet team—a set of high-tech equipment designed to allow bedridden children the opportunity to attend events like prom, funerals, graduations, and any other life events they are unable to do in their current state.
“I’ve had the privilege of working with these robots before,” said Kober. “We do about five Sporting Kansas City experiences per year, and I know the joy these robots bring the kids—especially those in long-term care. Our robots take them away from the doldrums of being in the hospital, and I wanted to see what I could do to include as many kids as possible in the draft.”
Kober connected with Sam Fink, the NFL director of content partnerships, who made the introduction Kober needed with Tim Tubito, the NFL director of event presentation and content. Tubito paved the way for the robotics team to be a part of the three-day event. One of the experiences during the three days was the Red Carpet where the kids would have the opportunity to virtually engage with the top prospects.
“One of our kids, Jhayliegh, caught the eye of (No. 2 overall draft pick) CJ Stroud of Ohio State, and he told her that if he got drafted, he’d hold up a heart symbol for her when he walked onto the stage. And sure enough, he did.”
Kober is quick to point out that the holistic experience partnering with the NFL to bring joy to the kids at Children’s Mercy took a village. He was simply a cog in the process.
“It filled my heart seeing the events unfold. I slept really well every night that week knowing that I helped make a difference in a small way. And honestly, it was really fun to be ‘back at it’ again for those few days.”
Back at it—as in revisiting his 24-year career in sports public relations.
The first half
Kober left a legacy in his wake as an Illinois State Redbird where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in public relations and a Master of Science in sport administration. His innovation and leadership made Redbird Athletics better.
“I originally came to ISU as a math major,” recalled Kober. “But I realized one day in calculus, that I was probably the only kid in the room who watched Monday Night Football. That spooked me, and I was kind of afraid of the path I was on, so I stepped out.”
Kober paused his education until he discovered something called Illinois State Sports Information (now known as Athletics Communications), and a leader he could trust.
“That title really intrigued me, so I walked into my mentor, Kenny Mossman’s office and offered to volunteer my time,” said Kober. “He asked if I knew anything about tennis. I told him I definitely didn’t, but, before I knew it, he’d hired me for that role.”
Kober returned to campus, double majoring in public relations and computer science, while interning in sports information. Two years later, Mossman offered Kober a graduate assistantship.
“I thought that was just awesome because I’d get to work with the baseball team, but in order to take the job, Kenny told me I had to graduate that semester,” said Kober. “So, there went my double major in computer science.” The PR degree turned out to be enough, though.
As a graduate assistant, Kober learned time management at its finest and embraced seemingly perfectly timed opportunities.
“I think I was in grad school for about three weeks when our (full-time) assistant director resigned. Kenny approached me and encouraged me to apply for the job. Before I knew it, I was the new assistant media relations director,” recalled Kober, who finished his master’s degree while working full-time in Redbird Athletics.
After the master’s degree, though, Kober knew a change was needed. He accepted a role at Rice University in Houston, Texas, where he would gain experience working with men’s basketball and football at the FBS level. Competitively, a step up from ISU.
Just 13 months later, Kober got another call from Mossman.
“Timing is a funny thing,” remarked Kober. “My wife and I had ironically just signed an apartment lease (in Houston) for the next year when Kenny’s name appeared on my phone with a new opportunity. I tried to explain that I really enjoyed working with Rice basketball and football, and he said, ‘Well, you’ll get to work with both of those at ISU.’ And I was like, ‘Wait! Those are your two sports!’”
In August 2001, Kenny Mossman left ISU for a position at the University of Oklahoma, paving the way for Kober to step into his dream job as the lead sports communicator at his alma mater—a role that would sustain and build his career and legacy for 13 years.
“I’ve never been the smartest guy in the room. I’ve never been the most talented guy either. But I’ll put my grit and determination up against anybody.”
Todd Kober
“Todd Kober has world-class public relations talent, and almost everybody who ever worked with him—at ISU, at Rice, at Kansas, and at our competitors—recognized that. I had him in class as a PR student and he, literally, could have taught that class as a junior,” said Tom Lamonica, instructional assistant professor in the School of Communication and former sports information director at ISU.
During his tenure, Kober worked hard to bring success to Illinois State. He managed and directed brand development, corporate partnerships, and advanced the Redbird Radio Network and Redbird Productions—building and shaping his legacy and keeping Redbird Athletics competitive in the emerging digital world.
“I’ve never been the smartest guy in the room. I’ve never been the most talented guy either. But I’ll put my grit and determination up against anybody,” said Kober as he recalled his 13 years in the job.
Lamonica saw Kober’s work ethic and leadership up close.
“We worked together at every stage of his ISU career, from intern to department leader, and I still value his uniquely effective leadership philosophy,” said Lamonica. “He believed his first responsibility, as department leader, was to put the rest of us in situations where we could succeed. That philosophy inspired the students and younger people, for sure. But, late in my athletics career, he really helped me feel productive as the sports PR business started to change.”
With his wife, Susan (’92) and three small children, Kober appeared settled-in at his alma mater.
Changing the game plan
“I was starting to get the reputation as the guy who was never going to leave Illinois State,” said Kober. “And that’s not necessarily a bad thing, but the voice in the back of my head wouldn’t shut up and kept telling me that I couldn’t hack it at a bigger school.”
In one of the most difficult decisions of his career, Kober left ISU and headed to the University of Kansas for a seven-year stint as the associate athletics director/executive director for external branding. He proved he could “hack it” at the highest competitive level of college sports.
“I was afraid that Lawrence, Kansas, was just as flat as Normal, Illinois, but it turns out it’s not and my wife and I loved it,” he said.
Then life, and the culture of sports, threw Kober a curve ball.
“I was blindsided by the timing,” he said. “The newly hired AD eliminated my position two weeks before Christmas. After years of glowing evaluations and reviews, I found myself in need of a job.”
Since Kober’s undergraduate experience at ISU, athletics had always remained central to his career trajectory. Jobs in other industries never factored into his vision.
Until he was forced to pivot. He quickly reached out to former ISU colleagues.
“After a day of feeling sorry for myself, I let some folks know. I sent messages out to Tom Lamonica, R.C. McBride, and Larry Lyons—really grasping for straws,” he said. “And then a guy (Gerald Holland) I had previously worked with at Kansas reached out and told me about a job at Children’s Mercy.”
That afternoon, Kober interviewed for the role of senior sports marketing manager at Children’s Mercy. He was unemployed for a total of one day.
“Getting into this more traditional 9-5 job, I realized how much of my kids’ lives I missed out on,” said Kober. “You’ve got to be a little off-kilter to want to work in athletics—it is a total lifestyle. I don’t miss the 60–80-hour work weeks.”
While the quick shift into the healthcare industry was not part of life’s plan, Kober is grateful for the opportunity at Children’s Mercy, and the network that helped put him in the role so quickly.
Sports are still—and always will be—close to his heart. And today, Kober uses his creativity and talent to fill the hearts of children with joy, one play at a time.
