New TUTV special follows Klein College students as they work alongside CBS Sports professionals at the 2026 PGA Championship
When some of the biggest names in golf arrived at Aronimink Golf Club for the 2026 PGA Championship, a group of Klein College of Media and Communication students had an opportunity few college students ever experience: helping bring one of sports television’s biggest events to a national audience.
Their story is featured in a new TUTV special, Temple on the Green, hosted by former Philadelphia 76ers television announcer Marc Zumoff, now Associate Director of the Claire Smith Center for Sports Media at Klein College.
Fittingly, students also played a leading role in bringing the story to television. Temple junior Lizzie Pegg served as Executive Producer of Temple on the Green, helping shape a program that tells the story of her fellow students and their extraordinary behind-the-scenes experience at one of golf’s premier events.
The program takes viewers behind the scenes of the PGA Championship through the eyes of Temple students who worked alongside CBS Sports professionals as camera assistants, audio assistants and utility workers. From laying cable and preparing the television compound to carrying equipment across the course and capturing the sounds viewers heard during the broadcast, the students became part of the massive team required to produce a major live sporting event.
The opportunity began when Chris Blackman, Director of Career Services at Klein College, was contacted by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), which was looking for students to assist with the television production.
Blackman immediately recognized the value of the opportunity.
“I just thought it was a great opportunity to get real world hands-on experience working a major event,” Blackman says in the program. “That’s just a priceless opportunity to see how things work.”
The students quickly discovered that working a major network sports broadcast isn’t glamorous all the time.
They endured rain, mud, early mornings, long days and miles of walking while moving equipment around the sprawling golf course. Some helped camera operators navigate through thousands of spectators. Others learned to operate parabolic microphones close enough to the golfers to capture the sound of a club striking the ball for the CBS broadcast.
But those challenges became an important part of the experience.
“There’s no amount of stuff that could prepare you more than just going in and doing it,” one student says in the program.
For Ben Nicholas, a Media Studies and Production major, the experience provided a rare opportunity to see the planning behind a national sports broadcast. Before the tournament began, he and his camera operator spent days scouting Aronimink, determining camera positions and learning how to navigate the course.
Once competition began, the students were immersed in the production.
They weren’t simply watching professionals work. They were working alongside them.
That distinction is at the heart of Temple on the Green.
The program explores not only what the students did at Aronimink, but how their experiences at Temple prepared them to step into an unfamiliar professional environment and contribute.
Students who had worked on Temple productions immediately recognized the language, equipment and rhythm of a live broadcast. One student recalls listening to the CBS director through an IFB and realizing that what she was hearing sounded remarkably familiar.
“It sounded just like Temple Update,” she says.
That familiarity helped turn what could have been an intimidating experience into another step in their professional development.
The CBS Sports professionals also took notice.
Students recalled being told that the Temple group was among the best utility crews some of the professionals had worked with. Nicholas said their Temple connection carried a reputation of its own.
“They really liked our attitudes. They really liked our overall characters and our level of commitment to the broadcast and the tournament in general,” he says. “It was almost like when we told them that we were from Temple, it just made sense to them.”
For Blackman, that reaction reflects something he sees regularly from employers looking for Klein students.
“I can’t tell you how many times I get companies and HR people reaching out saying we are looking specifically for Klein students because we’ve had such a great experience with them in the past and we know what they can do,” he says.
Beyond the technical experience and professional connections, Temple on the Green also captures something unexpected: the bond that developed among the students themselves.
Many knew one another before arriving at Aronimink but had never worked closely together. Long days, difficult conditions, shared mistakes and plenty of laughter transformed the assignment into a memorable experience they shared as a group.
Most importantly, the experience gave several students greater clarity about where they hope their careers will take them.
“The biggest thing that I was able to take away from this experience is probably just the clarity I got from it on my career,” Nicholas says.
That journey—from uncertainty to experience to confidence—is ultimately what Temple on the Green is about.
The program offers an inside look at a major CBS Sports production, but its larger story is about experiential learning: giving students the opportunity to take what they have learned in Temple’s classrooms and studios and discover what they can do when the stakes are real.
For these Klein students, the 2026 PGA Championship was more than a line on a résumé. It was an opportunity to discover that they were ready to belong in the professional world.
Watch Temple on the Green on Temple University Television (TUTV) and streaming on templetv.net.
