He was the youngest of five boys, his father a high school coach, and by the time he was big and strong enough to run on a field or dribble on a hardwood floor, Terry Hasseltine was taking naturally to two positions that augured his future career: soccer midfielder and basketball point guard.
For the uninitiated in the sporting world, those are athletes who aim to keep a clear vision of the field, control the ball as much as possible and get it to the scorers who can do the most damage.
"I've always been about the team," says Hasseltine, 39, director of the Maryland Office of Sports Marketing and the man as responsible as anyone for bringing Friday night's soccer match between AC Milan and Chelsea FC to Baltimore.
More than 71,000 fans will pack M&T Bank Stadium for the 8 p.m. game. ESPN will beam it live worldwide.
"We'll have fans from all around the region, but this is an international event," says Frederick W. Puddester of the Maryland Stadium Authority. "It's incredibly big for us."
It was a scant 11 months ago that Gov. Martin O'Malley, determined to maximize the state's capacity to attract major sporting events, agreed to create the Maryland Office of Sports Marketing, now part of the state's Department of Business and Economic Development.
A nationwide search for a leader settled quickly on Hasseltine, then a deputy director of the Kentucky Sports Authority. During his years there, the organization landed the 2008 Ryder Cup golf tournament and the 2010 FEI World Equestrian Games.
"We were looking for a seasoned professional who knew the players in the industry," says Puddester, then the MSA board chairman. "Terry fit the bill."
He called Hasseltine a tireless worker with a low-key approach - perfect for his new role as Maryland's first-ever "go-to guy" for pulling such events together. In his first year on the job, he has spearheaded some major coups. In February, he helped persuade the NCAA to return its Lacrosse National Championships, a three-day event that happens over the Memorial Day weekend, to M&T Bank Stadium for 2010 and 2011. In June, he helped cinch the deal that brings the Army-Navy football game to FedEx Field in Landover in 2011 and back to M&T Bank Stadium for 2014 and 2016.
"Terry has been traveling the state, taking inventory of our facilities, just as often working on projects you might not read about in the newspaper," Puddester says.
