Muhammad Ali, Billie Jean King, eight Olympic Games! What do they have in common? Each plays an important role in a new book by PR vet Alan Taylor that chronicles his career from being a sports writer to a sports public relations expert. The book, “A Perfect Pair: PR and Event Promotion” is published by Amazon.
Taylor’s journey takes you from his sports writing days in Florida and California to an award winning public relations career in New York where he made sports public relations and event marketing a specialty in the 1980s.
The book explores his relationship with Ali, King and numerous other athletes through an award-winning career as a writer and a public relations person.
“Sports have always been my number one passion.” Taylor, 81 and now retired in Boca Raton, FL says. “I was never good enough to play, so I did the next best thing: write about sports and eventually promote sports activities. The natural progression in my generation was from media to public relations. So it was an obvious choice for me to make sports public relations a specialty after spending a number of years doing more traditional public relations activities.”
“Many friends and family encouraged me over the years to put on paper the wonderful experiences I’ve had in my career. Finally, the memory bug hit me and I authored my first book.”
“A Perfect Pair: PR and Event Promotions” covers and illustrates numerous client activities; the book also lays out some “how-to-tips” from the dinosaur age of public relations to the current modern day explosion of the digital/social media platform.”
“I covered and promoted numerous world championship fights in different weight categories and have yet to earn a coveted belt. I attended eight Olympic Games, promoting corporate clients’ sponsorships and I never earned a medal for my efforts. Those are probably records by themselves. But the memories and satisfied clients was worth more than a belt or an Olympic medal.”
The book is filled with anecdotes from boxing, tennis, other sports and a myriad of client activities to autobiographical information about how his career in writing and promoting all came together.
