Shining from the sidelines: UWM alum defines her own roles with the Milwaukee Bucks

Most of the jobs Tyra Eiland has held have one thing in common: They didn’t exist before she asked to make them.

The first time it happened was when she was a student at UWM. Eiland had attended a Milwaukee Bucks basketball game and was intrigued by the master of ceremonies, who worked the crowd and ran on-court games and promotions with the fans. She wanted that job, so she approached the UWM Athletic Department and asked to do the same thing for the men’s basketball team.

“They came back and said, ‘Well, we’d love to have you, but we’d have to pay you,’ which is the best situation to end up in,” Eiland said. “The announcer would still do all the reads and sponsorships. I would do all the in-game promotions. If there was a contest between two fans, I was the one to facilitate that on the court.”

That was the 2013-14 season, when the Panthers made it into the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Eiland was there through it all, traveling with the team and gaining experience.

Then she put it to work for the Milwaukee Bucks – first as an intern, and then, after she graduated from UWM in 2016, as a full-time employee in the team’s community relations department, now called the Corporate Social Responsibility Department.

And when the Bucks began expanding, adding a G-League team called the Wisconsin Herd and starting the Bucks Gaming e-sports team, Eiland was granted the opportunity to explore the broadcast space in all new roles. Today, she’s fulfilling, yet again, a newly-created role – this time as a sideline reporter for the Herd and as a gaming correspondent for Bucks Gaming.

And late last year, Eiland was offered a fulltime role as talent under the Milwaukee Bucks.

“They created the role that I now am in. It’s the Multimedia Content Creator. It’s a fancy way to say ‘broadcast talent,’ in my opinion,” Eiland said.

Tyra Eiland delivers a sideline report during a Wisconsin Herd game. Photo courtesy of Tyra Eiland.

A talent for communication

Eiland actually started her college career at another university, but she transferred to UWM because of its proximity to Milwaukee’s sports teams – and hopefully, job opportunities with those teams. She also found a major she loved: Journalism, advertising, and media studies.

“UWM gave me the opportunity to major in something I really enjoyed versus something I felt pressured to do,” she said. “Media Studies was not a track that I would have been able to do (at other schools). I was able to study media and public relations, journalism, law, all in that same bucket, and enjoyed it. I was able to do internships that I would not have had access to at other schools in Wisconsin.”

That included internships with ESPN and TMJ4’s Morning Blend, which led to an internship with the Milwaukee Bucks and an opportunity to MC for the Lakeshore Chinooks, a minor-league baseball team based in Grafton, Wisconsin.

Eiland also had another well of experience to draw from as she began her forays into the sports world: From 2013- 16, she competed in pageants, winning her first title in 2014. As a contestant, Eiland was required to champion a platform. She selected women’s empowerment, creating programs that encourage young women to be themselves. Later in her journey, she focused on mental health to address the experiences she faced as a child and having a mother who struggled with depression.

That advocacy prepared her for the community relations internship with the Bucks while she was in college, leading to her current role as a Multimedia Content Creator. Pageantry also prepared Eiland for something else - owning her own business, Invisible Beauty.

She’s still advocating today. Eiland enjoys connecting with Milwaukee businesswomen in her role, and she hopes to inspire young women in college to follow their passions, just as she has.

“Sometimes we shy away from what we truly love because of fear of rejection or how we view ourselves, but we have these gifts,” Eiland said. “I want every young girl to find her own self-love and step out on faith and walk into what they truly want to do.”

Tyra Eiland has forged her own role with the Milwaukee Bucks organization. She is now the team’s multimedia content coordinator. Photo courtesy of Tyra Eiland.

A jill of all trades

Eiland’s job includes a little bit of everything.

“I do the sideline reporting for the Wisconsin Herd and I’m the correspondent for Bucks Gaming,” she said. “We do a lot of Chalk Talks with BMO Harris Bank as a sponsor. I’m able to interact with the front office on the basketball side by interviewing John Horst (Bucks general

manager) or Milt Newton (assistant general manager). I do some of the promotional photoshoots for all assets: the Milwaukee Bucks, the Wisconsin Herd, and Bucks Gaming merchandise. Wherever there is a need, whether it’s for video or live talent, I fill in the gaps.”

Sideline reporting is its own beast.

“Out of the three roles – you have the color, the analyst, and the sideline reporter – the sideline is work, not just a pretty face,” Eiland explained. “The sideline reporter is using their information about what makes the players human. You can’t always plan for that because you don’t know who’s going to have a successful game that night, and that’s when you want to bring out those cool stories.”

She does that by getting to know the players – both on the Herd and on the Bucks – and treating them with respect.

The players are shining this season, and on both teams. As of March 1, the Bucks have a 52-8 record and the Herd sits at 31-9. Eiland is thrilled to be part of the franchise as Milwaukee leads the Eastern Conference.

“I hope they make it all the way to the finals,” she said. “We have talent that has been grown and developed for this moment – to win a championship.”

By Sarah Vickery, College of Letters & Science