After a college search he himself described as “lackadaisical”, Clasen opted to apply to a school that would get him far away as away as possible from the Minnesota winters of his childhood and have him cheering for a championship-caliber football program.
It didn’t even matter at the time that he didn’t exactly know a whole lot about the place, or even that his mother was somewhat surprised by his choice.
He was sold on the University of Miami.
“I just really wanted to get out and experience the world, and I had a godfather that lived in Miami and was a big supporter of the football program and the athletic program, so I had that connection,” Clasen recalled. “So, I just remember it being kind of on my radar and wanting to find someplace far, far away from home. … I didn’t even know the University of Miami really existed until 1983, when I saw them play in the national championship game. I didn’t even know there was a University of Miami. But that’s how it came on my radar by the time I came to pick a college.
“I actually was the same age and grew up not too far from Steve Walsh. Back in the day, I think we were one of the only few Minnesota kids back in the 80’s actually to be at the University of Miami.”
And though there was some initial culture shock coming from Minnesota to South Florida, it didn’t take long for Clasen to find friends and a sense of community at Miami.
He competed on the school’s club rugby team and eventually, got a job selling ads for the University’s newspaper, The Miami Hurricane. Eventually, that sales job led to Clasen becoming the newspaper’s production manager and later, business manager.
Today, Clasen says his Miami experience, particularly with The Hurricane, was a somewhat fitting start to what turned out to be a successful entrepreneurial career.
“That kind of became part of my friendship group, along with the rugby team,” Clasen said. “The skills you learn in terms of meeting people, networking, working towards a goal, getting things accomplished … it’s a chance to kind of run a business. I was responsible for ad sales and making sure we had the funds to do the newspaper and negotiate with the editorial side of the paper and what have you. … That experience, pushing yourself to achieve and be a leader and knowing how to do that, … being in a situation where there might be conflicts and disagreements and the things you have to deal with in life, it gives you an opportunity to really experience that and grow and mature.”
After graduating from Miami, Clasen returned home to Minneapolis, earned his MBA at the University of St. Thomas and eventually began working with his family’s staffing firm that helped place temporary workers in factories and industrial positions.
Clasen eventually went on to found Creatis, a staffing service that focused on creative and marketing positions, but even as he lived far from Miami and his career and company grew, he never stopped following his alma mater’s progress on and off the field.
And more than once, what the University – and the Hurricanes themselves – accomplished served as an inspiration in his own professional life.
“The football program, and athletics broadly, is really the embodiment of the values of the University of Miami,” Clasen said. “There’s a set of core values there that is what’s attracting all of us. I didn’t know it at the time, but in hindsight, it was all about this commitment to being excellent and to achieving. … I wouldn’t have accomplished what I’ve accomplished in life without [my] experience there. I didn’t know it at the time, but [that commitment’s] obviously what attracted me.”
Today, Clasen is still a passionate supporter of Miami and the Hurricanes.
He and his wife, Sharon, travel across the country to attend Hurricanes sporting events as often as possible, and last year the couple pledged a $10 million legacy gift that will establish both the Clasen Family Endowed Athletics Scholarship and the Clasen Family Endowed Athletic Director Fund.
These endowed funds will impact the athletic department in perpetuity by providing support for student-athletes, while also equipping the athletic director with flexible resources to position Miami for success amid the changing landscape of college athletics.
Additionally, the Clasens also found a way to combine one of their passions – golfing – with supporting the Hurricanes, making an additional gift that will help the golf team acquire a new suite of cutting-edge player development technology.
The couple hosted the Hurricanes at their California home recently and not only got know the student-athletes wearing orange and green on the links but learned more about head coach Janice Olivencia’s vision for the program and what it needs to compete at the highest level.
“We were just happy to help the program and boy, in meeting these girls, I felt like I was meeting myself back then,” Clasen said. “The maturity, their drive to achievement, success and leadership – and by achievement and success, I mean – it’s going to be in life. Maybe some of them will do it through a golf career, but you can see even this experience of [competing] at the University and working to be the best they can be, it’s going to carry over for their lives in the future. You can see how they’re thinking about their futures in how they conduct themselves. … Their ability to network and reach out and build relationships that connect, you can just see how they’re growing into wonderful, wonderful human beings.”
Added Sharon Clasen, “It means a lot to us and it’s so fitting that, a, it’s a [women’s] team and b, it’s a small team that we can really get to know them and maybe be there for them in other capacities in life, in a mentoring way, a business way. … Whatever we can do, and wherever we can be there for them, to have them out, was really a fun thing to do.”
For Clasen, staying connected to the University and the Hurricanes remains a priority, especially considering all the program and the school have given him, he says.
And his family’s relationship with the golf team is just the latest step in his lifelong journey with Miami.
“It just gets back to the story again of how important all this was to where my life is at and what I’ve accomplished,” Clasen said. “And it’s really about the gratefulness for that experience and wanting to give back and pay it forward for the next generation for the same reasons. … had it not been for the University of Miami and what it represents, I wouldn’t be where I’m at in life and have the life that I have. That’s very true and heartfelt.”
