Despite years of student demand for an undergraduate sports journalism class, Medill’s new course on the subject is only a little more than half full.

The Fall Quarter, 40-person class still had 17 spots open as of Thursday night. Prior to the creation of Sports Reporting, Medill did not offer any sports journalism classes for undergraduate journalism students. The school most recently offered a sports journalism elective in Spring 2011, but the course was only open to non-journalism majors.

Rumors of a sports journalism class coming to Medill began circulating last spring, when the University named Bradley Hamm as the school’s new dean. Hamm created the country’s first master’s program for sports journalism while he was dean of Indiana University’s School of Journalism.

“Sports journalism will be a greater presence, based on what I know of Hamm,” said Medill Prof. Lester Munson Jr., who teaches sports journalism at the graduate level.  “He understands, in ways that previous deans did not understand, the importance and the interest of this specialty.”

Munson Jr. said he is confident sports journalism will have a greater presence in the Medill curriculum in the future.

“To have only one course in all of Medill is ridiculous,” said Munson Jr., who is also a senior writer and legal analyst at ESPN.

Medill Prof. Craig LaMay teaches a course about sports as a social institution in the School of Continuing Studies to students in the master’s of sports administration program.

“Some people think sports are not a serious subject,” LaMay said. “If you ask a lot of journalists, sports is soft.”

Medill junior Nick Friar is interested in pursuing sports journalism but will not be able to take the class because he is completing his Journalism Residency at Sports Illustrated in the fall. He said he has not been able to take any sports-specific classes in Medill.

Most classes Friar has taken have allowed him to focus on topics — like sports — in which he is interested. Starting in intro-level classes, he said, “I was writing sports stories all I could.”

“It would be nice if they had a class or two on it, but I think it’s all about what you do yourself,” Friar said.

Given the competitive state of the journalism industry, Munson said Medill should be offering more journalism course options.

“When young journalists are in competition with people from Syracuse or from Berkeley or from other schools where the sports curriculum is greater, I think you’re at a competitive disadvantage,” Munson said. “That shouldn’t have to happen at a school that has the presence of Medill.”