Jim Constandt is still a familiar presence at Michigan State football, basketball and hockey games, greeting fans entering those venues and assisting the media in the press areas.
People stop to say hello. Some call him by name. Others just smile, as if spotting something reassuring that never seems to move. He has 50 years of experience helping with MSU Athletics events, and his legacy is rooted in his connection with the Spartan community.
“That’s one of the things I enjoy the most,” Constandt, 83, said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re a student worker, a longtime fan or someone walking by for the first time, I like talking to people. You see the same faces year after year, and it becomes familiar.”
Constandt didn’t set out to become part of Michigan State Athletics, as he didn’t arrive in East Lansing with any expectation that the work he started in 1976 would still be part of his life. He’s done everything from statistics and official scoring for games, serving as a liaison for officials as well as an off-ice official, making sure the media had copies of stats and box scores, to anything else he could do to help things flow for MSU Athletics behind the scenes on a game day.
“That’s one of the first things you notice about Jim,” said Nathaniel Brown, a Coopersville, Michigan, native and marketing major who has worked alongside Constandt for the past year. “He talks to everyone. It doesn’t matter if you’re a student worker, a longtime fan or someone walking by for the first time, he’ll say hi.”
Constandt shrugs at the attention.
“That’s just familiarity,” he said. “They’ve been sitting in the same places for years. I’ve been in the same place for years. You recognize people.”
Constandt came to East Lansing from Detroit in 1976, after working with the Detroit Junior Red Wings hockey program. Through that role, he knew late Michigan State hockey coach Ron Mason, who recruited players from Detroit.
When Constandt moved to the area, he reached out to Mason.
“I asked Ron if he needed any help,” Constandt said. “He really didn’t. But he took me under his wing.”
That small gesture set everything in motion.
He began doing statistics for Michigan State hockey games in the press box. When the season ended, Constandt didn’t wait for the next opportunity to come to him. He went looking for it.
He walked into the Athletic Department and asked Sports Information Director Nick Vista whether there was anything else he could help with.
The answer placed Constandt on the sidelines of Big Ten football.
The conference allows a liaison on the field to communicate with officials for rule clarifications, and Constandt was tapped for the job. From 1976 until October 2007, he worked games from the sideline, close enough to feel the collisions, hear the calls and experience college athletics at its most raw.
That run ended during pregame warmups in 2007, when a player accidentally struck Constandt from behind and tore his quadriceps.
“I had surgery,” he said. “The doctor put Humpty Dumpty back together.”
The injury moved him from the field to the press box, but it didn’t move him out of the game.
For about 40 years, Constandt also served as one of Michigan State basketball’s official scorers. Before laptops and instant stat feeds, that responsibility required relentless focus. Every possession was tracked by hand. Every number mattered.
“All you do is focus on jersey numbers,” he said. “That’s it.”
Brown said working with Constandt has given him an appreciation for just how much precision and knowledge the job requires.
“He’s been doing this longer than I’ve been alive,” Brown said. “It’s honestly really cool working with someone who’s been here for so long and still loves it. He knows everything, but he never acts like it.”
As technology advanced, scoring responsibilities moved to computers and student workers. When the final horn sounds now, box scores are printed in seconds instead of minutes.
“The media liked that better,” Constandt said.
Still, he stayed.
Today, Constandt continues working football, basketball and hockey games, serving as a Big Ten off-ice official for hockey. Asked what will eventually bring his tenure to a close, he doesn’t hesitate.
“My health,” he said. “That’ll dictate it.”
Brown said Constandt’s continued presence adds a sense of continuity for younger staffers.
“When you’re new, everything feels fast,” Brown said. “Having Jim there, someone who’s seen decades of this, it kind of grounds you.”
Constandt has also witnessed the full arc of Michigan State basketball’s modern history. He worked games during Jud Heathcote’s era and now, every season of Tom Izzo’s head coaching career. One of his responsibilities was collecting starting lineups before games and distributing them to broadcasters and media, a routine that brought him into constant contact with the coaching staff.
“I know Tom very well,” Constandt said.
From his seat, Constandt watched Izzo develop players year after year. One of them caught his eye long before national championships and NBA titles followed.
Constandt was scoring a high school tournament when he noticed a 6-foot-7 player from Saginaw leading the fast break.
“You could tell he was smart,” Constandt said. “He had talent.”
That player was Draymond Green.
Away from Michigan State, Constandt’s calendar remains full. He volunteers at the Grand Ledge Food Bank and Potter Park Zoo. He also writes books, updating works on U.S. Olympic history and maintaining the Michigan State Hockey Encyclopedia.
His Olympic connection runs deep. Constandt spent 28 years as a volunteer press officer for the U.S. Olympic Committee and worked seven Olympic Games.
His favorite memory came at the first.
“Sitting in the stands at the opening ceremonies in Seoul in 1988,” he said. “I’m thinking, ‘What’s this kid from Detroit doing here?’”
When asked about his favorite moments at Michigan State, Constandt’s answer is simple: national championships, hockey in 1986 and 2007, basketball in 2000.
“You win one of those,” he said. “That’s the top.”
Constandt doesn’t talk about legacy, but others do, often in passing, often without him noticing. He just keeps showing up, greeting familiar faces and doing the job the same way he has for decades.
And as Brown put it, that consistency is exactly what makes Constandt special.
“He’s just Jim,” Brown said. “And Michigan State wouldn’t feel the same without him.”