Like many boys growing up in Indiana, CJ Harrington’s story revolved around the game of basketball — a sport he began playing as a kid in his hometown of Indianapolis.
And indeed, basketball was everything for Harrington, AB ’17, for most of his young Hoosier life. He proudly recalls, for example, how he helped his high school, Park Tudor, to not only two Indiana state championships but also his school’s first county league title. If you know anything about basketball in Indiana, state titles are great but winning the Marion County tournament, where Indianapolis-area schools compete regardless of enrollment size, is a huge accomplishment.
A forward in high school and college, Harrington described himself as a team player, good, not great. “I was never the best player by any means,” he says. “But I always did everything I could to help my team.” And when it came time to consider colleges, basketball was always going to be a consideration.
A high school friend was attending a WashU showcase camp one summer, so Harrington tagged along. He immediately fell in love with the Danforth Campus. “I thought the university, the basketball team, the coaches, the history of the program, all of it was amazing,” Harrington says. “WashU was a perfect fit, being able to have access to top-notch academics and potentially play basketball.”
But for Harrington, who matriculated as an Ervin Scholar, basketball would come to an abrupt halt. He was cut by Coach Mark Edwards as a first-year — a situation that left him devastated, and then motivated. He worked his way back on the team as a sophomore. “My favorite basketball memory is actually making the team,” he quipped in a feature on the BearSports website. He missed most of his junior season to a knee injury, then worked his way back, again, to becoming a captain his senior year.
“WashU basketball turned out to be awesome, being a part of the team and helping the guys as much as possible,” Harrington says. “But I also learned what I was willing to do for myself, what I had to do to make my dreams come true.” He did that while working toward a double major in political science in Arts & Sciences and leadership and strategic management at Olin Business School.
And the other activities he got involved with, he says, taught him even more than basketball did, such as being a part of the Ervin Scholar community. With an eye to law school, he became founder and editor of the School of Law’s Undergraduate Law Review. And he became president of Thurtene Honorary, an experience he draws on today. “Thurtene was exactly like running a company,” Harrington says. “It was probably helpful that my knee gave out junior year. I grew so much as a leader with Thurtene.”
Harrington would go right from WashU to Stanford, where he earned a J.D. in 2020. He’d begin a career in “Big Law,” working at the country’s most prestigious law firms and carving out a career in mergers and acquisitions and, eventually, sport. His work, including assisting with the sales of professional sports franchises like the Washington Commanders, the Denver Broncos and Olympique Lyonnais Féminin (the world’s most famous women’s soccer team), landed him on the Forbes “30 Under 30 Sports” list in January 2025, alongside the likes of NBA star Jayson Tatum and the WNBA’s Caitlin Clark.
Now, he has bet on himself one more time. This spring, he walked away from his law firm to write a new story for himself, working toward creating an entertainment company from the ground up. And he’s still looking at his WashU experiences — especially Thurtene, where he served as president in the spring of 2016 — for inspiration.
“I really started thinking about what I could do in this world,” he says. “How do I want to feel about my work day-to-day? The Thurtene experience was something that stood out to me, being able to put on this huge event that has a strong mission behind it. In our case, our community partner was Ready Readers, a group that brings kids a lot of joy.”
‘I believe in heroes. I just want to give folks someone to look up to.’
CJ Harrington
The three-day carnival that spring was one of the last times it was held on the east end of campus and Harrington put his heart and soul into making it a success. “I grew so much as a leader, not only because it’s an opportunity to put on one of the largest public-facing events for the university, but it’s a community building event for the city of St Louis,” Harrington says. “I made some of the best friends of my life. And I was able to help others. I want that feeling for the rest of my career.”
He aims to build a company whose mission is to create stories — through documentaries, music, live events, books and film scripts — that will remind the world of heroes it may have forgotten. He’s inspired by his own heroes like NBA great Oscar Robertson, who once signed a 4th-grade book report Harrington did on Robertson as a “Famous Hoosier”; and his grandfather, the Rev. Dr. Arthur Johnson Jr., a community activist and prominent pastor of the Friendship Baptist Church in Indianapolis.
“He was born in indentured servitude in Mississippi,” says Harrington of his grandfather. “Eventually he becomes a prominent pastor in Indianapolis. He will ultimately be given the keys to the city.” Harrington’s grandfather died when Harrington was only 3 months old, but he still treasures his grandfather’s books of sermon notes.
It was that inspiration, he says, that really made him think about the trajectory of his career and take the bold course for himself and his career in an uncertain time. “It is an unprecedented time to be sure,” he says, “and not everyone gets to choose what they get to do in these times. I do believe in helping others and trying to create an impact, and this seems like the right way to go.
“I believe in heroes,” he says. “I just want to give folks someone to look up to.”
