College Sports Information Directors of America

The College Sports Information Directors of America have selected Chris Anderson of Nebraska, John Heisler of Notre Dame and Dave Wrath of Augustana College as the 2003 inductees into the CoSIDA Hall of Fame. The three will be inducted into the CoSIDA Hall of Fame July 2 during the organization's annual workshop, which will be held this year in Cleveland, Ohio. Chris Anderson Anderson, an 18-year veteran of the Husker athletics department, is in her 11th year as Nebraska's sports information director. She was promoted to the position in July of 1993, after serving as the interim associate SID during the 1992-93 academic year. Anderson replaced CoSIDA Hall of Famer Don Bryant, who retired as associate athletics director for public relations in July of 1997. Anderson has served as an assistant athletics director for communications for the past six years and last May was promoted to associate athletics director. In additions to her duties as SID, Anderson oversees all athletic department publications and television productions plus assists with radio and television contracts. A member of the senior athletic administrative staff, Anderson is in charge of all publicity and promotional activities for the Husker football team and oversees the publication of all NU sports information printed materials for all 23 varsity sports. Her 1993 football media guide/recruiting guide, the 1994 national championship poster and the 2001 football guide cover were named "Best in the Nation" by CoSIDA, while her 1996 football guide was runner-up and the 2001 guide ranked third nationally. Following a two-year stint as an assistant sports information director at Kansas State, Anderson returned to her alma mater in January of 1986, to assume a similar position for the Huskers. She is only the third person in school history to hold the title of sports information director, following in the footsteps of the late John Bentley and Bryant, who held the post for 31 years. Anderson, who graduated from Nebraska in 1983 with a bachelor's degree in journalism, was a three-year at-large representative on the CoSIDA Board of Directors from 1996-98. She is a vice-chair in charge of publicity on the CoSIDA postgraduate scholarship committee and is a member of the Dick Enberg Award Selection Committee for the Academic All-America Hall of Fame. A native of Panama, Neb., Anderson graduated from Norris High School in 1979. The former Chris Bouma, she is married to Ron Anderson, and has a stepson, Riley, age 21; a son Jake , 8; and a son, Daniel, 2. John Heisler Heisler, a native of South Bend, Ind., is in his 25th year as a member of the Notre Dame athletics staff and his 15th year as sports information director at Notre Dame. An associate athletics director for media relations, broadcast properties and contest scheduling, Heisler was promoted to his current position in 2001 after serving as an assistant athletics director from 1995-2001. Heisler originally joined the athletic staff in April 1978 as assistant sports information director and was promoted to associate director in July of 1982 under former longtime sports information director and CoSIDA Hall of Fame member Roger Valdiserri. Heisler has helped edit a variety of award-winning publications, including 25 judged "Best in the Nation" by the CoSIDA Publications Committee. He has worked primarily with the Notre Dame football and basketball departments since his promotion to associate athletics director and has produced nine top-ranked football media guides and four more in football. Heisler spent four years working in the University of Missouri sports information office as a student, handling publicity for basketball and nonrevenue sports. Following his graduation in December of 1976, he was named the first full-time assistant to Missouri sports information director Bill Callahan prior to moving to Notre Dame one year later. Heisler has helped direct research operations in Los Angeles for ABC Sports coverage of the 1984 Olympics, worked with NBC Sports as an administrator of its research operations for its coverage of the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Ga., and served as a network liaison with ABC Sports for its coverage of the 1987 International Summer Special Olympics at Notre Dame. Heisler also assisted Lou Holtz in the writing of The Fighting Spirit, the bestselling story of Notre Dame's 1988 national championship football season and edited Quotable Rockne, a book of Knute Rockne quotations published in 2001. Heisler served as media coordinator for NCAA men's basketball tournament games at Notre Dame in 1985 and 1988, and has worked at five NCAA Final Four events. He helped initiate the CoSIDA Writing Contest as part of his longtime involvement with the writing committee. In 1994, Heisler received the Special Presidential Award from Notre Dame president Rev. Edward A. Malloy, C.S.C., and was awarded an honorary monogram by the Notre Dame National Monogram Club in 1991. Heisler, and his wife Karen, are the parents of two sons, Scott and Timothy. Dave Wrath Wrath has been the sports information director at Augustana since February of 1981, after replacing Jim McGrath, who is currently an associate athletics director at Butler University. After brief stops as the sports editor of newspapers in Plainfield, Ill., and Fulton, Ky., Wrath was hired at Augustana just a month before the school was scheduled to host the 1981 NCAA Division III Final Four in men's basketball. Since that time, Wrath has served as the media coordinator for three NCAA Division III National Championships in wrestling, three in cross country and two in football. He was in charge during Augustana's unprecedented run of football success in the mid-1980s that saw the Vikings win four straight NCAA Division III national titles, while posting a 60-game unbeaten streak from 1983-87. Wrath has designed 30 media guides that have won awards in the annual CoSIDA Publications Contest, including nine that have won "Best in the Nation." He was awarded a Press Box Citation Award by the Football Writers Association in 1988, while his 1988 story on Augustana distance runner Ambo Bati's recovery from a tragic injury was selected as "Best in the Nation" in CoSIDA's annual writing contest. Wrath has won three writing awards from CoSIDA in his career. In the summer of 2000, Wrath was the recipient of the Warren Berg Award by CoSIDA, while in September of that same year he received the Scoop Hudgens Lifetime Achievement Award from the All-American Football Foundation. He has served as a district coordinator on the CoSIDA Academic All-America Committee for 16 years and prior to that was on the Publicity Committee. Wrath has served as the North Region Chair of the NCAA Division III Hewlett Packard Football All-America Selection Committee since 1990. Since 1996, he has been the publicity director of the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin, he serves as the newsletter editor/secretary of the Augustana Alumni Tribe of Vikings and is also the chair of Augustana's Hall of Honor Committee and serves on the publication board. Wrath was the media relations director for boxing at the 1987 Pan Am Games, is a member of the selection committee for the Quad City Times Sports Hall of Fame, serves as the facilities coordinator for the Mississippi Area Special Olympics and is a writer of prayers for Sacred Heart Catholic Church. He and his wife, Joan, both natives of Plainfield, Ill., have a daughter, Leah, 15. He earned three letters in cross country and two in track at Augustana. As a senior, he helped the Vikings to a fourth-place finish in the 1979 NCAA Division III National Cross Country Championships.