College Sports Information Directors of America

Hal Cowan of Oregon State, Paul Just of Western Kentucky and Will Keener of Cal State-Stanislaus will each receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the College Sports Information Directors of America at the group's annual workshop June 30 in Cleveland, Ohio. The award is presented annually to CoSIDA members who have served at least 25 years in the profession and are retiring or leaving the profession. Hal Cowan Cowan, a 1993 inductee into the CoSIDA Hall of Fame and the 1994-95 president of the organization, has been the sports information director at Oregon State since 1976. A recipient of CoSIDA's 2002 Arch Award, Cowan's sports information career began in 1965 at Central Michigan University. His career includes stints at five colleges and the World Football League. A graduate of Linfield College, Cowan has worked at three schools in the Pacific-10 Conference -- California, Oregon and Oregon State. In addition to his work in sports information, Cowan worked as a sportswriter for the Oregonian and the Oregon Statesman. He then served as a First Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Medical Corp for two years before becoming the SID at Central Michigan. He spent one year at CMU before spending one season at Cal-Berkeley. Cowan returned to his home state of Oregon when he was named the SID of the University of Oregon and spent seven years with the Ducks before moving to the Portland Storm of the WFL. When the WFL folded, Cowan worked at Portland State for one year and then was named the director of sales and promotion at Oregon State in 1976. During his first year with the Beavers, he was named the director of public relations and promotions and the football sports information responsibilities were added to his duties. In 1979, Cowan was named an assistant athletics director at OSU. Paul Just Just, who has been associated with sports information efforts at Western Kentucky University for nearly four decades, retired as sports information director at his alma mater Nov. 1, 2002, after serving in that position for more than 24 years. Just, a 56-year-old native of Louisville, Ky., who grew up in Greenville, Ky., continues his involvement with Hilltopper sports information on a part-time basis in his retirement. He joined the sports information staff at Western as a sophomore student on The Hill in the fall of 1966. He then put in a year (1969-70) as a graduate assistant on the Topper staff before taking a full-time position at WKU as a field representative in the school's University-School Relations Office 1970. He spent a year in student recruitment while volunteering in the press box and along press row at home events before returning to public affairs as a staff assistant in 1971. Just's duties in public affairs were varied, but included spending a portion of his time as an aide to the SID Ed Given, a CoSIDA Hall of Famer. When Given left Western in 1978, Just moved into the sports information director's role and continued in that position until last fall. An active member of CoSIDA since 1978, Just attended his first National Workshop in Chicago in 1970; and, he has attended the last 25 workshops in a row. He has served on a variety of the organization's committees. He began work with the Postgraduate Scholarship Committee in the early 1990s and took over as chair of that committee in 1994. He continues to serve the organization in that role. Just holds both bachelor's (BA 1969) and graduate (MA 1972) degrees from WKU. He and his wife of 23 years, Tricia, have two children, 16-year-old Sara and 13-year-old Trey. Will Keener Keener retired from Cal State Stanislaus after 31 years of service that started in 1970 when he was appointed to a dual position of sports information director and public affairs officer. He became the University's first full-time SID in 1989-90 when the dual responsibilities were divided into two positions. At Stanislaus, Keener saw the Warriors' 12 national golf championships, two national baseball championships, two top-four basketball finishes and numerous league titles and awards. He was in charge of sports information and media relations as the Warriors played host to two national golf championship tournaments, a quarterfinals men's basketball game, seven baseball regionals, and five basketball regionals. He also was play-by-play announcer for men's basketball over a local radio station in the early 1970's. Keener has been very active in community affairs which led to his being presented the Bob Kenworthy Good Person Award in 2000. He served as a director, officer, and president of the Turlock, Calif., Chamber of Commerce, was president of the 12:10 Lions Club twice, helped organize and served as a coach, officer, and president of the Turlock Girls Softball Association, and was involved in many other community activities. He served 13 years, two as chair, of the Turlock Parks and Recreation Commission. He started and served 14 years as chair of the Turlock Junior Miss program, now in its 38th year. In 1984 Keener was selected Turlock Citizen of the Year by the Chamber of Commerce and in 1994 was inducted into the California Junior Miss Hall of Fame. In activities outside of Turlock he is a 30-year member of the county-wide Outstanding Athletes of the Year and Hall of Fame committee, and was a founding committee member for the District 4-A1 Lions All-Star Football game committee. The Cleveland CoSIDA Workshop will be the 13th straight attended by Keener and his wife of 41 years, Blanche. Contact: Joe Hernandez, Ball State, CoSIDA Third Vice President, 765.285.8242, jhernand@bsu.edu