Three longtime sports information directors will be honored with CoSIDA Lifetime Achievement recognition when the organization convenes at its 50th Anniversary workshop this summer in San Diego.
George Ellis of North Dakota State, Mike Korcek of Northern Illinois and Stan Green of Oklahoma Christian form the trio of SIDs who have served at least 25 years in the profession and have, or are, retiring or leaving the field. In addition, Ron Lenz of South Dakota State, who was recognized at last year's workshop, will be given his lifetime membership card this year.
Ellis served as the longest tenured sports information director in North Dakota State University history, guiding that school's department for 30 years from the summer of 1974 through the spring of 2004. He began his career as an SID in 1968, serving five years at Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa, and one year at the University of Northern Iowa, before arriving in Fargo in the summer of 1974.
The men's sports information office at NDSU earned more than 135 national awards under the direction of Ellis, including 55 "Best in the Nation" honors from CoSIDA during those 30 years. In addition, Ellis won seven national awards while at Morningside and Northern Iowa.
An active member of CoSIDA, Ellis has served on various committees and continues to serve on the Special Awards Committee. He served one three-year term on the Board of Directors as a College Division representative. He attended 30 consecutive CoSIDA workshops from 1973 through 2003.
Ellis was named to the CoSIDA Hall of Fame in the summer of 1988 and was named the Warren Berg Award recipient in the summer of 1990 for outstanding service in the field of sports information.
Ellis was the director of the North Central Conference information bureau for 25 years until ending that relationship after the 1997-98 year. He wrote and edited an award-winning publication on the history of the NCC and was inducted into the NCC Hall of Fame in May of 1998.
Named the baseball coach at NDSU in the summer of 1979, he guided his five Bison teams (1980-84) to a then school-record 62 wins and a major step back up the road to respectability before turning over the reins after the 1984 season. He served several years on the NCAA regional baseball advisory committee while NDSU's head coach and retired in 1994 as an umpire for American Legion, high school and amateur baseball after 33 years.
A graduate of East High School in Sioux City, Ellis graduated from Morningside College in 1971 where he was a varsity wrestler and an NCC placewinner in 1965. Ellis was inducted into the Morningside Athletic Hall of Fame in the fall of 1994. He was also a news and sports reporter for the Sioux City Journal and the sports editor for the Bison Program Awards.
Since leaving North Dakota State, Ellis has served on the Board of Directors for Fargo American Legion baseball and was the general manager for two years. He is the chair of the Fargo Legion Baseball Hall of Fame and was responsible for securing the 2009 American Legion World Series in Fargo. Ellis also served on the Roger Maris Celebrity Golf Tournament Committee for more than a decade. That event just passed the $1 million amount donated to cancer research and Fargo Shanley High School.
Ellis and his wife, Linda, who typed play-by-play accounts of Bison football and basketball games, have a daughter, Nicole, a son, Josh (wife Michelle), and three granddaughters, Anika, Jasmyn, and Bethany.
Stan Green, who was inducted into the CoSIDA Hall of Fame in 2006, is completing his 38th year in sports information with the last 18 at Oklahoma Christian University.
He served as director of public relations and sports information at Harding University (Ark.) from 1965-1987, while also teaching a half load as an advertising art instructor. Before joining Oklahoma Christian in early 1989 Green served as Director of Marketing for Automated Professional Solutions, a software design firm in Dallas, Texas.
Green was a charter member of the Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference Sports Information Directors in 1970, filling all the officer positions at various times. He was active in the early development and organization of the NAIA Sports Information Directors Association, serving in every officer position and as president of NAIA-SIDA from 1974-1976. In addition he served as Information Chairman of NAIA District 17 from 1967-87.
Green received the NAIA Award of Merit in 1972 and again in 1976, was the recipient of the Ike Pearson Award in 1979 for being named the NAIA Sports Information Director of the Year, was inducted into the NAIA Hall of Fame in 1987 and the Harding University Hall of Fame in 1991. He was named Employee of the Year at Harding University in 1979 and at Oklahoma Christian University in 1991.
He served as a media coordinator for the NAIA National Outdoor Track and Field Championship for seven years, six NAIA National football playoff games, a national NAIA basketball tournament and one NAIA national baseball tournament. In 1984-95 Green served on a national 12-member NAIA Task Force on Government and Goals to assess and develop long range goals for the organization. In 1981 and again in 1984 Green conducted the first demographic surveys of the College Sports Information Directors of America membership. The survey detailed salary levels, age and experience/training, work conditions and responsibilities, etc.
Green has received more than 70 awards from CoSIDA and the NAIA including six "Best in the Nation" awards. In addition he has received more than 100 design and publication awards from the American Alumni Council, American College of Public Relations, Council for the Advancement and Support of Education, the International Association of Business Communicators and Admissions Marketing.
A native of Waldo, Ark. he grew up in Pasadena, Texas and graduated from the University of Houston in 1959. He has been married for 49 years to the former Betty Gray of Lockhart, Texas and the couple has three grown children and five grandchildren.
Mike Korcek retired as sports information director at Northern Illinois last June after 33 years as a full-time member of the Huskies' office, including 22 as director. The 58-year-old Korcek, who attended NIU, was a three-year member of the student newspaper staff as well as a one-year student assistant in the SID office. In all, he spent 37 years on the DeKalb, Ill., campus.
Korcek joined the Huskie sports information staff as an assistant to Bud Nangle in 1973. He took over for Nangle as director in 1984.
Korcek, who current serves as an SID Emeritus at NIU, was the recipient of 50-plus awards from CoSIDA. Korcek won 37 writing citations -- including several "Best in the Nation" awards -- in various editorial categories (event coverage, event previews, features, opinion columns) since 1986. Korcek was the recipient of NIU's Outstanding Service Award (1989), the Donald R. Grubb Distinguished Journalism Alumnus of the Year Award (1998), the CoSIDA 25-Year Service Award (1999), and the All-American Football Foundation "Scoop" Hudgins Lifetime Sports Information Directors Award (2001). He was inducted into the media wing of the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame (1999), The Northern Star Alumni Hall of Fame (2001), and the NIU Athletics Hall of Fame (2003).
Korcek chairs the national CoSIDA Ethics Committee and has authored several articles on the subject that have appeared in the CoSIDA Digest and The NCAA News. At the 2004 CoSIDA Workshop in Calgary, Korcek headed a panel discussion titled "Ethics in the Profession."
Under Korcek's direction, the NIU Office of Sports Information was honored for numerous conference, regional, and national citations for excellence and service. The Football Writers Association of America cited the office for "outstanding press box services" in 1992 while College Hoops Insider voted the office No. 1 nationally for basketball service in 1995-96 and No. 2 in 1996-97.
During his career, Korcek promoted three Heisman Trophy candidates, 40 Division 1-A All-America picks, and nine freshmen All-America selections in football at a mid-major level. In 1993, Northern Illinois unanimous First-Team All-America tailback LeShon "Cowboy" Johnson finished sixth in the Heisman balloting with 176 points on a 4-7 team with no television exposure. Ten years later, Korcek made "Turner the Burner" a familiar refrain in media circles on behalf of tailback Michael Turner.
After receiving an Honorable Discharge from the U. S. Army, Korcek joined Nangle's staff in December, 1973. An honor graduate of the Defense Information School at Fort Benjamin Harrison in Indianapolis, Korcek worked two-and-a-half years in the sports department of European Stars & Stripes in Darmstadt, Germany (1971-73). At S&S, he wrote features and interviewed such sports personalities as Floyd Patterson, Bill Bradley, Brooks Robinson, Al McGuire, Abe Lemons, Don Nelson, Jim Otto, and Jon McGlocklin, plus served as the night sports editor and "slot man." Korcek is a 1970 Northern Illinois graduate with a bachelor of science degree in journalism.