OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. – Oklahoma City University has promoted Rich Tortorelli to the position of director of athletic communications.
Tortorelli has been sports information director for OCU since 2005-06 promoting all of the Stars athletic teams. The athletic department has expanded from 10 intercollegiate varsity teams to 19 during this span.
The Stars have captured eight NAIA national championships in that time. OCU has 34 national championships in all sports.
“Rich has been an integral member of our staff for the past three years, during which time our department has enjoyed unprecedented visibility and undergone tremendous growth,” OCU athletic director Jim Abbott said. “He has done a fantastic job of working with the various media outlets that cover OCU athletics and will continue to do so in his new position of director of athletic communications.”
Entering his fourth year with OCU, Tortorelli keeps local, state and national media informed about the Stars’ varsity athletic programs. He updates OCU’s official athletics web site,
ocusports.com, maintains historical and statistical records on each of OCU’s athletic programs and performs play-by-play and commentary on broadcasts of OCU’s athletic contests.
Tortorelli has earned several writing and publications awards. Tortorelli’s stories have placed first in the district in the CoSIDA feature contest, first in the Oklahoma College Public Relations Association sports writing contest and second in the NAIA-SIDA feature writing contest. He designed a media guide that took third in the NAIA-SIDA combined basketball brochure category.
Tortorelli has four top-five finishes in the NAIA-SIDA feature writing contest and five top-10 finishes in the NAIA-SIDA publications contests.
In 2007-08, OCU’s basketball media guide placed fifth in the NAIA-SIDA combined basketball brochure category and its soccer guide tied for 10th in the NAIA-SIDA multi-sport brochure category. Tortorelli’s feature over rower Halle Hames placed fifth in the NAIA-SIDA feature writing contest.
In 2006-07, Tortorelli wrote a feature over National League batting champion and OCU alum Freddy Sanchez which took first in the Oklahoma College Public Relations Association sports writing contest as well as second in the NAIA-SIDA feature writing contest. Tortorelli’s feature over Frederickson Field House won first place in the 2005-06 CoSIDA Fred S. Stabley historical feature writing contest among District Six.
In his first year at OCU, the basketball media guide earned third in the NAIA-SIDA publications contest.
Prior to coming to OCU, Tortorelli had worked 10 years in the newspaper business. He had been a writer for The Oklahoman and The Edmond Sun. While at The Sun, he shared third place in Division II General News Reporting in the AP/Oklahoma News Executives Annual Carl Rogan Memorial News Excellence Competition.
Tortorelli earned his bachelor’s degree in newspaper journalism from the University of Central Oklahoma. He graduated high school from Putnam City North in Oklahoma City.