CoSIDA has named its Graduate Internship Grant in memory of the late Phil Langan, CoSIDA Hall of Famer, a leader in the profession who served the organization as secretary-treasurer and Digest Editor from 1972-77. Please read below for a list of the annual CoSIDA scholarships and the naming of those scholarships.
CoSIDA has named its Graduate Internship Grant in memory of the late
Phil Langan, who served the organization as secretary-treasurer and Digest Editor from 1972-77.
Langan passed away on Nov. 23, 2009, in Enfield, Conn., after suffering a massive heart attack.
The Phil Langan Graduate Intern Grant is designed to assist member institution sports information offices with funds to support the addition of graduate internships. There is one grant of $10,000 awarded annually for a 10-month appointment.
CoSIDA past-president
Dick Page, who worked with Langan on the Board, said, “My experiences with Phil as secretary-treasurer left nothing to be desired. His quick responses to my requests were very professional and appreciated. I was disappointed when a person of his ability decided to leave our profession, but knew that our loss was someone else’s gain.”
Langan was a one-man CoSIDA gang back in 1972 when he not only held the secretary-treasurer position, but he also wrote the Digest, the organization’s newsletter; and spear-headed the annual workshop.
Langston Rogers, senior associate athletic director/media relations at Ole Miss and a CoSIDA past president, said, "When CoSIDA made the decision to leave Chicago in 1972, and start rotating its workshop site, it was Phil Langan who was charged with the responsibility of making sure that the decision would better serve the total membership. Phil was the glue that held us together during that important period in our history.
“Having served with Phil on the Board of Directors as a College Division Rep from Delta State, I regret that our current membership didn't get to know him. Phil Langan is most deserving of this recognition."
Langan, who was inducted into the CoSIDA Veterans Hall of Fame this past summer in San Antonio, was the SID at Ithaca College, Princeton and Brown, and served as a athletic department development officer and community relations director at Cornell. He left his SID position at Brown to become a vice president with both the Hartford Whalers and the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Dave Wohlhueter, currently CoSIDA’s treasurer, worked with Langan at Cornell and marveled at his work ethic. He said, “Phil was a tireless worker at every stop, and he was always a tremendous family man. When he stepped down from his position with CoSIDA, we had to divide the secretary-treasurer position, and I had no idea what I was stepping into when I succeeded him as treasurer in 1977.
“Only a few of us know what an impact Phil has had on our organization during its incorporation days and of course the initial movement of the workshop around the country.”
After leaving the NHL in 1996, Langan operated a successful sports public relations consulting business, doing what he loved to do—helping others and especially the young people who wanted to enter the sports PR business.
Fred Nuesch, who served as secretary and Digest editor of CoSIDA from 1979-2002, said that Langan was one of the first people he met at Nuesch’s initial workshop in Chicago in 1969. He said, “I don’t think there is any CoSIDA member in the 1960s and ‘70s who doesn’t think of Phil first when you mention the organization.
“Yet the thing I remember most about him was his making the new members of the organization feel welcome, especially the younger ones. Naming the scholarship is a small endeavor for someone who did so much for CoSIDA.”
The Annual CoSIDA Scholarship ProgramWith the naming of the Phil Langan Graduate Internship Grant, CoSIDA now has named all but one of its scholarships for outstanding and worthy contributors to the SID profession. The CoSIDA Fred Nuesch-Dave Wohlhueter Undergraduate Scholarships, are two $2,500 scholarships awarded to outstanding undergraduate students working in sports information offices, and are named for former long-time CoSIDA secretary/digest editor Fred Nuesch and current treasurer Dave Wohlhueter.The CoSIDA Post-Graduate Scholarship Program has a $5,000 Wylie Smith Scholarship and a $5,000 CoSIDA Scholarship which are awarded to designed to assist outstanding students in sports information offices who have expressed an interest in pursuing a career in collegiate sports information. Wylie Smith is a former CoSIDA Scholarships Committee chairman and long-time Sports Information Director at Northern Arizona University.To see the release on the 2009-10 CoSIDA Scholarship recipients, read CoSIDA Announces 2009-10 Scholarship Winners release.