Tuscaloosa, Ala. – Four CoSIDA legends – Herb Hartnett, Carl “Ace” Higgins, Phil Langan and Bill Sansing – will be honored by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) on Thursday, June 25, 2009, as members of the inaugural induction class of the CoSIDA Veterans Hall of Fame at the organization’s annual workshop to be held in San Antonio, Texas.
Veterans Committee Hall of Fame inductees represent former sports information professionals of distinction from the past whose professional and personal deeds and accomplishments helped make possible the stature of the sports information profession today.
Sansing, a 1941 University of Texas graduate, began his career as a sportswriter for the Fort Worth Star Telegram before entering the Army Air Force in 1942, serving as a combat intelligence officer with the 15th Air Force in Italy. He entered the service as a private and was discharged as a major. In 1945, Texas football coach and athletic director D. X. Bible offered Sansing the job as the school’s first full-time director of sports information, a role he served from 1945-49, helping guide the collegiate careers of two of Texas's greatest players – football quarterback Bobby Layne and eventual National Basketball Hall of Famer Slater Martin.
He left UT to join the advertising firm which handled the Humble radio network, which broadcast all Southwest Conference football games. After a distinguished career in advertising that took him throughout the United States and the world, he returned to Austin in 1970, and immediately became associated with a growth campaign for Dave Campbell's Texas Football magazine. Before retiring in the 1990s, Sansing formed Anamark, a public relations consultancy, working with only three clients – Jack Nicklaus, the Dallas Cowboys and, as a labor of love, the University of Texas's coaches' television show.
Hartnett was assistant sports information director at Pennsylvania from 1969-76 and director from 1977-88 before becoming SID at Maryland from 1988-96. At Penn, Hartnett was the assistant publicist for Big Five basketball at the Palestra (1969-75), assistant media director for the Penn Relays from 1969-76, and the director from 1977-88. While at Penn, he was twice selected to work with the U.S. Olympic Team as a media relations specialist, in 1980 and 1984.
Hartnett served as the media relations director for countless NCAA men's basketball tournament games as The Palestra was a regular stop on the NCAA Tournament, in addition to working three Final Fours, once as a participant in 1979 with Penn. Penn bestowed upon Hartnett what he considers his greatest honor, that of membership in the Friars, an exclusive society founded on the credo, “It's not what you're going to get out of life, but what you are going to give to life.”
Hartnett served as the point person for two CoSIDA conventions (Philadelphia in 1982 and Washington in 1988); chaired the Ivy League sports information directors twice; and created CoSIDA’s Writing Contest Committee. While at Penn and Maryland, Hartnett won 15 CoSIDA publication and writing awards, including several “Best in Nation” honors.
Higgins spent three years as sports editor of a small Louisiana daily, The Baton Rouge Journal, before he joined the LSU staff in 1953. He was a graduate of the LSU School of Journalism (1950) and an Air Force veteran of World War II. Higgins served as president of the Southeastern Conference Sports Information Directors and was a member of CoSIDA, the Football Writers Association of America and Sigma Delta Chi. He and his wife, Pat, had three sons – Johnny, Ron, and Steven, and a daughter, Heather.
When he was a student at LSU, Higgins was hired as a student worker by Jim Corbett. Higgins would replace Corbett when Corbett resigned to go work for the NCAA. Higgins served as sports information director at LSU from 1954 until his death in 1968. In a time where sports information offices consisted of small staffs, he managed to get it done with just one assistant to help him.
He publicized a Heisman Trophy winner in Billy Cannon in 1959 and a Heisman runner-up in Jerry Stovall in 1962. During Higgins’ time at LSU, the Tigers had 13 first-team All-Americans and 29 first-team All-SEC performers. He was also the SID when Pete Maravich played basketball for the Tigers. Higgins was even 1-0 as the school's emergency basketball coach, taking over duties early in one game when head coach Harry Rabenhorst was tossed from a game.
Higgins excelled in a time when his job often demanded extreme multi-tasking. He not only ran the press venues, but often served as public address announcer and made sure every detail was handled. At a time when LSU's athletic program jumped into the national spotlight, Ace Higgins was responsible for keeping the Tigers there. The Louisiana Sports Writers Association gives a scholarship annually in the name of Ace Higgins to the outstanding sports information student assistant at a Louisiana university.
In December of 1968, Higgins died of a heart attack at the age of 45. His title at that time was Sports Publicity Director and Director of Special Events.
Langan served as CoSIDA secretary-treasurer and digest editor from 1972-77 and was a CoSIDA board member in 1970-71. He served as SID at Ithaca College, Princeton University (1973-76), Cornell University (1976-80), and Brown University (SID, starting in 1980), before working with the Hartford Whalers and Pittsburgh Penguins.