New CoSIDA Board member Rob Knox is embarking on a new position, leaving his alma mater (Lincoln University in Pennsylvania) where he has served as SID for many years to take the Kutztown University SID position. Sportswriter Dave Zeitlin from the
Daily Local News in West Chester, PA, writes about the tremendous work of Knox and the legacy he created at Lincoln.
Read the online column
here.
Knox painting on different canvasby Dave Zeitlin, staff writerPublished: Thursday, July 30, 2009
About a month ago, Rob Knox sent out an e-mail, which, anyone who knows Rob Knox can attest, is kind of like a painter buying a paintbrush.
Over the past five years, the Lincoln University sports information director has written, called, pressed and bombarded various media outlets for coverage — but always in a way that made you want to bend over backwards for him.
In short, you could tell how much Knox cared about Lincoln, his alma mater. And he made you care about the school, too. That's what made him such an outstanding SID, and that's what allowed Lincoln coaches and athletes to rise from the relative obscurity of their rural college and be recognized by Sports Illustrated, the New York Times and ESPN -- along with many stupendous newspapers like this one.
But this particular e-mail was different. For once, Knox was not writing on behalf on the student-athletes he considers his friends. For once, he was looking out for himself.
After five years, Knox had announced he was leaving Lincoln to accept the sports information director position at Kutztown University.
"I probably would have been comfortable at Lincoln for the next 20 to 25 years and retired happy," Knox told me recently. "But I felt like I owed it to myself to challenge myself.
"Lincoln was a great five years. There are wonderful people there. But I'm at the point of my career where I know I want to stay in sports information the rest of my life. I eventually want to work at a Division I BCS school. This was a necessary progression."
While Lincoln is now a Division II university just like Kutztown, you have to understand the difference between the two schools. Consider, first, the time and effort Knox put into the athletic program at his alma mater.
When he was hired as Lincoln's first full-time SID since 1977, sports information, he says, consisted of two folders. He shared an office with a couple of other coaches, he didn't have a computer, the athletic Web site was outdated and there was no statistical software.
He had a mountain to climb just to bring the school's athletic program to the same level as other small colleges. That he was able to get five Lincoln athletes into the Faces in the Crowd section of Sports Illustrated - an unfathomable one-per-year streak we'll never know if he'd be able to continue - is a testament to his hard work and persistence.
"Sometimes people take for granted the coverage Lincoln received over the last five years," Knox said. "It was difficult because where we and the market we're in. ... It took a lot of press releases, a lot of phone calls, a lot of e-mails."
Knox — a Chester native who graduated from Lincoln in 1996 before writing sports for the Delaware County Daily Times for five years — was also instrumental in helping the school's athletic program make the difficult transition from Division III to Division II while promoting, to no end, the rebirth of the Lions' football program after a 48-year hiatus, laying a sturdy foundation for whoever replaces him.
But as rewarding as his job was, it was just as draining. So while saying good-bye to his alma mater was one of the most difficult things he's had to do, Knox is very excited to work for a more established athletic program like Kutztown's.
"I had a lot on my plate and I felt like I was spreading myself too thin," Knox said. "Now I can focus just on sports information."
Knox has already blended into his new digs, finishing the Kutztown football media guide, prepping for Monday's Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference media day and moving with his wife Trudy from Bear, Del., to their new home in Breinigsville. (Even more impressive, he also just learned how to spell "Breinigsville.")
And when I say that Kutztown is lucky to have him, I know I'm speaking for any other media type who has dealt with him over the years.
But while Knox will certainly be missed in this area, the truth is Lincoln is not losing him entirely.
Facebook will tell you he remains friends with almost everyone he's ever come into contact with. And no one will ever be able to match his L.U. legacy — from his days calling basketball games over the P.A. system as a student (when he had about as much energy as Dick Vitale after three cups of coffee) to the accolades and honors he earned for himself and for his athletes as SID.
Just recently, he was named to the College Sports Information Directors of America board, which he called his "biggest professional highlight."
But above all, Knox wants to be remembered simply as a good guy who worked hard. "And I want people to know," he said, "that I really cared and poured my heart into it."
Everyone at Lincoln already knows that.
Everyone at Kutztown is about to find out.
To contact staff writer Dave Zeitlin, e-mail dzeitlin@dailylocal.com