CoSIDA presents Rick Covington with its Lifetime Achievement Award on July 5
Rick Covington served at five institutions during his career before reviving the Blue-Gray Football Classic in 2003 – a year after the game had not been played in 2002.
For his long career and impact on the sports information field, Covington will receive his Lifetime Achievement Award from the College Sports Information Director on July 5 in San Francisco, Calif.
The award will be presented during the CoSIDA Annual Convention at the San Francisco Marriott Marquis.
In addition, Covington will receive a 25-Year Award during the Convention, recognizing his tenure in the athletic media relations profession.
The CoSIDA Lifetime Achievement Award is presented to members who have served a minimum of 25 years in the profession and have retired or left the field.
During his career, Covington enhanced the image of each of the schools he served, becoming a mentor to his student assistants. He had 11 students and four assistants go on to lead their own sports information departments during his years of service.
Until he arrived at Texas Christian University in June of 1998, Covington only had a full-time assistant for three years from 1977-98. Beginning in 1979, he was one of the first SID's to use offensive line statistics among his cumulative football stats release and went on establish game, season and career marks for plays/"pancake blocks"/pressures and sacks allowed for offensive linemen at previous employers Furman and Appalachian State.
Covington attended 16 consecutive CoSIDA Conventions during his career, worked six NCAA I-AA National Championship football games, served on the media staff of six NCAA men's basketball regionals as press conference moderator, and worked three men's Final Fours. He also served as a media assistant at the 1997 NBA Draft.
Besides his membership in the CoSIDA, Covington also belonged to the Football Writers Association of America (1976-2000), the United States Basketball Writers Association (1976-2000) and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (1976-2000), including serving as the group's president in 1994-95.