FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – After 21 years at the University of Arkansas and a quarter-century in the sports information business, Dr. Bill Smith will receive the College Sports Information Director’s of America 25-year Award on Tuesday, July 6, in San Francisco, Calif.
Smith will receive the honor at a luncheon ceremony during CoSIDA’s annual convention at the San Francisco Marriott Marquis. The CoSIDA 25-Year Award is presented to sports information directors who have completed 25 years in the profession.
Smith opened a new role with the Razorback Athletic Department as an assistant athletic director for new media and heading up the Razorbacks’ Internet and new media production unit in 2008.
His most recent project was the creation of the unified Internet presence for Razorback athletics:
ArkansasRazorbacks.com. Shepherding the redesign team and overseeing the integration of the previously independent LADYBACKS.COM and Hogwired.com websites, Smith brought the new website to launch on time with a dramatic go-dark launch on July 21, 2008.
In December of 2008, he started the department's official Twitter feed, @ArkRazorbacks, and by June built to over 2,300 followers as the largest news or sports feed based in the state of Arkansas. Currently, @ArkRazorbacks has well over 5,000 followers and a series of companion feeds from coaches to administrative units.
In September of 2009, Smith was instrumental in the athletic department launching its own iPhone app, iHog, that has over 22,000 users, with streaming audio of Razorback sports added this spring.
Smith also oversees creative production for the Razorback media relations department, supervising all printed promotional materials along with media guide production. He brings 25 years worth of national award-winning prowess to the project.
His research into new media phenomenon made him a session speaker at the 2006 CoSIDA event regarding social networking websites. Smith made his fourth appearance before the national SID convention in 2008 when he chaired and spoke on the impact of bloggers and citizen media.
In 2009, he made his fifth presentation, creating a panel on the importance of sports information director's involvement with emergency communications and FEMA public information officer courses. He is scheduled for the 2010 CoSIDA event.
Smith has published several practice and research papers in the national CoSIDA Digest and maintains a personal blog related to his work on the impact of social networking and new media on college athletics.
Previously, Smith served as an associate athletic director in the Arkansas Women’s Athletics Department for almost 10 years, promoted to that position in September of 1999. In that role, he coordinated all publications and public relations activities for the women’s athletic teams at Arkansas.
An Internet pioneer, Smith took Arkansas on-line in 1994 as the lead designer, programmer and manager for ladybacks.com. He played a significant role in the re-launching of the men’s athletics website, including the naming of Hogwired.com, in 1995. Smith was a featured speaker at the 1998 and 1999 CoSIDA Conventions on Internet design and programming for sports information offices.
Among his pioneering projects with the former women’s athletics department included starting the Lady Razorback Radio Network, taking LRRN statewide, creating the first broadcast television package for the Lady'Backs including the first live SEC soccer match on commercial television, the first college museum dedicated to women’s sports, a half-hour magazine show that airs statewide, and the first all-sport podcast dedicated to a university’s women’s teams, the Lady Razorback Report.
During his two decades with the Razorback women’s basketball team, Arkansas has received its share of high individual honors including three conference players of the year, five Associated Press All-America or Honorable Mention, two Kodak All-America or Honorable Mention, and a WBCA national award recipient.
Smith earned 10 national CoSIDA publication awards for his first 20 women's basketball media guides at Arkansas, For the department, he guided work for more than 10 NCAA state Woman of the Year winners, the first and second SEC/Boyd McWhorter Award recipients for the University of Arkansas.
On the air, Smith has called the most women’s basketball games in University of Arkansas history with over 550 contests as the broadcast color analyst through the end of the 2009season.
As a women’s basketball sport contact, Smith has worked the 1998 Women’s Final Four with Arkansas. He has three other Final Four appearances as the crew chief of the official NCAA stat crew providing media and broadcast support at the 1999, 2000 and 2002 events.
Starting in 1994, Smith and his Arkansas stat crew became regulars at the Southeastern Conference Women’s Basketball Tournament providing stats in 13 of the past 16 events. In 1996, Smith and the crew made Internet history with the first women’s basketball tournament stat feed ever, only the second live tournament stat effort.
As an administrator with women’s athletics, Smith was a key advisor and part of the hiring team for head coaches of the department. He played a lead role in the securing of the 1994 NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Midwest Regional.
Smith served as the inaugural media coordinator for the 2000 NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Indoor Championship at Arkansas, and stayed in that roll for the next three years.
During the course of his years with the Arkansas women’s teams, Smith served as the head sport contact at some point for each of the 11 women’s teams. Under his direction, the Women’s Communications Office produced award-winning media in every sport and format.
With the initiation of its own production unit for traditional broadcast and new media, the Arkansas women captured several Communicator Awards for streaming video.
Smith joined Arkansas after four years as assistant SID at Northeast Louisiana. A 1984 magna cum laude journalism graduate of NLU, Smith earned his master's in history from NLU in 1989. Smith's publications at NLU and Arkansas have earned over 40 regional and national awards, including 16 Best in the Nation from CoSIDA.
For the spring 2008 semester, Smith created and taught a course in the university’s department of journalism on sports media relations.
He also has authored several articles on the theory and practice of sports information. He completed his doctorate in American history at the university in 1999 with his dissertation titled
Mercenary Eagles: American Pilots Serving in Foreign Air Forces Prior to the United States Entry into the Second World War, 1936-1941.
He also has scholarly historical publications within his specialty field, and has authored articles for the reference work, Arkansas Biography. Smith is an adjunct professor in American history at nearby Northwest Arkansas Community College.
A volunteer with the Washington County Department of Emergency Management, Smith is a graduate of FEMA’s Advanced Public Information Officer course conducted at the National Fire Academy and carries ICS certification through the 400 level along with several specialty areas.
He is the founder and coordinator of the county severe storm spotter group, and serves as an OK-First certified radar operator for Washington County.
Past president of the board of directors of the Arkansas Air Museum, Smith also is an amateur radio operator (K1ARK).
A native of Monroe, La., he and wife, Libby, have a son, 19-year-old Will, and daughter, 13-year-old Ashley.