Fresno City College’s Woody Wilk will receive CoSIDA Lifetime Achievement and 25-Year awards on July 6
FRESNO, Calif. – Former Fresno City College sports information director Woody Wilk will receive the College Sports Information Director’s of America 25-year Award and the organization’s Lifetime Achievement Award on Tuesday, July 6, in San Francisco, Calif.
Wilk will accept the honors at a luncheon ceremony during CoSIDA’s annual convention at the San Francisco Marriott Marquis.
The CoSIDA 25-Year Award is presented to athletic communications professionals who have completed 25 years in the 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 profession.
Wilk was born in Cleveland, Ohio, but his family made the move to Culver City when he was a young child. Perhaps his passion for sports can be explained by the fact he comes from a family of sports fans on both his mother’s and father’s side.
Wilk himself was a sportsman. It’s a little-know fact that he played baseball for a short time - literally. In high school, he was cut from the junior varsity team.
He took the field again in 1962, when he was one of the original students at California Lutheran University. Woody was the starting second baseman for the school’s first squad - in his own words he was a better fielder than a hitter. He batted ninth (even the pitchers batted before he did).
Eventually, he transferred to Texas Lutheran where he lettered in football. He graduated with a degree in speech in 1966.
Wilk then joined the U.S. Air Force and become involved in the Armed Forces Radio & Television Service that would allow him to travel all over the world including a stint in Greenland.
Over the years, Wilk worked in various radio and television jobs, including four years as a TV sportscaster in North Carolina and positions in Brawley and Bakersfield, Calif.
In 1984, Woody found his way to Fresno City College where he served in the public information office for 25 years, retiring in August of 2009.
Fresno City College athletics has never had a bigger fan than Wilk and probably never will. In the Fresno area it seems the other college in town gets the majority of sports publicity, but that never fazed Woody. He would recount every play in extraordinary detail to the local media just so the Rams would get a five-second mention on the evening news.
He would talk about FCC sports with such passion that someone might think he was a pro coach talking about his team that just won the Super Bowl rather than a community college sports publicist talking about the women’s volleyball team’s season opener.
Wilk did his job and he did it well. Beyond that however, he made sure that the community knew just how great the Rams were - and still are.
If you ask anyone to describe him you’d undoubtedly hear the words nice guy. Woody has an infectiously positive attitude and is a masterful storyteller. Ram athletics have come a long way in its history and that is due in part to Woody’s commitment and dedication.
It was fitting that Woody was a cornerstone inductee into the FCC Football Wall of Fame in 2009. The press box at Fresno City College’s John Euless Ball Park is named in his honor.