Profiled in the
Providence Journal, veteran Brown University Director of Sports Information
Christopher Humm has been on the Brown staff since July 1988. He is responsible for the implementation of a media relations program, including the publication of media guides/interactive
magazines and programs, and the daily maintenance of the Brown Athletics web site,
brownbears.com, for Brown’s 37 varsity athletic teams.
The CoSIDA member was honored by the All-American Football Foundation with the 2006 Scoop Hudgins Outstanding SID Awards at its 81st Annual Banquet of Champions. He was successfully nominated two NCAA Silver Anniversary Award winners, Steve Jordan '82 and Lisa Caputo '86, and an NCAA Top VIII Award winner, Nick Hartigan '06.
In 2004, Humm was honored by the University with a Brown Appreciation Award for his work on the 125th Anniversary of Brown Football. He also won the Jay Barry ‘50 Service Award in 1990, and the Robert F. Hall ’66 Recognition Award in 2003.
featured photo: Humm inside the Paul Bailey Pizzitola Memorial Sports Center, home to Brown University’s men’s and women’s basketball, volleyball, gymnastics, wrestling and squash teams. Photo by RIchard Dionne, eastbayRI.com
Read online: He gets the word out on Brown sports, by Manuel (Manny) Correira, Providence Journal
Some call Christopher Humm a man for all seasons. At every turn, they’re right.
The 56-year-old Barrington resident is a very happy man these days. The director of sports information (SID) at Brown University says the job gets hectic at times, but the rewards are gratifying. He thrives on the challenges at hand.
“I love doing what I do,” says the affable Baldwin, NY native, who assumed his SID duties at Brown in July 1988.
At that time, he also held the position of head golf coach at Brown, the same two jobs he held at Hofstra University the previous eight years. He relinquished his golf coach position at the end of the 1993 season.
At Brown, Mr. Humm is responsible for the implementation of a media relations program second to none. He oversees the publication of media guides/interactive magazines and programs as well as the daily maintenance of the Brown Athletics website (www.brownbears.com), of which he’s especially proud.
In all, he handles the media for Brown’s 37 varsity athletic teams (20 women’s teams and 17 men’s teams). Over the past 12 years, Mr. Humm has also run three major fund-raising golf tournaments for the Brown Athletic Department.
Handling a highly technical and time-consuming job like SID requires a measure of support, as one might expect.
“I have three assistants that I can truly count on,” he mentioned. “They all do a fantastic job.”
Mr. Humm pointed out that when he first arrived on the scene, things were a lot different than they are today.
“This is my 24th football season at Brown,” he pointed out. “I saw just five football victories in my first five years here. Those were tough times.” Now, of course, Brown has done exceedingly well on the gridiron and in other sports.
Instant gratification
“From a technical standpoint, sports information here at Brown has changed so much,” he said. “Doing cumulative stats back then took eight hours of hard work. Nowadays, it takes about 30 seconds to do the same job. We’re in a society where everyone wants results immediately. Everything is electronic now.”
The computer age has improved things dramatically to the point of incredible speed and accuracy, he emphasized. But, still, Mr. Humm takes nothing for granted. He works tirelessly to ensure that his product is among the best the Ivy League has to offer.
He beams over the fact that Brown was the first college in the country to go all-digital in photography in the athletic department.
“PR is my job and getting the word out about the student athletes at Brown is of the utmost importance,” he said.
Brown University athletic director Michael Goldberger, another Barrington resident, knows full well Mr. Humm’s value to the Brown athletic program.
“Chris’s incredible knowledge of Brown athletics and Brown athletes has been fabulous,” he said. “His understanding of the educational value of Brown athletics has been instrumental in hundreds of Brown students receiving honors for their great play and classroom work. Mr. Humm has a special understanding of the Ivy League, the valuable role that athletics plays on the Brown campus and the wonderful contribution made by our athletes. I am sure you can imagine how difficult it must be to support 37 varsity teams — nearly 1,000 athletes. Chris and his staff do exactly that — and they do it with grace, accuracy and excitement.”
Mr. Humm, in turn, said working alongside Mike Goldberger has been a plus. “Michael and I work very well together,” he noted. “He’s a wonderful guy.”
24 press conferences in 4 days
In 2010, Mr. Humm worked as the moderator for all press conferences at the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball First and Second Round games played at Providence. He moderated 24 press conferences in four days, including pre-game and post-game press conferences.
In 2006, he was honored by the All-American Football Foundation with the Scoop Hudgins Outstanding SID Awards at its 81st Annual Banquet of Champions.
The awards kept on piling up in 2004 when he was honored by the University with a Brown Appreciation Award for his work on the 125th anniversary of Brown football. He also won the Jay Barry (’50) Service Award in 1990, and the Robert F. Hall (’66) Recognition Award in 2003.
Long before he switched jobs and came to Brown, the folks up on College Hill knew exactly the type of person they were getting.
A 1977 graduate of Hofstra University, Mr. Humm held positions with both IBM and British Airways. As an undergraduate at Hofstra, he was editor-in-chief of Nexus, the University’s yearbook, and a four-year member of the varsity golf team, the last two years as captain.
“I couldn’t hold a candle to my father, who was a tremendous and an accomplished golfer,” he joked.
Mr. Humm works just as hard in the Barrington community as he does in his Brown University athletic office.
He’s former coach for the Barrington Little League, the Barrington Youth Soccer Association and the Barrington YMCA Basketball Travel League. He and his wife, Debbie, have two sons: Robert, a 2004 Brown graduate and a 2008 Roger Williams University Law School graduate; and Steven, a 2008 graduate of Providence College.
Seated in his living room of his Barrington home, Mr. Humm likes to show visitors photos of his family, especially those of his two sons playing sports during their youth in Barrington.
He’s particularly honored to have been photographed in the East Room of the White House with former President George W. Bush and members of Brown’s NCAA Women’s crew team, which captured the 2008 national rowing championship.
"That’s something I’ll never forget,” he said. “What a thrill that was.”
(For the record, the Lady Bears have won the NCAA national rowing title seven times in the last 15 years.)
Mr. Humm has more than lived up to the hallowed words from the Brown University fight song, “Ever True to Brown.”
“I always try to put Brown in the right light,” he said.