Today's profile on 2011 CoSIDA Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Mike Moran is the 19th in a series of profiles and features on CoSIDA's 2011 Special Awards recipients.
Moran will be honored in Marco Island during a luncheon presentation on Tuesday, June 28. Moran served for nearly 25 years at the U.S. Olympic Committee from 1978-2003. Here, he made a significant contribution to CoSIDA when he started the media coordination committee that assisted in all USOC events. Through this program hundreds of sports information personnel were able to travel the world and work Olympic Games, World Championships, Pan American events and U.S. Olympic Festivals.
See link to original release and the March/April/May schedule of the Special Award profiles/features, below.
by Tamara J. Flarup, University of Wisconsin/Chair of the CoSIDA Special Awards Committee
Mike Moran, who retired from the U. S. Olympic Committee in 2003 as longtime managing director for media and public relations, will be recognized with the CoSIDA Lifetime Achievement Award this summer at the national convention in Marco Island, Fla.
Many will recognize Moran for his nearly 25 years of service to the USOC from 1978-2003. This is where, in his own words, he made his most significant contribution to CoSIDA when he started the media coordination committee that assisted in all USOC events. Through this program hundreds of sports information personnel were able to travel the world and work Olympic Games, World Championships, Pan American events and U.S. Olympic Festivals.
A native of Omaha, Neb., Moran ‘s first Olympics were the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” games in Lake
Placid. He was the USOC's spokesman and media coordinator through 13 Olympics and two boycotts.
Indeed, some of his more memorable moments were the ones he would like to forget such as the Tanya Harding/Nancy Kerrigan figure skating episode in 1994, or the millionaire basketball players ‘Dream Team’ which was inserted into the Barcelona Games in 1992.
There were steroid scandals and boycotts, but there were also the high-points such as Mary Lou Retton, America’s little sweetheart and 1984 all-around gold medal gymnast, or that Miracle on Ice team that beat the Soviets and unpredictably won the gold medal.
Of his experience Moran said, "Controversy and dysfunction is part of the structure of the organization," he said. "We've taken our hits but we haven't ducked anything."
Described as “a towering presence with a quick wit and powerful voice tailor-made for a microphone,” Moran began his career as SID at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, his alma mater, and was the University of Colorado's sports information director from 1968-78 ,before taking the USOC job.
He quickly became one of the most visible sports public relations executives in the nation while coordinating the USOC’s strategies, responses and programs that dealt with the news media and the American public through numerous controversies and crises related to the world’s most visible sporting event. His efforts helped to produce unprecedented coverage of America’s Olympic athletes, the USOC, and the Olympic Games.
The USOC honored Moran with its highest award, the General Douglas MacArthur Award, on November 3, 2002. Other recipients of the award include Nobel Peace Prize Winner and former U.S. Secretary of State Dr. Henry Kissinger, former USOC President and Secretary of the Treasury William E. Simon, USOC President Emeritus William J. Hybl, New York Yankees principal owner George Steinbrenner, former USOC President William Martin, and 1936 Olympic sprinter Marty Glickman.
He was inducted into the Colorado Springs Sports Hall of Fame in October, 2005, and also received the 2006 Distinguished Service Award from the United States Sports Academy. He was a 2002 inductee into the CoSIDA Hall of Fame.
He is enjoying his 43rd year in the sports media and public relations field in 2011, and his eighth year as a professional consultant where he serves as the Senior Media Consultant for the Colorado Springs Sports Corporation, an organization which stages the annual Rocky Mountain State Games, the Colorado Springs Sports Hall of Fame, sports luncheons and events, and promotes the activities of other area sports events.
THE CoSIDA SPECIAL AWARDS FEATURES SERIES
March
Tue. 1 Special Awards general announcement
Thr. 3 Capital One Academic All-America Hall of Fame release
Thr. 3 Ann King (The Sage Colleges): 25-Year Award
Tue. 8 Kent Cherrington (Plymouth State University): 25-year Award
Thr. 10 Justin Doherty (University of Wisconsin): Arch Ward Award
Tue. 15 Rob Knox (Kutztown University): Rising Star Award (College Division)
Thr. 17 Jim Daves (University of Virginia): 25-Year Award
Tue. 22 Diane Nordstrom (University of Wisconsin): 25-Year Award
Thr. 24 Chevonne Mansfield (SWAC): Rising Star Award (University Division)
Tue. 29 Dr. Bill Smith (University of Arkansas): Bob Kenworthy Community Service Award
Thr. 31 Kevin Ruple (Baldwin-Wallace College): Lester Jordan Award
April
Tue. 5 Rich Herman (Clarion): CoSIDA Hall of Fame & Warren Berg Award
Thr. 7 Paul Madison (Western Washington): CoSIDA Hall of Fame
Tue. 12 Charles Bloom (Southeastern Conference): CoSIDA Hall of Fame
Thr. 14 Thomas Nelson (St. Cloud State University): 25-Year Award
Thr. 21 Mark Beckenbach (Ohio Northern): CoSIDA Hall of Fame
Tue. 26 Brian DePasquale (University of Albany): 25-Year Award
Thr. 28 Debby Jennings (University of Tennessee): Trailblazer Award
May
Tue. 3 Walt Riddle (Saint Leo University): Lifetime Achievement Award; and 25-Year Award
Thr. 5 Tom Kroeschell (Iowa State): 25-Year Award
Tue. 10 Mike Moran (USOC): Lifetime Achievement Award
Thr.. 12 Joe Seil (Nazareth): 25-Year Award
Tue. 17 A. John Pearson (Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference): Lifetime Achievement Award
Thr. 19 David Moross (Colorado College): 25-Year Award
Tue. 24 Dan McDonald (Northwestern State [La.] and Southwestern Louisiana: CoSIDA Hall of Fame
Thr. 26 Dave Beyer (Mercer University): 25-Year Award
Tue. 31 Lee Corso (ABC/ESPN Sports): Jade Wade Award
other profiles in the schedule to be announced; schedule subject to change