On Saturday, Oct. 20, SUNY Cortland's long-time and distinguished Sports Information Director
Fran Elia was inducted as an honorary member into the College’s C-Club Hall of Fame.
In his 22-year tenure, Elia has overseen the athletic media relations effort of Cortland's 25 varsity sports teams. In 2009, he received the prestigious Irving T. Marsh Service Award (College Division) for exhibiting excellence in the field of sports information from the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference (ECAC).
see the SUNY Cortland C-Club Hall of Fame release
HERE
Fran Elia was one of seven new members inducted into the SUNY Cortland C-Club Hall of Fame during its 44th annual banquet and ceremonies on Saturday, Oct. 20, in the College's Corey Union. In addition to Saturday night's official ceremony, the inductees were introduced at halftime of the Cortland-Rowan football game earlier that afternoon.
Elia was the Honorary selection in the 2012 Hall of Fame.
Established in 1969, the C-Club Hall of Fame recognizes Cortland alumni who competed as athletes at the College and who since have distinguished themselves in their professions and within their communities. Honorary members are recognized for their long and significant contributions to SUNY Cortland athletics.
The 2012 honorees:
John “Jack” LaBombard '63, a former conference wrestling champion at Cortland who coached the Queensbury (N.Y.) High School wrestling team and two other programs to more than 390 victories in 37 seasons;
Tony Seaman '65, who won 263 games and three National Coach of the Year honors as a 30-year collegiate men's lacrosse head coach at Towson, Johns Hopkins, Penn and C.W. Post;
Ann Dunwoody '75, a former Red Dragon gymnast and tennis player who is the first female four-star general in the history of the United States military and was the winner of the NCAA's top honor, the Theodore Roosevelt Award, in 2011;
Rick Armstrong '79, a three-time All-America wrestler and 1978 NCAA Division III 158-pound champion who has enjoyed a long and successful career as wrestling coach at Walton (N.Y.) High School;
Paul Alexander '82, an Academic All-America offensive tackle at Cortland who has served as an assistant coach with the NFL's Cincinnati Bengals since 1994 and as the team's assistant head coach since 2003;
Tracey Armstead '86, a five-time women's track and field NCAA champion and 13-time All-American who has coached and taught in the Ithaca (N.Y.) City School District since 1986;
and
honorary inductee Fran Elia, Cortland's sports information director since 1992.
More on Elia:
Fran Elia (Honorary)
New Woodstock, N.Y.
The senior sports information director (SID) of the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC), Fran Elia is in his 22nd year at SUNY Cortland in 2012-13. He started in the profession as a volunteer assistant at Siena College, his alma mater, during the 1990-91 school year before accepting a one-year internship as the assistant SID at Cortland the following year. In 1992, he was hired as Cortland's SID replacing Peter Koryzno, who became the College's director of public relations.
Elia oversees the publicity of Cortland's 25 varsity athletic teams. During his tenure, Cortland has hosted numerous conference and national tournaments, including the 1996 NCAA Division III Wrestling Championships and two National Collegiate Gymnastics Association Division III Championships. Elia also serves on Cortland's C-Club Board of Directors.
Elia received the Fraser Stokes Award for dedication to SUNY Cortland Athletics in 1996. He was named the inaugural chair of the SUNYAC Sports Information Directors Committee during the 2004-05 school year, and in 2009 he earned the Eastern College Athletic Conference – Sports Information Directors Association's (ECAC-SIDA) Irving T. Marsh Service Bureau Award for excellence in the profession.
In addition to his duties at Cortland, Elia oversaw the Upstate New York Division III Football Statistical Bureau from 1993-94, assisted with the compilation of weekly Intercollegiate Soccer Association of America women's soccer polls from 1992-94, and coordinated ECAC Upstate New York women's basketball all-star selections from 1995-97. He wrote a weekly regional column for the Web site
D3football.com in 2000 and is currently a
D3hoops.com Top 25 women's basketball poll voter. Elia also served as a results auditor in the Empire State Games media headquarters every summer from 1991-2001.
The Schenectady, N.Y., native graduated from Siena in 1988 and worked four years as a men's basketball student team manager at the school. He served as a staff auditor for the Big Eight accounting firm Coopers and Lybrand and took graduate courses in Communication Studies at The University at Albany prior to coming to Cortland.