Note: This is the first story in the CoSIDA Special Awards feature series which will highlight all 2013 Special Award recipients. All recipients will be honored at the CoSIDA Convention (June 12-15) in conjunction with the NACDA and Affiliates Convention at Orlando's Marriott World Center.
See the full list of recipients and features schedule.
by Larry Scott, Minnesota State
CoSIDA Special Awards Committee
That Jim Streeter spent a rewarding professional career in athletics was no great surprise, but it was clearly not the role he envisioned when he first enrolled at Eastern Michigan University as a freshman in 1966.
Streeter spent 39 years in the Eastern Michigan sports information office, including 37 years as director, before retiring last fall.
“I grew up in Albion, Mich., about 70 miles from Ypsilanti, and played both basketball and baseball,” Streeter said. “I wanted to go to a school that was a little smaller, but close to home. When I came here it was about five to eight thousand (students), and when I left it was about 20,000.”
It was the right fit for Streeter and the ideal place to build the foundation for a projected teaching and coaching career. “I wanted to be a teacher and coach, but I did my student teaching and absolutely hated it. It didn’t feel right,” said Streeter.
He quickly adopted a new game plan that led him to the sports information business.
“Eastern didn’t have a journalism major or minor when I started, but they had a minor when I finished. I was editor of the Eastern Echo for two years, worked part-time for the Ypsilanti Press and volunteered in the sports information office. (SID).”
He joined EMU as an assistant to John Fountain in 1974. “A year later John became the information director at Eastern I took over his job.”
For Streeter, Fountain was a major source of inspiration and he remembers the great joy he felt when he learned how others felt about his mentor.
“When I went to the national convention, all the giants of the industry were there, and it seemed like everyone came up with a question for John. That just showed me no matter the size of the school you can still have a major impact.”
Streeter clearly relished his role at EMU.
“Working at a newspaper you covered the event, working at a university you were part of the event. That was the difference. I didn’t just want write about part of the history, I wanted to live it.”
A 2004 inductee into the EMU Athletics Hall of Fame, the 64-year-old Streeter earned a bachelor's degree from EMU in 1973 with a major in physical education and minors in journalism and history.
Streeter is a member of the College of Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) and served on the publications committee for four years. He was the secretary of the Detroit Sports Broadcasters and Writers Association (DSBWA) from 1990-94 after serving as vice president for one year, and received the honor of “Best of the Best” from the DSBWA in 2007.
Streeter was selected as one of nine Media Marshals for the 2004 Ryder Cup Golf competition at Oakland Hills Country Club. In addition, he was part of the media relations staff at the 2008 NCAA Men’s Basketball Regional and the 2009 Final Four in Detroit.
For nearly four decades Streeter kept a watchful eye on Eagle athletics, and his contributions did not go unnoticed.
“Jim has been guiding a critical component of EMU Athletics for almost 40 years,” EMU Director of Athletics Dr. Derrick Gragg said. “His awards at the regional and national levels only tell a fraction of the story of his successful portrayal of EMU Athletics across our country. All of his contributions are greatly admired and appreciated by the Eastern Michigan family.”
“Streeter, 64, was our link to Eastern Michigan, and no school in the country had a better SID, said
Detroit Free Press Sports Writer Mick McCabe.
“He has been a constant reminder of a time before the media became regarded as the enemy. I never felt like an enemy when I covered an event at Eastern, no matter what I had written the previous week. That was because of Streeter, who built lasting personal relationships with media members and possessed an uncanny perspective on our profession and his.
“Streeter was the guy Eastern needed -- and the school is lucky he stayed so long.”
Streeter admits there are some things he misses about his old post.
“It was nice to have a place to go that was yours. I really miss that, but I don’t miss the electronic side. When I first started we advanced games, talking to newspapers and TVs; that was a lot of fun. We weren’t just servants. We had the latitude to go in different directions and think outside of the box.”
Streeter and his wife, Mary, live in Ypsilanti and have three sons, Andrew and twins Michael and David, two granddaughters, Isabel and Annaliese, and a grandson, Avery.