Long-time Sports Information Director Jeff Hodges to be inducted into North Alabama Athletic Hall of Fame

Long-time Sports Information Director Jeff Hodges to be inducted into North Alabama Athletic Hall of Fame

Courtesy of University of North Alabama Athletics

FLORENCE, ALABAMA -- The twenty-fourth class of inductees for the University of North Alabama Athletic Hall of Fame has been selected and includes former Lion tennis player and longtime sports information director Jeff Hodges.

In addition to Hodges, the UNA Athletic Hall of Fame Class of 2013 includes former baseball All-Americans Douglas Hargett and Josh Willingham, basketball standout Ricky Johnson, football All-American Harvey Summerhill and volleyball All-American Nesrin Seckin.

The group will be formally inducted into the UNA Athletic Hall of Fame in a ceremony at 9 a.m. on Saturday, October 12 as part of UNA's 2013 Homecoming celebration.

Following its creation in 1990, the UNA Athletic Hall of Fame inducted four members each year through 2005. Beginning in 2006, that number was expanded to six, and this year will mark the eighth year with six honorees.

This year's induction brings the total number of inductees into the UNA Athletic Hall of Fame to 112.

Hodges, a Decatur, Ala., native, is in his 30th year as sports information director at UNA, where he has helped promote five national championship teams, hundreds of all conference and All-American student-athletes, two Harlon Hill Trophy winners, and worked at both the Summer and Winter Olympic Games.

A 1982 graduate of UNA with a B.S. degree in journalism and History, Hodges was a two-year letterman on the Lions’ tennis teams, and played No. 5 singles and No. 3 doubles on the 1981 Gulf South Conference championship tennis squad. He worked two years as a student assistant in the Office of University Relations at UNA and worked for six months as a sports writer at the Florence Times Daily newspaper before being hired as the first full-time SID at UNA in July of 1983.

In July of 1997 he was honored by the College Sports Information Directors of America as the 1997 recipient of the Warren Berg Award, presented annually to a college division member who has made an outstanding contribution to the field of college sports information, and, who by his or her activities outside the field, has brought dignity and prestige to the profession. In addition, Hodges was also inducted into the CoSIDA Hall of Fame in 1997.

He was honored by UNA with the Faculty/Staff Alumni Service Award in 1994 and as Alumni of the Year for 2001.

In 2008 he received the Scoop Hudgins Outstanding SID Award from the All-American Football Foundation. The award is presented to athletic media relations professionals who have done outstanding work to promote collegiate football. In 2009 he received a 25-Year Award from the College Sports Information Directors of America for a quarter century of service to the sports information profession.

In February of 2002 he served as Venue Press Chief for Ski Jumping at Utah Olympic Park at the Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City. Hodges was also the Venue Press Chief at the 2001 U.S. Nordic Ski Festival in Park City, Utah. At the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games in Atlanta, Hodges served as Venue Press Chief for volleyball at the Omni, where he supervised all press operations for both the men and women’s volleyball competition.

Hodges had previously served as press officer for the U.S. Olympic Committee at the 1987 U.S. Olympic Festival in North Carolina, the 1993 U.S. Olympic Festival in San Antonio, Texas, and the XVII Olympic Winter Games in Lillehammer, Norway in 1994.

He has served as media coordinator for the NCAA Division II Football Championship Game since 1986 and is on the Board of Directors of the Shoals National Championship Committee, which sponsors the game. For the last 27 years he has also served as chairman of the National Harlon Hill Award Committee, which presents the annual NCAA Division II College Football Player of the Year trophy. In 1999 he created the Division II Football Hall of Fame and also serves as its chairman.

In 1995 he successfully promoted the first defensive player to win the Hill Trophy in the award’s history, in UNA linebacker Ronald McKinnon. Then in 2003, Hodges promoted UNA’s second Hill Trophy winner in quarterback Will Hall.

During Hodges time at North Alabama, the school’s athletic publications have received more than 80 national awards from CoSIDA, including 25 “Best in the Nation” awards. In 1995 Hodges was appointed to the Honors Court (selection committee) of the College Football Hall of Fame, and in 2009 he was placed on the selection committee for the College Baseball Hall of Fame.

Among his numerous involvements within CoSIDA, Hodges is currently the CoSIDA Secretary and has served 14 years on the CoSIDA Board of Directors.

In addition to his other duties at UNA, Hodges is chairman of the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame and has hosted 52 NCAA Division II playoff games, including 27 Championship Games, in addition to the 2011 NCAA Division II Men’s Golf Championship and 10 other NCAA regional events in basketball, baseball, volleyball, golf and women’s basketball.

In all, Hodges has worked 352 of UNA’s last 354 football games since 1983 and has worked 28 straight Division II Football Championship Games.