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Rick Leddy spent 36 years as the voice and keeper of the athletic history as the associate director of athletics and sports information director at Southern Connecticut State University and during that time he distinguished himself as a wonderful storyteller, crafting great stories about student-athletes, alumni and coaches for the SCSU Owls.
Most recently, Leddy has served the National Association of Basketball Coaches (the men's coaches organization) as senior director of communications since February, 2007, responsible for communicatio
ns, including public and media relations, publications and website operations. The official spokesperson for the NABC, he also has been the NABC contact for Samaritan's Feet and also assists with the production of events at the NABC Convention, including the Guardians of the Game Awards Show and Champions Luncheon. Rick also is the secretary for the NABC Board of Directors, a position he has held since 1985.
This June, he will cap his distinguished career with a CoSIDA Lifetime Achievement Award.
Sean Barker, sports editor of the New Haven Register, said it best in 2007 when he wrote about Leddy’s
retirement from Southern Connecticut: “SCSU's Storyteller Set to Write Next Chapter. Rick Leddy loves to tell stories. Good thing, because for the past 36 years, his job has been to pass along stories to the media in order for them to be relayed to the public.”
Southern Connecticut is one of the most successful Division II programs in the nation. Leddy has been there for each of the Owls’ nine team national titles and all but one of the 67 NCAA individual championships. Southern sponsors 19 intercollegiate sports, comparable to many Division I programs.
"I’ve never bought the Division I-Division II thing," Leddy said. "Our kids are a little smaller, and a lot slower in some cases, but they are still the same. They have the same interests, the same competitiveness. I’ve really enjoyed working with them."
For 40 years, Leddy worked at his alma mater and distinguished himself throughout his lengthy and outstanding career which brought with it numerous awards and accolades. He was inducted into the SCSU’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 2007 and also received the Irving T. Marsh Award (for distinguished service) from the ECAC-SIDA organization that same year. Prior to that, he was the 2004 recipient of the Cliff Wells Appreciation Award, presented by the National Association of Basketball Coaches (MABC) for outstanding service. That same year brought with it a selection for induction into the New England Basketball Hall of Fame for outstanding contributions in promoting college basketball.
Over the years, his work has also cited and honored by his peers and colleagues as he garnered a citation from CoSIDA for ‘Best in the Nation’ for his 1973 swimming guide that also brought additional acclaim for Leddy from Swimming World Magazine. The U.S. Foo
tball Writers Association also saw it fit to honor him with the 1986 Press Box Merit Award for outstanding service to the FWA. This award is handed out to only 11 institutions per year - and only three were given outside of Division I-A.
Leddy has held numerous posts during his tenure in athletic communications having served as the both the president of ECAC-SIDA from 1979-80 and the New England Sports Information Directors Association.
As Barker noted, “No more stat crews, no more nomination slips, no more phone calls, e-mails and faxes to scores of media outlets across New England."
In speaking of his SCSU retirement, Leddy simply noted that "The timing was just right."
When Leddy started working, he used a Teletype, an earlier version of a fax that weighed upward of 20 pounds and was carried in what looked like a trombone case. He wrote play-by-play and stats for games by hand. Football games were played at Bowen Field and indoor sports at Pelz Gym.
Today, his stats are computer-generated and accessible instantaneously world wide, thanks to the Internet. Football games are played on a synthetic surface at Jess Dow Field.
But the core of his job remains the same: to get student-athletes the recognition they deserve.
"It’s hard for people to understand what you do," said Leddy, who had the second-longest tenure of an SID in New England. "They always say, ‘so you go to basketball games.’ No, I work basketball games."
There are some long days. Conference and NCAA reports due in the morning, an afternoon game, followed by an evening doubleheader. In the past decade, Sunday games have become popular, the one day in the past he could always count on having off.
But Leddy doesn’t complain, noting he’s been doing what he loves for the past four decades.
On a personal level, he and his wife, Nancy, have three children, Brendan, Colleen and Caitlin.
"Nothing is more important to him than his wife and children, and he was not going to let the demands of the office make him forget that," said Mark Mentone, the SID at Felician.
"I heard him on the phone one day telling a friend that ‘I have a baseball game today.’ Baseball was my responsibility,
so when he hung up, I was worried because there was no game on my schedule. I said to him, 'Rick, did I miss one?' He answered, 'Oh no, my son is pitching for North Haven High today.'"
When Leddy was 11, a surgery to fix his femur had complications, leaving his left leg shorter than his right.
It took away his ability to play sports, but not his passion for them.
He was a student manager for both baseball and hockey at Hamden High, and while in college at SCCU and shortly after he also worked at the New Haven Register, for the New Haven Blades and Hamden Bics of the old Eastern Basketball League.
It will be difficult in some ways to walk away.
"My wife teases me that if I’m driving down the street and see a baseball game, I’ll stop," Leddy said.
He said he will probably come back to watch teams, particularly the women’s basketball team, and that he will miss watching Steve Armstrong play quarterback the next two years. Never forgetting his connections, he will take time to see other college games, and head up to UConn to see former Southern Connecticut State men's soccer coach Ray Reid who has been the head coach of the UConn Huskies for some time.
Leddy’s press releases have included the names of young men who went on to play and coach in the NFL such as Chris Palmer, Kevin Gilbride, Joe Andruzzi and Jacques Cesaire, and young women who went on to change the way women’s athletics were viewed such as Donna Lopiano, Joan Bonvicini, Marnie Dacko and Cathy 
Inglese.
The stories are endless. Like the time he had to do play-by-play on a moment’s notice for a college gymnastics meet in the early days of ESPN. The road trips with former New Haven Register sports reporter Tom McCormack and longtime football coach Rich Cavanaugh. Or when DeFrancesco spent five minutes asking for directions to Springfield College, only to discover the woman he was asking was deaf.
George Grande, former radio and news anchor in Connecticut and former play-by-play announcer for the Cincinnati Reds - and a lifelong friend of Leddy’s - said, “I have worked my whole career with SIDs and they are a special breed. I have a passion for SIDs and what they do for a career.”
Grande added, “Having grown up with Rick and knowing him since childhood, he does an amazing job whether it was in his role as SID at Southern Connecticut or in his role at the NABC. Rick was able to take his passion for the business and be creative with building his role with the NABC. He is one of the most remarkable people I have ever known be it personally or professionally. People don’t come any better than Rick Leddy!”
"I have seen him in his many roles as a son, a father, a husband, a friend and a co-worker and he is the best type of person in every aspect you could imagine," Grande finished. "Rick excels and is person who pays tribute to those around him by the quality he brings to every relationship. He represents what the perfect SID should be. He is intelligent, creative, a tireless worker and the perfect team player. He is devoted to his coach, his team and his school and has never worried about personal glory or his own needs. He is what makes an SID so special.”
Leddy himself has made quite an impression on his students and assistants.
At least 13 of his students and assistants have gone on to careers in sports information, journalism or sports management.
"Working with Rick was an honor," said Jason Southard, the SID at the Coast Guard Academy, who was a student assistant and later assistant for Leddy. "That’s the way he made you feel. You worked with him, not for him."
Southard has had one intern at the Coast Guard Academy, Leddy’s son, Brendan.
"I’m just in awe around Rick when he starts rattling off the names of so many athletes, writers, coaches from the Connecticut area," said Scott Ames, who is entering his 25th year as SID at Western Connecticut State and worked as a student assistant and later as an assistant for Leddy. "I wish I had half the memory he does!"
"He taught me a lot and gave me a ton of guidance in just my one year under his tutelage, and more importantly, kept me enthusiastic about the world of college athletics," said Mark Jacobs, the one-time assistant director of sports communications at Springfield College.
While many of us choose to rush into retirement and walk away from work, Leddy has instead embraced his new-found status and continues to give back. He may have left SCSU, but he certainly has not walked away from intercollegiate athletics. First named as the secretary of the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) in 1985, he worked for the organization for 22 years in a part time role as secretary. That passion and expertise led him to a new found second career.
After retiring from his position at SCSU, Leddy opened the next chapter in his life when he was named the Director of Public Relations for the NABC and the NABC Foundation in 2007. A few years later, he was named the Senior Director of Communications in 2013 and also serves on the Board of Directors as the secre
tary on a full-time basis.
And his tremendous work and contributions to the men's basketball coaches association has not gone unnoticed, either.
"It has been a pleasure to work with Rick Leddy for over 20 years," noted Jim Haney, NABC Executive Director.
NABC.
"Rick has served the NABC as the recording secretary for the NABC board of directors and as a member of the NABC staff. We consider Rick a friend who cares deeply for the coaches, student-athletes and the game!
"He brings wisdom, talent, strong work ethic and passion for basketball to our national office daily. The many accomplishments of the NABC these
past two decades would not be have been realized without Rick Leddy. We are thrilled that CoSIDA will recognize Rick with this honor," Haney concluded.
Leddy has always found a way to be active in his community despite a schedule that included long hours and a workload many would run away from early on. But not Leddy.
He served as the Chairman of the Elementary School Building Board for seven years, while directing a $16.5 million project to renovate five school buildings in the Town of North Haven. He also found time to serve on the North Haven Republican Town Committee, while serving for nearly 20 years as the New Haven Country Club and was named to the Board of Governors, serving a three-year term.
Rick was very active in the community, serving in the public relations office and on the sports information operations staff when the Special Olympics’ Work event visited New Haven in 1995. A former youth coach and commissioner for the Max Sinoway Baseball League in North Haven, Leddy never missed an opportunity to be the perfect ombudsman for our profession.
“Leddy makes the people he has interacted with be it personally or professionally better," noted Grande. "He does everything with a style that continues to help us be better through his own efforts.”