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Now in his 26th year in the profession, Tom McGuire is in his 17th year as Director of Sports Information at Bloomsburg University. He also serves as the assistant director in the office of marketing and communication for the Huskies. He is in charge of handling publicity for all 20 varsity sports at Bloomsburg in addition to producing the media guides for the teams and handling the maintenance of the sports portion of the school's web site.
“Tom is one of the very best in the profession of sports information,” said Mary Gardner, who served as Director of Athletics at Bloomsburg for 23 years until her retirement in June of 2011. “He is always punctual, accurate and extremely conscientious with regard to the myriad of expectations put on him as director of sports information and athletic marketing.
McGuire will be honored with a CoSIDA 25-Year service award at the upcoming 2014 CoSIDA Convention in June.
This is a year of honors for McGuire as he also will be honored with
ECAC-SIDA's 2014 University Division Irving T. Marsh Award during the ECAC-SIDA convention on June 26 in Troy, N.Y. The award is presented annually to one who has exhibited excellence in the field of sports information and is named after Irving Marsh, the ECAC Service Bureau founder and director until his retirement in 1973.
“Tom continually strives for excellence. His efforts to continually increase and improve the dissemination of information for 20 sports is commendable. For the majority of his career he was a ‘one-man operation’ continually managing the demands of a successful Division II program.”
Steve McCloskey, Director of Athletic Operations and Sports Information at Mansfield University noted, “The term consummate professional is
the first thing that comes to my mind when I hear the name Tom McGuire. Throughout his distinguished career at Wilkes and Bloomsburg, Tom has earned a well-deserved reputation as being one of the most accomplished, dependable and innovative professional in our business.
“His work ethic, dedication and professional skills have brought great honor to the schools he has worked for while his unselfish passion for the profession has been infused into a generation of SID’s that have worked under his tutelage. Tom’s just damn good at everything he does and does everything with such a wonderful degree of dignity. He is a magnificent human being and someday I hope to be half as good of an SID as he is.”
In the fall of 2005, McGuire added the role of athletic marketing and promotions director to his title and oversees all corporate marketing and promotional plans for the Huskies' athletic teams. Under his guidance, sponsorships have increased from $7,500 to nearly $50,000 per year and overall he has raised more than $225,000 for scholarships. He also serves as the director of licensing for the university.
Tom Byrnes, Commissioner of the Capital Athletic Conference said of McGuire, “I put Tom McGuire in the same category as the legendary SID, Bob Kenworthy of Gettysburg College in terms of classy gentlemen who are experts in their craft. They are both always professional, polite, friendly and complete in their duties, which usually extended to more than just the normal sports information assignments. He never complains about anything - he just laughs off tough times and moves on to the next assignment. I really respect Tom and the work he did at Wilkes and continues to do at Bloomsburg.”
At Bloomsburg, McGuire has served as the host SID for dozens of NCAA and Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) championship events, including serving as the host of the 2008 and 2011 NCAA D-II national field hockey championship. McGuire's broadcasting background has also come into play several times as he has served as the voice of the NCAA D-II field hockey webcasts in both 2006, 2008, 2010 and in 2011.
McGuire has promoted two Bloomsburg football players for the Harlon Hill Trophy with Franklyn Quiteh winning the honor in the fall of 2013 after finishing third in 2012 and sixth in 2010 as a freshman. Back in 2006, he promoted an unknown player Jamar Brittingham to a third-place finish for the D-II equivalent of the Heisman Trophy.
In 2006, he also promoted head football coach Danny Hale to a top-10 finish in the first-ever Liberty Mutual Coach
of the Year program. Hale
went on to be featured in a special on ABC-TV that year that was hosted by broadcast-legend Keith Jackson. Under McGuire's promotion, the Huskies have also been featured numerous times on the CBS Sports Review of the Championships show that highlights action at some of the NCAA championships. In addition, he has had 11 student-athletes featured in
Sports Illustrated's Faces in the Crowd section.
McGuire is also a contributor to the Bloomsburg’s
The University Magazine and has twice been honored for his writing. He recently took first place in District Two for his athlete profile of former baseball player Joey Ianiero, while in 2011, he took first place in District Two for his story on two of Bloomsburg University's athletic trainers.
From January to August of 2008, McGuire served as the interim director of communications at Bloomsburg, overseeing all public relation matters for the school. He also served in that role again from August to December of 2013 while his supervisor was on maternity leave.
Before Bloomsburg, McGuire served as SID at Wilkes University for nine and a half years. While there, he oversaw the promotion and publicity for the school's 13 varsity athletic teams.
Along with overseeing all publicity and media guides, McGuire was also the host of the cable television show Colonels Corner, which highlighted Wilkes athletics. Through his efforts, Wilkes was recognized by
Sports Illustrated as the No. 1 pre-season D-III men's basketball team in 1996-97. He also had a feature story run worldwide on the Associated Press, that was later picked up by
USA Tod
ay, and which later resulted in an appearance on FOX News.
As a member of CoSIDA, McGuire has won several awards for his publications from the organization. As a member of the ECAC-Sports Information Directors Association, he served one term as the division II representative to the executive board. He was also the site coordinator for the 1998 ECAC-SIDA Summer Workshop in Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
While at Wilkes, he was a member of the Middle Atlantic Conference Sports Information Directors and served as its chairman for three years.
“Having known Tom for some time now, I can honestly say he is the epitome of professionalism and dedication to the both his university as well as his family,” said Ann King, Athletic Communications Director at The Sage Colleges. “Tom’s understanding of the media and the background he brings to his role when he was at Wilkes and now at Bloomsburg has been a tremendous factor in the successful coverage he has earned for his university, coaches, and student-athletes throughout his career.”
Several former workers (interns, graduate assistants and students) have gone on to work in the sports information/sports publicity field including Matt Reitnour (Canisius College); Ryan Rebholz (IUP); Ryan Yanoshak (Army); Paul Blascovich (Sarah Lawrence); Lauren Ferrett (Wellesley); John Scarinci (York, NY); Lindsey Wyckoff Mitchell (New Orleans Pelicans); John Gatto (Union, KY); Don Sherman (Elimira College); Bryan Salvadore (Kutztown); Mark Vellek (Syracuse); Chris Matrich (Springfield Armour); and Tim Hipszer (IUP).
A 1985 graduate of Wilkes with a degree in communications, McGuire ran cross country for four years and was named team MVP as a sophomore.
McGuire also spent time as head cross country coach at Wilkes and was also head coach of the Seton Catholic (Pittston, Pa.) boys’ varsity
basketball team from 1988-93. During that time, his squad qualified for the District 2 playoffs, while one player went on to be named second team all-state by the Associated Press. He was also a PIAA basketball official for 10 years and served as a youth sports coach in baseball, basketball, and soccer.
He resides in Mountaintop, Pa., with his wife Audrey and son Nick (16).
Gardner said in closing, “It was always a pleasure to work with Tom. His professionalism and commitment to the athletic program was second to none. He is a man of integrity and strong values. During his tenure, Tom has also served the university in a variety of administrative capacities."