• 2015 CoSIDA Special Awards general announcement/release
• Special Awards feature story schedule
by Diane Nordstrom, University of Wisconsin Associate Director of Athletic Communications/CoSIDA Special Awards Committee
For Cathy Bongiovi, her 25 years in the sports information profession have been an experience that has taken her to five states and eight different jobs. Not bad for a person who really didn’t know what sports information was in college.
“I was a broadcast journalism major at Penn State and wanted to be a sports broadcaster,” Bongiovi explains. “At that time, Penn State didn’t offer sports journalism, so I combined broadcast journalism classes and sports management classes. I took a class called ‘Sports Information’ taught by Mary Jo Haverbeck. That was my first introduction to the profession.”
The class must have been interesting because all these years later, she still loves what she’s doing.
Bongiovi, who admits she doesn’t have much athletic ability, said, “I think I fell in love with the profession because of the variety. I have never been bored at work! And despite the long hours and missed family holidays, sports is very exciting.”
A 1987 Penn State graduate in broadcast journalism, Bongiovi started her career in public relations with the Philadelphia 76ers of the NBA. She moved on to the University of Connecticut where as an intern, she assisted with publicity for numerous teams, including working with the women's basketball team during its inaugural Final Four appearance in 1991.
Bongiovi spent four years with the University of Iowa women's athletic department, including two years as sports information director for the Hawkeyes' 12 women's sports. Her time at Iowa was highlighted by appearances in the Final Four for basketball and the World Series in softball.
After two years at the Atlantic 10 Conference office, Bongiovi returned to her alma mater, working for the Nittany Lions for four years, with her women’s basketball team advancing to the Final Four and her women’s soccer team competing in the College Cup. She then worked at the University of Virginia for six years before being hired as the primary media contact for the Temple University football team, one of just five women nationally to serve in that capacity at a Football Bowl Subdivision school at the time of her hire.
Now in her first year as the Assistant Athletics Director for Communications at the University of Akron, Bongiovi is charge of the Zips’ department and also serves as the primary publicist for the football and women's tennis teams.
“I do have to say that, despite offers to leave, I’ve stayed in this profession for so long because of the student-athletes,” Bongiovi said. “I did work for a conference office for two years, and I really missed the daily interaction with the students. It’s amazing to see them grow and mature during their college years and develop into adults. I’ve maintained communication with many of my former student-athletes. They are more than life-long friends; they are family.”
Bongiovi also considers many in the profession as her life-long friends.
“The friends I’ve made all over the country,” said Bongiovi of what she enjoys most about CoSIDA. “Some I only get to see once a year at the convention, but I can pick up the phone and call any one of them, and we are a sup
portive network to each other.”
As one of the few female SIDs working football, Bongiovi admires and appreciates the other women in the profession as well. She credits the late award-winning athletic media relations professional Haverbeck for being her mentor and introducing her to “a profession that has been a big part of my life. All of the women in CoSIDA (and FAME) have been supportive throughout my career. We share ideas, problems, and solutions.”
That’s one thing Bongiovi has noticed about the profession over the years, the increase in diversity.
“When I went to my first CoSIDA Convention (Lexington in 1992), I was surprised at the crowd— mostly older white males,” said Bongiovi. “Over the years, I have seen our profession grow and change for the better. Today our organization is much more diverse. It was a much-needed change.”
Another big change according to Bongiovi has been the technological advances.
“When I first started, we wrote press releases on a typewriter (gulp), stuck them in envelopes and mailed to the media,” Bongiovi reminisced. “And we did stats by hand and typed them up. I’m not kidding!
“Today, technology allows us to disseminate information so much quicker. While it give us more to do with websites and social media, we can accomplish more in a shorter time frame. I also like that I can work from home in my pajamas! When I first started, we were in the office late at night, waiting for results to come over the fax machine.”
While Bongiovi admits that she has missed out on some family events due to her job, she is very appreciative of the support they have provided over her career.
“I’ve moved around a lot and missed a lot of functions because duty has always called,” explains Bongiovi. “Special thanks to my mom— Rae Bongiovi— for always telling us we could do whatever we wanted when we grew up and for answering the press box phone over Thanksgiving when my student staff was gone!”
Bongiovi has earned numerous citations for excellence from CoSIDA in publication design. In 2005, she was named the chair of the CoSIDA Publications Committee and served in that role for a few years. She also served as a volunteer media relations assistant, working with the NCAA Women's Final Four media coordination staff from 1997 to 2001.
“There are so many people to thank— all of the coaches, student-athletes, co-workers, and media at Connecticut, Iowa, Atlantic 10 Conference, Penn State, Virginia, Temple, and Akron,” Bongiovi added. “We have always been the team behind the teams. Thanks for taking me along for the ride.”