• 2015 CoSIDA Special Award recipients release
• Special Awards feature story schedule
by Laurie Bollig, CoSIDA Director of Membership Engagement
The life of a sports information director is filled with ups and downs, often predicated on winning and losing teams, the hiring and firing of coaches, major stories and minor distractions.
The truly great professionals are the ones who keep an even keel during the highs and the lows. Long-time Western Kentucky University sports information director Paul Just – one of the newest members of the CoSIDA Hall of Fame – was exactly that sort of SID.
Not surprisingly, Just gives the credit for his calm demeanor to his predecessor, CoSIDA Hall of Famer Ed Given.
“He’s my mentor, and he remains a great friend,” Just said. “He was tremendously thorough and extremely accurate in everything he did. He was so even-minded in the way he
handled dealings with the media and coaches and athletes.
“He was one of those people who was a class act in the way he worked and dealt with everybody,” Just continued. “One of my regrets is that I never felt like I was as good as he was.”
Just must have been paying close attention to Given’s example. No less than 25 young professionals who came through his office went on to careers in sports communications. During their time under Just’s tutelage, they saw the exact same kind of person – calm, professional and reliable.
The cigar-smoking Just was never afraid to try new things. He knew how to use a computer before using computers was cool. He was relentless in his efforts to get box scores and game stories in the Louisville Courier-Journal.
As understated as Just was about his work and his role at the university, others saw great value in what he did during his tenure but also upon his “retirement,” which saw him transition to an important role for the school.
“Paul Just has been a truly important piece of the fabric of WKU Athletics and Western Kentucky University as a whole. His dedication to our student-athletes, coaches and teams throughout his 50 years on The Hill is something to be admired, and I know how much his passion and efforts have meant to those he has impacted.” said WKU director of athletics Todd Stewart – a former media relations professional himself. “He is a wealth of knowledge about all things Hilltoppers and Lady Toppers, and he uses that knowledge to bring a little piece of WKU to everyone he encounters. WKU Athletics is better because of the numerous contributions of Paul Just, and I am thrilled that he is being honored in this most prestigious way.”
Just grew up in nearby Greenville, Kentucky, and enrolled as a freshman at Western in 1965 to began a 50-year love affair with the university. He wrote for the student newspaper, was a student recruiter and completed tours as an intern, graduate assistant and staff assistant in the school’s public relations department before officially becoming the sports information director in 1978.
Just was a strong advocate of CoSIDA and got involved early in his career.
“One of the things Ed instilled in me was to get involved with CoSIDA,” Just said. “Ed told me it will broaden your networking, you’ll learn quick
er and you’ll stay on top of
things better when you are in CoSIDA.”
Just served many years on the Academic All-America® committee and was chair of the scholarship committee until a year after his retirement, when he thought it more appropriate if a full-time active SID was the chair. He recommended Old Dominion’s Carol Hudson.
“He’s one of my favorites,” Just said of the Hudson, a fellow CoSIDA Hall of Famer who will retire this spring. “I’ve got a long list of favorite SIDs, but he was certainly close to the top.”
Like all the great SIDs, Just remembers everything, so picking a few of his favorite memories during his career was not an easy task.
He mentioned coming to Western from the same high school legendary WKU basketball coach Ed Diddle, with Just a graduate of the school where Diddle served as coach; getting misty-eyed when cross country runner Nick Rose won Western’s first NCAA championship in 1974; and the multiple Final Fours he attended with the men’s and women’s basketball teams.
But after some thought, he settled on two memories – a public national championship and a private reflection on the growth and maturity of one of his student-athletes.
When Western’s football team won the NCAA Division I-AA football championship in 2002, Just wasn’t even there. He had retired two months before. His obligation on this night was to his daughter, Sara, who was participating in the Bowling Green Cotillion. He donned a tuxedo and took a spin around the dance floor with her before heading over the Diddle Arena to staff the men’s basketball game that same night. Even in retirement, Just was helping out when the football national championship meant the sports information department was short-staffed.
“The first thing I told Jack Harbaugh when he got off the bus that night was ‘I’m mad as hell at you.’ He looked at me kind of funny and I said ‘You waited six weeks after I retired to win a national championship!’”
Just said he was never more proud of one of his student-athletes than he was when former WKU women’s basketball standout Lillie Mason received her Kodak All-American award at the Women’s Final Four in 1986.
“Lillie came in as a freshman from a little town near Bowling Green. She couldn’t look you in the eye or speak to you. She was so timid, so reserved,” Just remembered. “Over those years, she grew tremendously. I stood behind her at that press conference and she had all these microphones in her face, and she was just smiling.”
As the only full-time person in his department for many years, Just says student assistants were vital to his operation at Western Kentucky.
“I couldn’t have existed without them,” he said.
In the old days, Just says, you knew you had a “keeper” if a student assistant survived the weed-out job – assembling newspaper clippings. It was a thankless job that involved newsprint and jars of rubber cement. Nobody wanted to do it. It was the ones who came back for more that Just knew would make it not only in sports information but in any job they pursued after college, really.
“I had a few who didn’t make it, “ Just remembers. “It sure weeded out the ones who just wanted to go to the games.”
In return for their dedication to the Hilltopper athletics program, Just made sure the students he mentored left knowing what it would take to sustain a career after graduation.
“I hope they learned something about job responsibility, because we tried to treat them as semi-pros at least,” Just said. “I hope they enjoyed themselves. If they were like me, I hope they developed an appreciation for something they didn’t even know existed before they got on campus.”
Current WKU assistant athletics director for communications Michael Schroeder said Just’s reputation is outstanding to this day.
“When I arrived at WKU as an intern in the athletic media relations office six years ago, one of the first people I was introduced to was Mr. Just. He was described to me by the people who hired me as one of the finest people that I would meet in the profession, and that has held true to this day," Schroeder stated. "He is always willing to lend a hand to a project or lend an ear to a question or request for advice.
"Now that I am in the role as head athletic media relations person at WKU, a position he held for so long, I constantly find myself hoping that I have made Mr. Just proud in carrying on the traditions of Western Kentucky University," Schroeder concluded. "His input, advice and dedication are so important to all of us in the office. I always joke with people that he is the hardest-working ‘retired’ person I know. I am always in awe of how many people ask about Mr. Just when I am traveling with our teams, which is a true testament to the impact he has had on so many people."
Sports communications professionals mentored by Paul Just
Full-Time Staff Assistants
Brian Fremund, South Alabama*
Chris Masters, Notre Dame*
Dan Wallenberg, Kansas State, Ohio State*
Graduate Assistants/Interns
Aaron Ames, Texas A&M - Corpus Christi, Texas A&M - Kingsville
Joe Angolia, Eastern Kentucky, Arkansas-Little Rock, Kentucky High School Athletic Association*
Bob Cefalo, Central Florida
Chris Cook, St. Louis, Texas Tech*
Dave DeCecco, Amateur Athletic Union
Ken Dominiski, Syracuse
Sherilyn Fiveash, Mississippi, Memphis, Iowa, WBCA
Joe Gorby, Michigan Tech, Ferris State, Arkansas State
Ace Hunt, Indiana State*
Jeff Reynolds, Sun Belt Conference, Horizon League, BYU
Student Assistants
Alan George, Notre Dame, Stanford*
Chris Glowacki, Western Kentucky
Lisa Grider, Oklahoma State, Texas Christian
Jamie Kimbrough, Iowa State, Tennessee Tech, LSU, Metro Conference, Fox Sports Net South, La Mans Series
Sally Krauss Weber, Sun Belt Conference, Western Kentucky
Laurie Layman Bollig, Kansas, NCAA, Lowe’s Senior Class, CoSIDA*
David Popham, Coppin State
Sally Raque, Florida, Western Kentucky, Senior PGA Royal Carribbean Classic, LPGA Friendly’s Classic, LPGA Futures Tour
Rick Redding, Tennessee
John Spugnardi, Bellarmine*
Kerry Tharp, Tennessee, Oklahoma, South Carolina, NASCAR*
Robin Vincent Fambrough, Nicholls State
* Current position