• 2016 CoSIDA Special Awards general announcement/release
• Special Awards feature story schedule
by Bill Little, University of Texas (retired)/Special Awards Committee
John Bianco’s odyssey in the world of athletics media relations is like following a hopscotch across America until he found a permanent home at The University of Texas at Austin almost 25 years ago.
A native of upstate New York, he has spent more than half his life committed to college athletics.
His stops on the road map began in 1984 at Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, Ohio, where he earned a
Through the years (clockwise): Bianco with UT football standout
Derrick Johnson; with ESPN football analyst Kirk Herbstreit; on the
sidelines with Heisman winner Ricky Williams.
BA in sport management, working as a student assistant in the SID office while lettering four years and becoming a three-time all-Ohio Athletic Conference triple jumper. Upon graduation, he moved to Fayetteville, Ark., where he handled media relations for the National Champion men’s track and field program as well as men’s swimming and diving and men’s tennis as an intern in 1988-89 at the University of Arkansas.
The journey continued in 1989-90, when he moved to Fresno State in California, where he served his second internship as media relations director for women’s basketball and men’s and women’s track and field.
Then, it was on to a full-time position, at the University of Cincinnati. For the Bearcats, he worked as media relations director for football and women’s basketball, and as an assistant for a Final Four men’s basketball team from July of 1990 until July of 1992.
By the summer of 1992, his work had left him perfectly trained for his next step: at The University of Texas at Austin. In a career that has spanned 25 years, he rose from an entry level assistant to the Associate Athletics Director for Media Relations, heading up a 20 person staff while earning national honors for his student-athletes and ultimate respect from the most visible media in the country.
“I’ve been involved in college football as a player or a broadcaster for the last 28 years,” says college football TV analyst Kirk Herbstreit. “And John’s passion and professionalism for his craft sets the bar in the profession. His realistic and often times proactive approach are a hallmark in this industry. He possesses a skill set that Texas is fortunate to have.”
Along with managing media relations, Bianco helped with a state-of-the-art approach to new media communications that included photography, website innovation, publications, and video operations.
With a primary responsibility to Texas football, he worked with Longhorn teams that were dominant in the first decade of the 21st century, handling media responsibilities for the champions in two Rose Bowls (including the 2005 National Championship) and a Fiesta Bowl, as well as the runner-up for the BCS title game in 2009.
His extensive list of national individual award winners includes the 1998 Heisman Trophy winner (Ricky
Daughter Haley, John, wife Sonya, daughter Sabrina
Williams), as well as players who were Heisman finalists in 2005 (Vince Young) and 2008 and 2009 (Colt McCoy).
In all, there have been three recipients of the Maxwell Award, Walter Camp National Player of the Year and Doak Walker Awards, and two winners each of the Davey O’Brien Award, Nagurski Trophy, Thorpe Award, the NFF’s Campbell Award (Academic Heisman), Manning Award, and the Ted Hendricks Award. He also was responsible for helping Longhorn players win a Butkus Award, Lombardi Award, Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award, Disney Spirit Award, ARA Sportsmanship Award, a Wuerfel Award, and the first student-athlete to ever be awarded the National Football Foundation’s Legacy Award.
Through it all, he not only worked with the media to understand his players; he worked with his players to understand and appreciate the media.
“John Bianco is the real deal,” says McCoy, who became the winningest quarterback in NCAA history during his time at Texas. “He understands Texas, and definitely helped me gain wisdom and knowledge on how to handle the media.”
McCoy, who is entering his seventh year as an NFL quarterback, has carried his training beyond the college game.
“I leaned heavily on him from that aspect all through college, and even into the pros,” he added.
When Texas hired Bianco in the fall of 1992, it was for an assistant’s position working with swimming and diving, track and field and the Texas Relays, along with handling duties in football.
In the interview process, a call was placed to one of his references, a writer with the Cincinnati Post. It turned out the guy was on vacation.
“Who are you calling about? Said the desk man who answered the phone. Told it was John Bianco, the newspaperman said of the reference, “let me give you his home number. If there is anything we can do to help John, we will do it.”
The Texas decision makers decided if the media thought that much of him, they had their man.
In the summer of 2015, the SID profession saw a new athletics director suddenly dismiss John with no consulting of head football coach Charlie Strong in a reorganization effort. Months later, the AD was himself dismissed, and former players and some in the national media called university leaders on John’s behalf.
Bianco resides in Austin, where he and his wife, Sonya, and daughters, Haley and Sabrina, have deep roots. He took an interim job helping coordinate public relations and events for the major motion picture “My All American”—the story of former Longhorn football player Freddie Steinmark.
When Mike Perrin accepted the position of athletics director at Texas in September 2015, he, with the approval of top university administrators, brought Bianco back to his football media relations position.
And that is how John Bianco, a high school basketball standout, came out of upstate New York, traveled the country, and committed to college athletics and the profession which tells its story.