• 2016 CoSIDA Special Awards general announcement/release
• Special Awards feature story schedule
By Ann King, The Sage Colleges Sports Information Director/CoSIDA Special Awards Committee
Wally Johnson has called Canton, New York, and the St. Lawrence University campus home for
Johnson through the years
over 40 years. After a career that has spanned five decades, Johnson will be retiring at the end of the 2015-16 academic year.
Johnson was named director of athletic media relations in 1999 and has served as the university's sports information contact since 1975. Who could blame him for not wanting to leave the scenic 1,000-acre campus nestled in the foothills of Whiteface Mountain.
A native of St. Albans, Vermont and a 1971 graduate of the University of Vermont, he was the assistant sports editor of
The Burlington Free Press and worked as a University of Vermont basketball broadcast commentator prior to coming to St. Lawrence.
“The original plan was to spend two or three years at St. Lawrence and then look for something bigger and better,” Johnson notes. “I looked and interviewed a few times in the 1980s, but while there are certainly bigger, I never found anything I thought was better.”
Johnson was a 2013 inductee into the College Sports Information Directors' (CoSIDA) Hall of Fame and earned the ECAC-SIDA’s 2012 Pete Nevins Lifetime Achievement Award for advancement of athletic communications and advocacy for college athletics. Johnson also received the 2001 CoSIDA Warren Berg Award and the 1995 ECAC-SIDA Irving T. Marsh Award for contributions to the field of sports information. He became the first to earn the profession's three major awards with the addition of the 2012 Nevins award.
Johnson served 25 years on the ECAC-SIDA board and 16 years as the chair of the former CoSIDA Workshop Exhibitors Committee. While some who know him as Mr. World, might say it’s the friendly confines of the annual ECAC-SIDA social reception bearing his name, Wally World.
"I have known Wally since I had more hair and his wasn't gray," commented Eric McDowell of Union. "Seriously, I had worked with him when I was at New Hampshire and now here at Union and also very closely with CoSIDA Vendors Committee. Wally is a tremendous professional, an 'old school' SID who grew and adapted as technology developed in our business. His work with CoSIDA and ECAC-SIDA was outstanding, and the times that we had away from the playing arena and outside of the panels were special. The St. Lawrence University community was not the only one to benefit from his service and personality. So was the sports information community."
Roger Crosley, the former ECAC-SIDA’s long-time treasurer, noted, “Wally Johnson is the epitome of what a sports information professional should be. He has promoted St. Lawrence student-athletes and their accomplishments for decades and has done it with an unselfish and humble nature that would be something for every young person in athletic communications to emulate.
"Wally has trained countless young people and is responsible for beginning the sports communications careers of many. He has approached this with his characteristic humor and easy-going nature. His service to ECAC-SIDA is legendary. No one in the history of that organization has served in more leadership positions than he. He was the voice of reason in ECAC-SIDA board meetings for many years.”
The longest-tenured ECAC hockey SID, Johnson has worked with the Saints’ Division I men’s ice hockey team since he arrived at St. Lawrence. He has told Laurentians far and wide about the nearly 700 hockey wins he’s witnessed. He was host SID for the 1984 and 1988 NCAA Division I men’s hockey championships, the 1982 NCAA Division I ski championships at Lake Placid, and the 2003 NCAA Division III men’s soccer semifinals and championship.
“In the extensive and storied history of SLU Hockey, Wally Johnson may very well end up being the longest serving member of this hockey program," noted Greg Carvel, men’s hockey head coach at SLU. “Wally has been a unique and important part of the heart and soul of this hockey
program. He endured many, many miles on the team bus; made many calls on the air of defining goals - and did it all with his unique flair that always involved cowboy boots, and on cold nights, a Russian Ushanka.
"Wally is deeply respected in the SID community, the college hockey fraternity and on the St. Lawrence campus and has earned his place in the pantheon of St. Lawrence hockey. Wally’s easy going personality and gregarious nature, along with his deep love for this sport, made him a great ambassador for St. Lawrence and for college hockey.”
Patrick Salvas of Darmouth College noted “Working with Wally the last five years has been an awesome experience. It's been a great to see an established guy like Wally taking on so much for his team in a time when SIDs are expected to be constantly multitasking. I have so much respect for Wally as a professional, and I can't say enough good things about him as a person. He's one of the nicest and friendliest individuals you could hope to know and I will miss him in the press boxes. ECAC Hockey will definitely have a different feel without Wally around."
An avid golfer, Johnson’s favorite place to relax over the years may be The Oliver D. Appleton Golf Course on campus. He is a veracious reader and also provides photography for the St. Lawrence athletic web site with his great talents behind the camera.
“I owe a ton to the athletic administration for the support over the years, to the coaches and to the many assistants who have been part of our sports information program,” Johnson said. “I owe a lot to the athletes who have made St. Lawrence so successful. It is easy to promote successful teams and successful individuals.
"I am honored and humbled with the professional recognition, but am proudest of the knowledge and expertise I have acquired,” he noted. “Transitioning from typewriter to computer, from mail and phone to internet and now into Twitter and Instagram has been interesting, to say the least. I am sure the kids consider me a ‘technosaur’, but I am trying!”