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By Zach Wadley, Illinois State Athletic Communications graduate assistant
Note: Mike Williams, Illinois State Assistant Athletics Director/Communications, is being recognized with CoSIDA’s 2016 Bud Nangle Award on June 15 during the CoSIDA convention in Dallas. The Nangle Award, established in 2010, is presented to an
individual outside of CoSIDA or a member of CoSIDA who shows ethics and integrity under unusual or stressful situations. Williams was one of the key Redbird campus staff members who coordinated the crisis communications plan and rememberance initiatives following a tragic plane crash last April 2015 which claimed the lives of two ISU Athletics staff members and five friends of ISU Athletics.
April 7, 2015, started like a normal day for the Illinois State Athletics Communications Office. We woke up, went about our morning routines and headed off to work. With lives built around sports, the office chatter that morning would revolve around the previous night’s NCAA men’s basketball championship game between Duke and Wisconsin.
However, upon entering the office that morning, it was clear that something wasn’t right. Mike Williams, Assistant Athletics Director of Communications, has been in his role since 2012, and as each person walked through the main door, he called them into his office for an immediate staff meeting.
We had no idea what the meeting was about, but even before entering the office, the faces of our co-workers sitting on the couches inside told us this would not be a happy meeting.
At 9 a.m., we were gathered in Mike’s office and he broke the news to us: A plane carrying seven men – two ISU Athletics staff members and five friends of ISU Athletics – had crashed in a bean field in Bloomington just 2.5 miles from the Central Illinois Regional Airport.
“I got a call at 6:30 a.m. asking if I had heard anything about a plane crash,” said Williams. “The call woke me
Redbird Remembrance and memorial tributes
up so I hadn’t heard a thing. About 45 minutes later, I received an email from Larry [Lyons, ISU Athletic Director] saying we had an emergency meeting as soon as possible. I got to school and everyone was crying. Larry could hardly get the words out to tell us.”
Aaron Leetch, Deputy Athletic Director for External Operations, and Torrey Ward, men’s basketball Associate Head Coach, were gone much too soon. The news was devastating. Torrey and Aaron were loved, and both men had touched so many lives. As a staff, our day-to-day is about covering sports. The worst things we face are long bus rides or pulling out the positives when recapping a loss. Life and death is not something we deal with.
However, in that moment, our jobs changed. Like everyone, we were grieving, but there was also the reality that media outlets wanted to talk to members of the athletics staff, along with a press conference that needed to be scheduled and statements that had to be released.
In a collective effort, the entire staff pulled together in a situation where all eyes were on us. It was a tragedy unlike anything we had ever faced, creating a moment that required everyone to be at their best.
The Press Conference
The day after the crash occurred, Williams and the communications staff organized a press conference on campus. On the day of the crash, our job was to tell media to wait so that everybody could grieve however they felt necessary. Until the press conference, the only things released were statements from Lyons, head men’s basketball coach Dan Muller, and ISU President Larry Dietz.
“We didn’t do much that first day,” said Williams. “We kept silent, but the media was so great to us. They were all very patient and let everyone here have their space. Halfway through the day, we made the decision to hold a press conference the next day.”
Lyons, Muller and John Jones, a member of the basketball team, spoke at the press conference. With media gathered from around the country, the three men told the stories of the men who passed away in the crash through tears and sadness.
Williams orchestrated the press conference, delivering an opening statement and handling questions from the media. Amidst the grief and pain, he maintained a stoic demeanor.
“I think the press conference was therapeutic,” said Williams. “But that was tough. That was the hardest thing I’ve had to do in my professional life. To sit there and try and keep the press conference moving while Dan, John and Larry are in tears – that was hard.”
Honoring Torrey Ward
John Twork, Assistant Athletics Communications Director and men’s basketball contact, didn’t know about the crash until that morning’s meeting. What followed after was what Twork calls the most difficult thing he’s had to do in his professional life.
“I had to get a statement from Coach Muller,” said Twork. “That was tough because the team actually had a workout that day and he told the players it was optional. They all decided to work out because that’s what Torrey would have wanted. I had to go down in the middle of the workout and get a quote from him.”
Twork assisted in the planning of the press conference and fielded dozens of media requests in the days after the crash. The requests came from everywhere; ABC, NBC, ESPN and others contacted him that week.
“It was hard to process it all,” said Twork. “I knew Torrey for three years. I made it through the day, but when I got home my wife met me at the door and I broke down.”
Twork later attended Ward’s funeral with the team in Birmingham, Alabama, and understood Ward’s impact in his hometown where he is something of a local hero.
“We ate at Torrey’s favorite barbecue restaurant, and the guys were walking around finding pictures of him as a player at UAB hanging on the walls,” said Twork.
L to R: Williams with wife Amanda and daughter, Adalynn; with John Sanberg, former ISU graduate assistant and current Chicago Blackhawks
creative director; with Ryan Perreault, North Dakota State Director of Athletics Communications, at the FCS National Championship Game in January 2015.
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The communications staff went to great lengths to honor the seven men. Seven months after the crash, ISU athletics, under the direction of Lauren Hutchcraft, debuted the Redbird Remembrance website. Student-athletes have worn patches and staff have worn lapel pins to honor the seven. A memorial was constructed outside Redbird Arena.
The days will pass, but through the memorials online and on campus, the memories and legacies of the seven men will live on forever.
“I’ve talked to the family members,” said Williams. “They thanked us for what we did, and for them to say that after the toughest moment of their life, it really does mean something. It’s been tough on all of us, but so worth it to help those families in some small way.”