Courtesy of the Huntsville Item
See online: Longtime SHSU sports media director Paul Ridings set to retire this summer, by Gene Schallenberg, www.itemonline.com
Over the last 25-plus years, the amount of success the Sam Houston State Bearkats have enjoyed has soared by leaps and bounds.
Sam Houston State’s football team went from making the playoffs every few years to playing for national championships and now is perennially one of the top teams in the Football Championship Subdivision.
The men’s basketball team has twice played in the NCAA’s March Madness and has become annually 
one of the top teams in the Southland Conference.
The Kats baseball team has become a regular in the NCAA Tournament, competing in it eight times over the last 10 years, with four Southland regular-season titles in the past five years.
Additionally, Sam Houston’s upstart bowling team brought home the school’s first NCAA Division I national title in the fourth year of the program’s existence.
Every yard of every touchdown, every dunk or 3-pointer, plus every strikeout or home run, Sam Houston State associate athletic director for media services Paul Ridings Jr. has been working behind the scenes for the Bearkats, recording statistics, writing stories and helping get the word out about the Bearkats’ successes no matter the sport since 1989.
Now, he’ll have more free time after deciding to retire this summer.
“I’m looking forward to spending more time with the family,” said Ridings, who prefers remaining behind the scenes. “I’m still going to be around. I still want to be involved. Sam Houston has been great to me for 26 years. There’s been talks with getting me involved with the Lettermen’s Association and the Hall of Honor, whatever I can do.”
Throughout his time in Huntsville, Ridings has seen Sam Houston State ascend to become more nationally known in the sports world, especially in football and baseball.
Ridings has been behind the scenes as Bearkat football games became televised and started being streamed online worldwide, plus also become well-respected as a mid-major program. Ridings has also seen the birth of the women’s golf, bowling and soccer programs.
“He’s definitely helped us with our brand exposure,” Sam Houston State athletic director Bobby Williams said. “We’re definitely on the same page in that every student-athlete, no matter what their recognition level or what their opportunities are, is just as important as and equally important. He has always approached that with every student-athlete. People can tell you they’re going to do that, but only their actions will show it. PR, since 1989, has demonstrated that at a very high level.”
Before arriving at Sam Houston, Ridings served as assistant athletic director at Southern Utah State (now Southern Utah) in 1988-89, associate sports information director at SMU from 1980-88, public relations director for the Dallas Tornado soccer team from 1976-79 and started out as the sports information director at Trinity University in San Antonio from 1971-75.
Over the years, there have been several memorable moments in athletic history, such as the Bearkat football team playing for a national championship for the first time or the men’s basketball team playing in the NCAA tournament for the first time. Sam Houston State also hosted a regionally televised game on ABC as the Kats played Alcorn State and Heisman Trophy candidate Steve “Air” McNair in 1994. For Ridings, the memories are too numerous to pick out the best one.
“There’s been tons of thrills. There’s the Eastern Washington game, the playoff game (in 2001) where we were 20 points down with 14 (minutes) to play,” said Ridings, who is preparing for his final Southland Conference Football Media Day that will be held Wednesday. “We went to the (FCS) national championship two years in a row. Basketball, making the NCAAs twice. That’s just an instance, but there’s been tons of stuff like that. Getting to go to NCAA golf two years in a row, those were great trips.
“I enjoyed working with all the sports. It’s been a lot of fun. It was a real thrill when (Bearkats softball coach) Bob Brock got inducted into the Southwest Conference Hall of Honor. It’s been a great career.”
Ridings’ contributions are not lost on the countless number of student-athletes.
“Your numbers are important whenever it comes to being drafted,” said former Bearkat pitcher Dallas Gallant (2008-10). “If they’re not correct, it could definitely harm you. I felt like he was on top of it and got it corrected if there was a mistake.
“He had enough respect for us that he wouldn’t just come down there and be waiting for you right after the game just to ask questions or anything like that. He’d be kind enough to give you some time to unwind after the game. It wasn’t like he was waiting to pounce on you or get a scoop on it. He was real professional.”
During his time, technological advances also changed sports media completely with the advent of internet and social media.
“It’s been interesting seeing all of the developments and entering stats by computer,” Ridings said. “I remember working baseball games and we would have average books where we figure out the average by matching the number of hits with the number of at-bats on a chart to find the average. From that to now within 5-10 minutes after a game is over, you can have your stats printed. I remember after football or basketball or baseball, we’d stop at a cafeteria and the first thing I would do is find a payphone and call in a story and dictate a box (score).
“For a long time here it was on the Sam Houston website and the only place I could send a story in or do stats was here in my office. I couldn’t send anything from the road. Now, you can do it from anywhere if you’ve got a signal. There’s always a new wrinkle. This past year, we started using Statbroadcast where you could look at live stats over your phone. Every game we had in football last year was on some sort of television.”
For Ridings, the job of being a sports information director, in which he was lone full-time person dedicated to that field at Sam Houston State until 2007, is a simple one, but one he takes pride in.
“Our job is to get people excited and want to come out to the games and want to give money to the university, buy tickets, that kind of stuff,” Ridings said. “There was always some kind of story. Some people snickered when we started women’s bowling, but then they win a national championship and get us on ESPN.
“It’s interesting and I think that’s the fun thing about college athletics. Kids are coming here, getting degrees and going out to become coaches, doctors, dentists and just making something out of themselves. That’s exciting.”
Having played such a critical role in making Sam Houston State, as well as the Southland Conference subsequently, well-known and well-respected across the sports landscape, Ridings was awarded the Louis Bonnette Award from the Southland in 2014.
“What he does, especially at a low mid-major with all of the demands, that’s work ethic. You make sure your tennis team is covered just as well as your football team,” said Louisiana-Lafayette sports information director Matt Sullivan, who worked in the Southland Conference for Southeastern Louisiana’s sports information department from 2000-13.
“He’s been in this business for so long and he’s been at a smaller place with a lot of student-athletes. He makes sure that the scrub on the volleyball team or the golf team —the last person on the roster — is just as important as the star running back or star basketball player. That’s a tremendous credit to PR. He has done that for such a long time. He’s just such an incredible man to interact with. He’s been an icon in the Southland Conference and really, they’re hard to replace.”