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Bob Ziadie (King's College), 25-Year Award
by Dennis O'Donnell, University of Rochester Director of Athletic Communications
CoSIDA Special Awards Committee member
With his wife Debbie, Ziadie received King's 20-year medal during
the Colleges annual Patron's Day Luncheon in 2013.
Typographical errors can be the bane of an SID’s life. Robert “Bob” Ziadie of King’s (PA) College credits one for “impacting my entire adult life.”
It’s been a productive career in sports information for Ziadie, a 2017 CoSIDA 25-Year Award recipient. He started in the business 32 years ago at Keystone Junior College in northeast Pennsylvania.
Ziadie attended Virginia Commonwealth University as a wrestling recruit following a standout high school career in both wrestling and football. The New Jersey native became homesick, however, and withdrew with plans to work for a year before returning to college. He was recruited by Keystone JC, but was not considering a junior college.
In a local newspaper, Ziadie saw a note that a rival high school wrestler won the New Jersey regional championship and qualified for the junior college national tournament. The title win came against Kurt Massey of Keystone Junior College. Massey was Bob’s distant cousin. Bob called Keystone wrestling coach Larry Fornicola, a former national champion at Penn State, and set up a visit. He never mentioned Massey, hoping to show up and surprise him.
When Ziadie told Fornicola Massey was his cousin, the coach said Massey did not attend Keystone but wrestled for Bergen Community College. Thus, the newspaper report had a major typo.
Despite that snafu, Bob loved Keystone and Fornicola and enrolled and wrestled for two years, qualifying for the NJCAA national championship as a sophomore. After an injury, he stopped competing. He finished his undergraduate studies at Marywood University in Scranton, earning a B.A. in mass communications with a concentration in public relations.
“I stayed in the area,” Ziadie said, “met my future wife here and bought my first home here. All because of a typo.”
That typo created a strong friendship between Fornicola and Ziadie. The coach told Bob that Keystone was creating an SID position and urged him to apply. Ziadie applied and was hired, knowing it was going to be mostly a writing job, unlike today.
He started in 1985-86 and stayed for seven years. A year into the job, he became an assistant to Fornicola and stayed in the dual roles of coach and SID. Fornicola retired due to illness in 1990 and Ziadie began the 1990-91 season as head wrestling coach and SID.
Financial problems led to Keystone dropping wrestling after that season. Ziadie stayed as SID, but a year later, 20 full-timers were laid off, including Ziadie. At that time, he became friends with Matt Levy of Delaware Valley (a fellow 2017 CoSIDA 25-Year Award recipient and conference colleague in the Middle Athletic Conference) when they both discovered they did not get hired for a Hartwick College opening.
Ziadie eventually went to NCAA Division III King’s College to work part-time under John Engel who was planning to retire before the 1993-94 season. Engel, however, became ill and was unable to work, and Ziadie wound up doing full-time work for part-time pay.
King’s made its football team a varsity sport in 1993, but was a junior varsity program in 1992. They did the statistics from the bleachers as “We didn’t have a press box that year,” Ziadie remarked. “I remember a few days where it rained and my clothes were ruined due to the mimeograph paper from the old NCAA sheets getting wet, then running down my jacket and pants.”
Another JV game at Ithaca saw Ithaca assistant Bub Parker and Ziadie doing stats from a scaffolding. “It was freezing, windy, and scary being up (there),” Ziadie said, “but we managed to get the job done.”
His first home varsity game was against MAC power Widener. Ziadie was nervous, a combination of never having run a football press box before and the attention of a first home game. Former Widener SID John Douglas was there to help. He let Ziadie run the box, helped with information and knowledge, and offered occasional explanations, corrections, and advice to settle down the host. “I will always feel indebted to John for his help that day,” remarked Ziadie.
He credits the book
Ball Four by Jim Bouton for the interest that led to his career. Intrigued by the behind-the-scenes stories that Bouton told, Ziadie decided to become a sportswriter.
“I have found it just as rewarding to tell the stories of student-athletes, especially the human interest side,” he says. “Even if I am not the person doing the writing, successfully selling a story to the media is just as good a feeling.”
Ziadie does have one serious regret about his career. In early March 2002, King’s College was co-hosting the NCAA Division III Wrestling Championships with the University of Scranton in Wilkes-Barre, PA. That same weekend, King’s also was hosting a first round NCAA women’s basketball playoff game.
Four days before the weekend, Ziadie’s mother had a heart attack in New Jersey. She told his brother not to tell Bob because she thought she would be OK and knew he was busy with hosting nationals in two sports. His brother waited to tell him – just two days before the events. Ziadie then called his mother in the hospital, who assured him she was doing fine. They decided he would come and see her as soon as the weekend was over.
The dual events ended on a Saturday and that night, his mother’s health declined sharply. When he arrived at the hospital to visit her, she was unconscious, heavily medicated. He has no idea if she knew he was at her bedside.
Mrs. Ziadie passed away two days later. Ziadie regrets not being there and letting the job be his priority at the time.
“My advice to everyone is never let the job be more important than family,” he says, “and try to have a Plan B should an emergency occur.”
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