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Terry Owens (Beloit College), 25-Year Award
by Whitney Helm, Beloit College Department of Marketing & Communications/ Editor of The Terrarium
Terry Owens with wife Pam.
For
Terry Owens, a small suggestion led to a long career that’s spanned a quarter-century (and counting).
“Do what you like,” his wife said, and that’s what he did.
A basketball and baseball player throughout high school and college, Owens knew sports and thanks to his wife’s suggestion, he decided to attend the United States Sports Academy, a 13-month master’s degree program, in Mobile, Alabama, with dreams of becoming an athletic director.
As part of the program, he was required to do an internship and decided to choose a place close to home: Rockford College in Rockford, Illinois (now Rockford University). The school had an opening for a sports information director, giving Owens a crash course in the field.
Between keeping track of game statistics, the scoreboard, and the official basketball gamebook, Owens fulfilled the internship requirement rather quickly. The internship required at least 100 hours of experiential work, which Owens completed in only a few months.
“By the middle of October, I turned mine in. They said, ‘you don’t understand, you’re supposed to do 100 hours.’ I said, ‘look at the journal. I’ve done 100 hours.’” Then they explained that the 100 hours were supposed to last the entire year.
The workload was intense, but it provided a learning experience.
“Every single game was a challenge. Every single event was a challenge. There was something about it,” said Owens.
From that point on, Owens was a sports information director. After completing his degree, he worked at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville and as assistant athletic director in media relations at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, and he did a stint as an athletic director at Pacelli High School in Stevens Point
, Wisconsin, before settling into his current position at Beloit College for the last decade.
Owens managed to combat the long hours and sometimes understaffing in his area by occasionally turning his job into a family business, teaching both of his sons and his wife to take on different parts of the job during busy seasons. He proudly displays a photo in his office of his family working alongside him at a game.
“It’s my favorite family photo,” says Owens.
Frank O’Brien, former athletic director at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, fondly remembers Owens’ sons practicing in the gym and around campus.
Working together for close to a decade, O’Brien says a standout memory is when he and Owens stood in his office listening to the radio and heard that Stevens Point won the 1998 softball championship.
There were no happy dances, O’Brien recalled, but that’s typical for Owens, who says, he’s no fun to attend sports games with.
“I don’t cheer,” Owens said. “As an SID, you’re there to work. I see games differently. When I see plays, I think ‘how would I put that in the computer?”
And Owens would know. He was an early adopter to changing reporting technology and consulted on the beta version of Stat Crew software. He half-jokingly credits himself with the prompt for a basketball assist, now standard in the software.
Dave DeGeorge, assistant director of athletics and head baseball coach at Beloit College, said that he and Owens’ shared love of baseball bonded the two, but Owens’ work ethic truly impressed him.
“He’s managed to be there for all of us and the games, and that’s not an easy task. He loves athletics and loves to be a part of it and to be important to what’s going on,” said DeGeorge.
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