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Steve Hatchell (National Football Foundation) – CoSIDA Hall of Fame
by Bill Little, University of Texas (retired)/CoSIDA Hall of Fame, Special Awards Committee member
Hatchell at an NFF Annual Awards Dinner in NYC.
Steve Hatchell: A man for all seasons
With a trophy case full of awards and a satchel full of titles,
Steven J. Hatchell has been honored by just about everyone in the profession of college athletics. But, perhaps the one that will matter as much as any is his latest: induction into the College Sports Information Directors’ Hall of Fame.
When the Veterans subcommittee of the CoSIDA Special Awards committee was established several years ago, it was with folks like Steve Hatchell in mind. He, and the others who have preceded him as a Veteran’s selection, comprise a vast number of people who began their careers in the sports information field and are either long retired from the profession or have gone on to distinguished careers in other areas of sport.
The latter is a perfect portrait of Steve Hatchell.
In the movie, “Field of Dreams,” the actor Burt Lancaster portrays a ghostly character whose life had begun as a promising baseball player, but evolved into a beloved small town doctor. At a moment in the film when the young man is forced to transition from a kid playing baseball into the role of the physician in order to save a child’s life, you realize that — even in the mythical story of ghosts — his commitment to medicine had transcended his love for the game.
As he walks off the field for the last time, the specter that is representing the legendary Shoeless Joe Jackson says to the doctor: “Hey, rookie! You were good.”
And that is the space in which Steve Hatchell, who represents other pathfinders like him, has earned his rightful place in the CoSIDA Hall of Fame.
He was a good SID.
Steve Hatchell began working in the Colorado athletics department as a manager for the football team in the late 1960s. Following his graduation with a degree in journalism in 1970, he was convinced by Buffaloes’ head football coach Eddie Crowder to join a pair of CoSIDA Hall of Famers in Fred Cassotti and Mike Moran in the sports information office. From 1972 through 1976, he worked with Moran as the school’s sports information director.
He stayed in the SID field for the next several years, becoming the sports information and external affairs director for Colorado State University in September of 1976. In 1977, he moved to the Big 8 Conference as an associate commissioner, and his journey as an ambassador for athletics of all kinds began.
In 1983, at the age of 33, Hatchell became the commissioner of the Metropolitan Collegiate Athletic Conference, beginning a career as a sports administrator that continues today. He left the MCAC in 1987 to become the executive director of the Orange Bowl. He served as the last commissioner of the Southwest Athletic Conference, and the first commissioner of the Big 12 Conference.
Hatchell has filled administrative roles in a myriad of college sports, including serving as the chairman of the Football Bowl Association, the director of ten NCAA basketball tournaments, a member of the United States Olympic Committee staff for three Olympic Games, and information director for the Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association.
He has also served as commissioner of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association and was head of the organizing committee for two Super Bowls.
In January of 2005, he became president and chief executive officer of The National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame.
Through his many roles, he has remained a friend of his roots, committing his various organizations to support CoSIDA as sponsors at the organization’s annual workshops.
In his 35 years as one of the top collegiate athletics administrators in the country, Hatchell has been honored many times for his leadership. This past year, he was named to the CU Athletics Hall of Fame, and in 2015 he received the coveted Bert McGrane Award from the Football Writers of America for his significant contributions to the coverage of college football and his advocacy on behalf of those who cover the sport. That same year he was named a NACDA Golden Anniversary Award Recipient, representing the NFF and its efforts in supporting NACDA during its first 50 years.
Under Hatchell’s leadership, he played a critical role in the 2014 opening of the state-of-the-art $68.5 million College Football Hall of Fame building in Atlanta. He has played a significant role in nurturing the NFF’s relationships with many key national organizations, including the NCAA, all the major collegiate football conferences, American Football Coaches Association, National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics, Football Writers of America, Division I-A Faculty-Athletic Representatives, Football Bowl Association and Pop Warner junior football.
The NFF board he helped put together includes 28 corporate CEOs, eight athletics directors, football bowl executives, three conference commissioners and the executive directors of the AFCA and NACDA.
Through all of his success, Hatchell has remained true to his roots. He comes from an era when the quality of work was judged by the people you touched, and the contacts you made to tell your story. It is an enduring standard, carved in the benchmark of the profession.
Today, he is a husband and a dad, with two sons, a daughter-in-law and two grandchildren.
Just like the kid in the movie, he has transitioned to different levels and other jobs. But the esteem in which he is held, and the place he treasures in life and in the profession, hasn’t changed. It is about people, excellence, and commitment.
Through all of that, he has earned respect, admiration, and friendship.
And fifty years ago he began a career of service to college athletics on those fields in the shadow of the Flatiron mountains, we have the image of the two mystical images from the movie.
“Hey, rookie! You were good.”
And he still is.