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Richard Wanninger (Patriot League) – 25-Year Award
by Paul Jensen, a 40-year athletic communications professional (NCAA, MLB, NFL)

 

If sports information directors are jacks-of-all trades, then Patriot League senior associate commissioner-external relations Rich Wanninger is a Double Jack with an unlikely touch of sleuth.

The sports-crazy kid and future Arizona State University (ASU) student who was raised in a coincidental but predictive maroon and gold house in suburban New York — Mount Kisco, 45 minutes north of Manhattan, to be exact — rooted for the Mets, “New York football” Giants and the Rangers — as a youngster.

“I probably learned math doing stats,” Wanninger reflects.

He formed a work ethic from his paper route as a preteen.

And he realized he had a secondary interest in writing after working for his high school newspaper.

But at the time, architecture was his primary focus.

“I heard the ASU dean of architecture speak at a conference in New York when I was in high school,” Wanninger remembers. “He piqued my interest so I applied to ASU. But after my sophomore year in Tempe, I decided to change my major. Journalism seemed like the obvious choice. I lost quite a few credits switching majors, so I used my full eligibility of five years before graduating with a bachelor’s degree in journalism in 1984.”

What he didn’t lose was opportunity.

In the summer of 1981, Sun Devil athletics had a new sports information director — me!

The pile on my new desk included a letter from a student named Rich Wanninger seeking a student internship. He was qualified so he was invited to interview. Thinking his introduction was time sensitive, he rushed to the office wearing typical ASU student apparel normally found poolside — T-shirt and shorts, maybe shoes but probably flip-flops. He had gone native.
  The eager Wanninger’s background earned him a second chance to make a first impression. Sensing his misstep, he returned for his second interview dressed in slacks, a collared shirt and shoes. Hired.

The internship and his unconventional career path in athletic communications that would take him around the world (Argentina, Australia, Cuba, Egypt, Europe, Japan and Russia to name a few) and one day innocently draw him into an international scandal was off and running.

Wanninger quickly became a bell cow in the ASU SID office as a student assistant. Eventually, the workhorse was grinding harder than a paperboy as he served as our sports information contact for at least 10 of the 22 intercollegiate maroon-and-gold teams ASU fielded.

ASU classmate, sports information pal and future Fiesta Bowl public relations director Tony Alba remembers Wanninger’s work fondly.

“Rich always claimed he lived in an apartment, but I never saw it. He almost always was in the SID office, on a field, in a press box or camping out on ‘A Mountain’ overlooking Sun Devil Stadium protecting it from being painted red and blue by University of Arizona students,” Alba noted. “Rich is a Sun Devil to the core and all ASU coaches, administrators and student athletes recognized it.”

Following his 1984 graduation and a one-year internship at the then Pac-10 Conference office, Wanninger returned to ASU as a full-time assistant SID.

Happily publicizing the Sun Devils from 1985-91, he had no intention to pursue other career options. Yet he eventually felt the need to scratch his Olympic itch and eventually worked six Olympic Games.

Beginning in 1991, his stops included USA Volleyball, U.S. Olympic Festival, Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games, USA Cycling and the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.

“I never thought I would leave ASU but the Olympic opportunity arose,” Wanninger says. “Nobody could have drawn the road map I’ve followed. I’ve gotten the opportunity to travel the world and I would not have changed anything. I have been blessed to work with some of the best professionals in the athletic communications business, established great friendship with members of the media and witnessed world-class athletes and outstanding athletic performances.”

Along the way, he added a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Colorado to his portfolio.

Controversy
Wanninger’s career never has been dull.

Unwittingly, he has found himself party to a series of controversies, even bizarre episodes, that tested his public relations skills.

Here’s a sampling:

• In 1992 at the Summer Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain, Team USA won a volleyball match against Japan that was overturned by the FIVB (Federation International de Volleyball) on an appeal. The players decided to protest by shaving their heads. They also decided their director of communications should be included. It became a headline story, unexpectedly upstaging USA Basketball’s “Dream Team” for one day.
• At the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, Wanninger was serving as a manager for the main press center located across the street from Olympic Park. On his only night off, a domestic terrorist bombed the site. The night manager summoned Wanninger to come into work immediately. He and staff interfaced with federal agencies for the next 36 consecutive hours and throughout the remainder of the Games, in addition to the typical 16 hour days.
• In 2002-03, authors Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams wrote the book “Game of Shadows” that exposed doping and steroid abuse in athletics. A coach who trusted Wanninger sent him a syringe that he forwarded to appropriate authorities and science professionals. The testing of the syringe eventually implicated athletes who were doping and played a significant role in identifying a previously undetectable steroid. The era of performance-enhancing drugs had begun during his time at the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.
• Wanninger walked in the closing ceremonies as part of the 2000 U.S. Olympic Team at the Summer Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia.
• In 1994, he wrote the USA Volleyball awards dinner speech for President Ronald Reagan.

Back to College
A cleanup of Olympic sports placed Wanninger in the path of a media firestorm. He became the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency’s media point person as the controversy grew into what became known as the BALCO (Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative) scandal.

The story broke worldwide. After a year of the doping fish bowl, Wanninger welcomed the chance to return to college athletics at the Patriot League in 2005.

“I’ve always enjoyed doing different things,” Wanninger says of his varied and expanding duties at the Patriot League. “It keeps things fresh and exciting.”

He takes pride in the Patriot League’s growth during his tenure in Allentown, Pennsylvania, saying, “You are able to focus on athletic and academic accomplishments of student-athletes who don’t always get the recognition they deserve. We’ve enjoyed a dramatic increase in conference visibility from our national television agreement, digital network for live events, feature stories, relationships with universities in Ireland (Sports Changes Life) for conference student-athletes to earn postgraduate degrees as well as working in communities with at-risk youth.”

Patriot League commissioner Jennifer Heppel offers her comments on working with Wanninger.

“In his 13 years of service to the Patriot League, Rich has been solely dedicated to celebrating and spotlighting the remarkable accomplishments of our student-athletes,” Heppel said. “From spearheading the establishment of the Patriot League Network, which provides high quality, readily accessible visibility for all our sports, to masterminding the creation of feature stories on CBS Sports Network that offer inside looks at the lives of our student-athletes outside the world of sports, Rich has consistently approached his role with a unique blend of thoughtfulness and creativity.

“He brings the same level of dedication to his role as a leader and colleague within the office, offering steady and practical advice that both draws upon his experiences and offers forward-thinking practicality.”

Even from eastern Pennsylvania, Wanninger always keeps one eye on Sun Devil athletics, telling anyone and everyone who will listen that ASU defeated the rival Arizona Wildcats in every sport during his time in the Sun Devil athletic department.

ASU associate AD/media relations and former co-worker Mark Brand offers, “Rich remains loyal to his alma mater. We are proud of his career accomplishments.”