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Chuck Walsh (Florida State University) – 25-Year Award
by Bill Dyer, Virginia Tech Associate Director, Strategic Communications
Walsh and his wife Nancy, with the 2012 ACC men’s basketball
championship trophy.
For
Chuck Walsh, what keeps him going is quite simple. Find a job you love and work every day to be the best that you can be doing that job. For more than 25 years, this blueprint has allowed Walsh to continue to reach new heights while maintaining a consistent love for his work.
“The goal is to continue to try to be great, but you also have to be happy doing what you’re doing,” Walsh said. “My goal is to be the best SID I can be. Once it’s in your blood, it’s in your blood and it doesn’t get out.”
Currently the Deputy Director of Media Relations at Florida State, Walsh got his start when he was an undergraduate at the University of Maryland. A student manager for the baseball team, Walsh asked Maryland’s long-time publicist/SID Joe F. Blair if he needed any help. “And three days later I was doing a swim meet,” Walsh said. “God’s honest truth. It was against N.C. State in Cole Field House, that same day, the same day we were playing Clemson in men’s basketball.”
Like many in the profession, Walsh has been blessed by great mentors. He mentions Blair a lot, along with CoSIDA Hall of Famers Herb Harnett and Jack Zane at Maryland, and Rob Wilson at Florida State. He also has great memories of contemporaries in the field that have influenced him through the years.
"The great thing about when I first started in this business, people like Steve Kirschner (North Carolina) and (CoSIDA Hall of Famer) Tim Bourret (Clemson) were there to guide me. Walsh said. "I would call Tim every Thursday night when I was doing the depth chart, the flip card for the next week’s football game, and we'd talk for hours. He’s one of the pillars, he’s one of my mentors. Steve is my best friend in the business; I was in his wedding in 1995. We talk on a weekly basis about things that happen in sports information."
“I’ve been lucky,” Walsh continues. “I’ve had the opportunity to work at two really great places. And while working at those places, I’ve been exposed to many great people and great events. I’ve been able to work some incredible events. The NCAA lacrosse tournament at Maryland, we hosted that forever. Now at Florida State, we host baseball virtually every year. We hosted the (lacrosse) championship back in 1989 and to this day, Phil Buttafuoco is a very good friend.
“So more than any of the incredible events that I’ve worked, it’s the people that have been a part of those events who have become, in addition to colleagues, my friends. And that’s what keeps you going. That’s the most important thing.”
This profession is definitely a “people profession” and it’s the people Walsh holds dearest. Not just co-workers, but student-athletes through the years are special to him.
“A lot of people say that the best thing about this business are the student-athletes. Bur they truly are. The best part about my job is when one of them comes back and walks in your office, from 10, 15, 20 years ago and stops by my office. When a guy like Terrell Stokes or Laron Profit or Al Thornton calls you on the phone. Not because they want anything, just because they want to say hello. That’s the absolute best and I learned that from Joe Blair. He would just have old football players return and stick their heads around the corner, and he'd say, ‘holy cow, look who just walked in the door’. That is the 100% absolute best part of this job.”
The balance of work and family life is very important in this business, and people who know Walsh knows that he and his wife, Nancy, have that part down pat.
“The greatest person I know is my wife Nancy,” Walsh says with complete honesty. “I’ve been to 25 ACC tournaments, and she’s been to more than me. And it’s because she’s as big an ACC basketball fan as I am. If Virginia Tech beats Louisville in January, she knows exactly what that means. She knows that means either a win at home or a win on the road for somebody. And tie breakers; that’s the first thing she says. She immediately says that’ll go a long way to tie breakers for March.
“Or when you play Duke, she says I’ll play them again or if you play another team, she says 'I don’t want to see them again. I don’t want to see them till Saturday (at the ACC Tournament).' Yes, that’s been the greatest thing where I can go home and I want to watch an ACC game, and she wants to watch it too,” Walsh stated. “And she knows who they are, and she knows who the coach is, and she knows the implications of winning at home, on the road for the standings. And without her, without Nancy, there’s no way that I get to stay at work and write a golf report until 8 o'clock at night.”
Being happy is a major part of his life, especially his work life. He feels lucky to have, in his opinion, the best job in the country.
“I’ll tell this to anybody I know, I have the best job of any SID in the country,” Walsh continues. "With everything that Florida State offers, from great football to great basketball to great baseball to great golf to great track and field, I have the opportunity to be part of it all. To go to football games every Saturday. With baseball, I work when we get regionals and super regionals and then have a chance to go to the World Series. There are not many people who can go to the Elite Eight and then go to Omaha. That’s one of the great things about Florida State - those are the things we have the opportunity to do here.”
Though times have changed and continue to change rapidly, Walsh sees it coming back to the basics. Placing the student-athlete in the best light and helping to promote the university’s programs, ultimately is job one.
“Joe Blair taught me things that I still use today. When we beat Xavier in the NCAA Tournament, they said to me ‘It's time close your locker room. I said ‘Nope, let’s keep it open’. When you beat Carolina, you don’t close the locker room.
“So, the world has changed, obviously, but the tried and true ways to do sports information still exist and will always exist. You can be as great as you want to on Twitter, but at the end of the day, you have to connect a student athlete with a reporter. That’s never going to change,” Walsh added.
From a professional who’s seen it all and has kept the best interests of his student-athletes, coaches and programs at the forefront.