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Former ISU SID Glenn Alford honored with lifetime achievement award (idahostatejournal.com)
Glenn Alford – Idaho State University, retired
2019 Lifetime Achievement Award
CoSIDA 25-Year Award recipient
by Andrew Taylor, Assistant Director of Marketing and Communications, Idaho State University Public Relations
In 31 years working 60-70 hours a week most of the year, memories of athletes overcoming hardship mean more to
Glenn Alford than Idaho State University’s most historic sports moments accomplished during his tenure as sports information director for the period of 1967-98. For those long-time efforts, the retired Alford is being recognized with a CoSIDA Lifetime Achievement Award and a long-overdue 25-Year Award honor as well.
“My highlights are different from the highlights of other people,” Alford said. “For example, everybody is thrilled we won the 1981 national football championship and I am thrilled, too, and everybody’s excited about beating UCLA in the 1977 Western Regionals, but I like the stories of people overcoming adversity more.”
He cited track and field athlete Nicole Dudek who was favored to win the conference heptathlon, but she “no-heighted” the high jump and didn’t place. “She came back in the intermediate hurdles, which she’d run about three times in her life, and won the conference championship. Nicole ran with a pace maker.”
Another story he recalls is about Dick Tullock, who won the 1976 Big Sky long jump in an ISU record leap of 25-10 3/4 and was the outstanding athlete of the meet. The next year, Tullock “destroyed his knee” playing intramural football and required extensive rehabilitation.
“In 1978, he came back and won the long jump in the Big Sky championships, although two feet shy of his jump two years earlier,” Alford said. ”Overcoming adversity. That’s what turns me on.”
Glenn and his daughter, Rosa, were photographed by Doug Lindley for a 2005 Idaho State Journal series about parenting.
Alford was in the habit of promoting the success of ISU athletes outside of athletics.
“I really emphasized the athletes being people instead of just athletes,” Alford said. “And one of the ways to do that is emphasizing their feats off the field, including academics. We’ve had a bunch of CoSIDA Academic All-Americans here.”
He gave the example of Steve Boyenger, a football player and a 6-10 high jumper.
“He is the only one I know of who was first-team Academic all-America in two sports the same year,” Alford said. “Plus, he earned an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship, and actually he had several postgraduate scholarships. I nominated him for all the awards.”
Boyenger then surprised Alford by attending his retirement party from the University in 2002.
“Out of nowhere he showed up,” Alford said. “That was awesome and I said at the time that ‘if sports information had a Heisman Trophy, it would look like him.’”
Alford overcame a bit of adversity, too, in his job. He pounded out stats and stories on a typewriter for most of his tenure and he also operated without a budget for 28 of the 31 years.
“For the football media guide, they transferred money from the football budget to me and however much money I got, that is what kind of media guide they got,” Alford said. “I will add the coaches sometimes transferred the money very grudgingly.”
Alford’s long-time efforts in his job were not overlooked. In 2001 he was honored as an Idaho State Sports Hall of Fame honorary inductee and was the ISU Homecoming parade marshal in 2002.
Alford, who also spent nine years writing for ISU’s marketing office before official retirement in 2007, may never have worked at ISU if it weren’t for a connection with the school he didn’t know he had. He earned a degree from Stanford University in 1963 and wrote about sports for the
Stanford Daily, the university’s student paper. He covered track and field, and the coach at the time was Payton Jordan.
“Payton was the most famous track coach in the U.S., maybe the world at that time,” Alford said. “He coached the 1968 U.S. Men’s Olympic Team, which is on the short list of the best track teams in history. We had a good working relationship – he treated me like I was a real sports writer.”
When he graduated, Alford submitted his resume to the Stanford placement office and asked Jordan to write a recommendation. “I figured I could do worse than get a recommendation from someone who is world-famous.”
Between graduating from Stanford and beginning at ISU, Alford served in the Army from 1964 to 1967. After returning from the military, Alford had the Stanford placement office send his resume to ISU where he was applying for a job.
“Out of nowhere I got a call from somebody I never heard of, Dubby Holt, ISU’s athletic director, and he invited me for a job interview. I got here and it turned out he was a one-man selection committee and I was a one-man pool of candidates.”
Before Alford left Pocatello, he had the job.
“In offering me the job he said that if you’re good enough for Payton, you’re good enough for me,” Alford said. “I asked how he knew Payton Jordan and Dubby said ‘he was my junior college roommate.’ So that’s how I ended up at Idaho State.”
The retired ISU Bengal said he was surprised by receiving the CoSIDA Lifetime Achievement Award. “It’s one of the oldest clichés in the book, but I am honored and humbled by it.”
One of his favorite activities in retirement is spending time with his daughter, Rosa, who lives in Missoula, Montana. He has also enjoyed maintaining and rekindling friendships via Facebook, where he is still known to post straightforward accounts and game stories of ISU athletics.