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Past CoSIDA 25-Year Award Recipients
Dan Wallenberg – The Ohio State University, Associate Director, Communications - Men's Basketball
2019 CoSIDA 25-Year Award recipient
by Brett Rybak, Ohio State University Assistant Director of Athletic Communications
I’ve had the opportunity to work with
Dan Wallenberg, the Associate Athletics Director for Communications at Ohio State, for the last 10 years. Yet, it was not until the latter half of that time, when I became his secondary contact with the men’s basketball program, that I grew to know “Wally” better and could truly appreciate his career path, values and dedication to his craft.
Working with the men’s basketball program, overseeing the communications office and representing our group among our athletics administration as part of an executive team, along with his role as a family man, certainly can prove to be a challenge. However, it’s become apparent to me how much Dan relishes each of these responsibilities and welcomes the positives each of them provides.
“I think the best part of the job is the variety it supplies,” said Wallenberg, who will receive a CoSIDA 25-Year service award at the June convention. “Each day is different. Working with young people and watching them develop, whether they are student-athletes or students in our office, is very rewarding.”
Wallenberg’s 25-year journey as an SID began how so many of our careers do.
Dan Wallenberg going over senior day ceremonies with Chris Holtmann, head coach of the Ohio State men’s basketball team (right), and David Egelhoff, Ohio State director of basketball operations, left.
“I became an SID by chance,” Wallenberg said. “I had some tremendous mentors including Fred Huff at Southern Illinois, who recruited me into an internship position while I was a student writer for the
Daily Egyptian. I was in the newspaper business briefly, but continued to assist Fred and grew to love the profession. From there, I was fortunate to be given the chance at the University of Illinois by Mike Pearson to further continue my career.”
From there, Wallenberg spent three years as associate sports information director at Western Kentucky and two more at Kansas State. He then came to Ohio State and has spent the last 21 years consistently striving to promote the student-athletes, coaches and staff members of the Buckeye men’s basketball program.
The hiring of coach Jim O’Brien coincided with Wally’s arrival to the program as the Buckeyes’ communications guy enjoyed a Final Four trip in just his second year in Columbus. Then came 13 years with Thad Matta’s teams, where Wallenberg spent countless hours promoting teams that went onto win five Big Ten Conference regular season championships and four Big Ten Tournament titles while reaching the Final Four in 2007 and 2012.
Most recently, the Calumet City, Illinois, native has been the primary basketball communications contact for Chris Holtmann’s two NCAA Tournament trips.
From Scoonie Penn and Michael Redd helping turn around a team that went 8-22 and 1-15 in the Big Ten in his first season, to the 2007 Final Four trip led by Greg Oden and Mike Conley Jr., to Evan Turner’s 2010 National Player of the Year season, to another Final Four run in 2012, which included the play of Aaron Craft and Jared Sullinger, Wallenberg has had the opportunity to work with some tremendous student-athletes and teams.
However, through all of it, Wallenberg reminisces most about the individuals he has worked with on this journey.
“The wins and making three Final Fours have been tremendous but I think seeing one of our former men’s basketball players, Brent Darby, who has since passed, grow during his time here was fantastic,” Wallenberg said when asked about his favorite times of his career.
“When Brent began his career as a freshman, he was one of the most quiet, reserved guys I’ve been around. Watching him develop and become the voice of our team as a senior was one of the more rewarding parts of my career. Helping him develop off the court into a person who could represent not only himself but the University and his teammates and family in an unbelievably professional way was very rewarding.”
Trust me, Wallenberg isn’t a man of many words except when it comes to talking about these teams, the student-athletes he has worked with, his family (including his awesome kids, EV and Eivin, and Laura, his saint of a wife) — or his Chicago Cubs beating my Cleveland Indians in the 2016 World Series.
In 2007, Wallenberg added Ohio State athletics communications office oversight and departmental spokesperson duties to his plate. Through all of this, his loyalty and dedication to those in our office has been unwavering. Wally’s always looking out for those in our office, trying to do whatever he can to get you to where you want to be in your career while also looking out for your interests outside of work. He’s someone you can always go to when looking for career advice, because he will tell you how it is and often make you look at the positives and negatives to every decision you make.
“I’ve always had tremendous mentors who would help me through times when I’d get emotional about my career path,” Wallenberg added. “You can get in a huge hurry to accomplish your end goals in life and I’d tell my younger self to just let it happen. Do the best you can every day and let your future take care of itself because if you get too caught up in your place at that time in your career, you’re just going to burn yourself out. Do your best every day and good things will come.”