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Past Mary Jo Haverbeck Trailblazer Award Recipients
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CoSIDA Hall of Fame
Dave Lohse – University of North Carolina, Associate Director Athletic Communications
CoSIDA Hall of Fame Class of 2019
2019 Mary Jo Haverbeck Trailblazer Award recipient
by Gregg Burke, University of Rhode Island Men’s Golf Head Coach
Lohse.
Remarkable really. Just saying it conjurs a rainbow (oh stop) of description and attribute. If you’ve met the man, you understand. If you know the man, well, saying it conjurs a smile as big as his. And let’s face it, God, in his or her infinite wisdom and mirth, created that head large enough for one reason — to fully display that smile.
Nothing like it, that smile. Fitting, because there is nothing like that Lohse.
If the smile is a trademark, then talent, ability, care, passion, sincerity, bravery, and optimism are descriptors. Heck, even that list falls far short of this incredibly unique, beautiful, astounding young man. Exaggeration? Nope. Evaluation? Yup.
There are ironies of course. The most glaring, yet hidden so well by the master so many times and for so many years, is that he has dedicated his life to the big arena of North Carolina Athletics, yet has suffered a loneliness that even his sharp tongue, skilled linkage of nouns and verbs, and resounding heart, have never fully been described to his world.
He has carried it with the same fervor and protection that he showers on the athletes (athletes first with this lad, always the athletes first), coaches, teams, and his athletic program. All those people in all those seats. All those viewers mesmerized in their living rooms watching all those games. He was in the very middle of all of that. Yet suffered a loneliness only he will ever know.
Dave Lohse with UNC legendary soccer coach Anson Dorrance after his 1,000th career win in Chapel Hill in August 2018.
What is not ironic, is that
David Lohse, he of the Griffith, Ind. (population less that the capacity of the home of Tarheel Basketball) Lohses, is being honored … again. This time, the CoSIDA Hall of Fame. And the Trailblazer Award named in honor of a pioneer, Mary Jo Haverback. To say it is overdue begs the definition of understatement. This award will now share Lohse curio space with others that include: being high school class valedictorian (where was his beloved YouTube to capture that speech?), Phi Beta Kappa, the 2016 CoSIDA Achievement Award, 60+ and counting CoSIDA writing and publication awards, two United States Olympic rings, rings for 21 National Championship teams, 87 ACC Championships, and whatever they award an SID who has helped promote 17 different National Players of the year.
Success seems to follow this boy around. Or maybe …
Fear not, he is not perfect. On a daily basis he has to be forgiven or tolerated for an overzealous love of the Blackhawks, Cubs, Broadaway, and anything Boilermaker or Tarheel. Programming note: that same forgiveness and tolerance must be allowed for his hatred of certain college athletic teams.
At Carolina, he is known as the Senator. The sobriquet earned for both his Carolina tenure, now in its fifth decade (!), and his quite frightening command of all things political and, again, all things Tarheel. At any given time, within minutes of CNN calling the last seat, Lohse updates that encyclopedic mind and can recite all 100 US Senators currently serving.
He certainly has his admirers. While many have won the long list of individual and national championships listed previously, there is one who is not only a CoSIDA Hall of Famer but a hall of famer in general, Rick Brewer.
“Hiring Dave was probably the best decision I made in my job at Carolina. He knows more about our athletic program than anyone on campus,” noted Brewer. “At one time or another he has worked with each of our 29 athletic programs. He has armed the Mia Hamms and so many others with the media skills they needed in their professional careers. Assisting student-athletes is the most important thing an SID can do. Dave’s been doing that better than anyone for over 40 years.”
Senior Associate AD and longtime CoSIDA member Steve Kirschner describes the Great One this way: “He is a skilled orator, master wordsmith, stats wonk, and media guide editor extraordinaire, but Dave’s greatness goes far beyond communication skills. He has mastered the art of human relationships.”
Anson Dorrance, UNC women’s soccer coach, says, “Dave has been by my side forever it seems. He has told our story with compelling narrative because he has an extraordinary attention for detail. He writes the way someone who loves the language writes. But the special part of his alchemy is that he cares for me, my players and this great university.”
He started this professional desire to use a growing command of syntax and lexicon as a high school journalism guru and as stringer for multiple newspapers in Indiana and Illinois. A further desire to be part of teams was fueled as manager of the cross-country, basketball and baseball teams. At Purdue, he left the glory of working in the dormitory kitchen for an opening in sports information and a career was born.
After being graduated from Purdue, he matriculated to UNC to pursue a Masters’ degree in political science. Brewer hired him part-time and when CoSIDA legend in her own right, Karen Croake, departed for Notre Dame to one day becoming part of the greatest CoSIDA power couple of all-time, Lohse forwent studies and never looked back.
Quite obviously many colleges, universities, and other business entities came calling but there was no siren equal to the satisfaction of Carolina. Making life all the more special was the relocation of his parents to Chapel Hill. Hard to beat for a man with loyalty and family values in his veins.
He has been an observer and participant in the changing job description (and title) of the SID. In some ways he is a denizen of the Jurasiac Park world of the Brewers, Vistas, Humeniks, and Valdeserris (if you don’t know the first names you wouldn’t understand). He is their equal. He has earned the right to miss the camaraderie and day-to-day relationships with colleagues and members of the media. He lived a life when SIDs were on offense promoting people and stories and not on defense ‘getting out ahead’ of something. He lived the verbal gymnastics of well-written copy before the intrusion of talk radio and 24-hour sports opine. And yet … and yet, his has been able to bridge that time with our own with a deft development of modern tactic and old-school charm. Maybe better than anyone.
He admits to never being particularly healthy. Ulcerative colitis at 19, lifelong allergies, the 2006 diagnosis of a rare form of anemia. He has been, and is, a plodder — one foot in front of the other. Others before self. Athletes first. He battles a new health nemesis these days.
Oh, and he is an openly gay man.
In 1992, at 37, he came out. The boy who went to a Blackhawks and Cubs games for the first time sandwiched between national tours of Oliver and Hello Dolly loved both forms in equal measure. He says, “Obviously this is a show tunes loving sports-loving gay kid thriving in middle America in the mid-1960s.” Only Lohse.
He remembers the decision and action to come out: “It was awful. No one should ever have to hide their authentic self. I feared loss of job, friends, and family. But it all worked out for a reason. Being gay is about sexual orientation. But it is also about a sensibility that many gay men have. The gifts of communication, artistic nature, and intellectualism are unique to me and being gay and a free thinker has allowed me to thrive.”
He refuses to be labelled a hero. Good. He is more than that.
In the darkest of his lonely days, had he only found comfort in the singular fact that this small in stature human (gargantuan smile notwithstanding), who has a heart as big as the biggest stadium, would one day have enough friends and admirers to fill it.
Remarkable really that Lohse.
Gregg Burke is a former CoSIDA member and Chairman of the Academic All-America Committee. After too many years in athletic administration, he now serves as the golf coach at the University of Rhode Island.