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Past Lifetime Achievement Award Recipients
Rick Brewer – University of North Carolina, Sports Information Director Emeritus
2019 CoSIDA Lifetime Achievement Award recipient
by Doug Vance, CoSIDA Executive Director/CoSIDA Hall of Famer and former President
It’s a bit of an exaggeration, but it could be argued that former North Carolina SID
Rick Brewer made a valuable contribution in helping basketball legend Michael Jordan make a name for himself.
At least, the name that became his calling card.
The 1982 North Carolina men’s basketball media guide lists a freshman on its roster named Mike Jordan. Rick felt that Michael rolled off tongue better than Mike and suggested the slight name adjustment. As the season wore on, Mike quickly evolved into Michael.
The rest of the story, as they say, is history.
“The first roster we got from the basketball office referred to him as “Mike Jordan,” recalled Brewer. “That’s what we used in our media guide. But I heard some of the other players and Coach (Dean) Smith also call him “Michael.”
“I finally asked Jordan which he preferred and he said it made no difference. I told him “Michael Jordan” had a better ring to it. He simply shrugged and said it was fine with him.”
The CoSIDA past presidents in attendance at the 2010 CoSIDA Convention. Brewer is second from left in the back row.
Jordan, of course, wasn’t the only student-athlete at North Carolina that Brewer influenced when it came to attracting the national spotlight.
Throughout a long career in the UNC sports information office, the quiet, unassuming and resourceful Brewer was a behind-the-scenes force in impacting coverage of Tar Heel teams, coaches and student-athletes.
He accomplished it with a calm demeanor and executed his craft with professionalism and a commitment to excellence. It’s no surprise that Brewer has earned about every CoSIDA honor available. His career journey will be recognized once again in early June as he receives his Lifetime Achievement Award during ceremonies at the 2019 CoSIDA Convention.
“Rick was a CoSIDA Hall of Famer at a young age for all the right reasons,” noted his long-time assistant, Dave Lohse. “His loyalty to UNC and its programs, his relationships with the University’s coaches and administrators were rock solid, his connections to others in his profession were always effortless and on point.”
All totaled, Brewer faithfully spent his entire 32-year career writing releases and developing relationships with the media while operating along Tobacco Road with Carolina blue dominating his wardrobe.
His introduction into the profession is not unlike many others who discovered sports information by happenstance. He worked his freshman year at UNC for the Daily Tar Heel. At the suggestion of his sports editor, Brewer turned his attention to a student position in the UNC sports information office starting with his sophomore year.
“I didn’t have any idea what a sports information office was when I got to Carolina,” Brewer said. “I had not really thought about who handled all the work that was done there.”
“My sports editor there thought I would fit in at the sports information office where one of Jack Williams’ two students was graduating,” Brewer said. “When I graduated in 1971, I was hired as Jack’s first full-time assistant. He returned to the newspaper business in 1975 and I moved into his job.”
That proved to be a wise and rewarding decision for both Brewer and North Carolina.
His professional honors are numerous. Brewer was inducted into the CoSIDA Hall of Fame in 1991 and received the prestigious Arch Ward Award from CoSIDA in 1999. He served as the association’s president from 1995-96.
Beyond awards and honors handed out by his national organization, Brewer was also named by the USBWA a recipient of the 1996 Katha Quinn Award and more recently was inducted into the North Carolina Journalism Hall of Fame.
His career is also marked by associations with highly successful Tar Heel teams. He worked with 19 UNC football bowl teams and 31 straight basketball teams which advanced to post-season play. That includes 28 NCAA Tournament teams and nine that played in the Final Four.
“Seeing your coaches and athletes win big games or championships is always memorable,” Brewer explained. “That was especially true for Dean Smith’s 1982 and 1993 NCAA championships.”
Brewer set high standards for professionalism in his approach to the job and for looking sharp when he represented the Tar Heels. Another legendary SID, John Heisler, remembers the impression Brewer made on him their paths crossed from time to time.
“I first met Rick in 1976 when I was a senior in college and his North Carolina team came to play Missouri in football,” Heisler recalls. “He was then as he always was every other time I was around him — cool, calm and collected and the consummate professional. I never saw him rattled, never saw him upset. He was a pro at what he did and maybe was the perfect individual at the perfect time to represent UNC.”
“And if CoSIDA ever presented a best-dressed award, Rick would win, hands down.”
Coincidently, Heisler and Brewer had something else in common. Heisler’s wife, Karen, served as Brewer’s first full-time assistant.
“He was more of a friend and mentor than a boss,” Karen Heisler said. “Our office staff, including student assistants, did everything together — we had so much fun and cared deeply about each other. There weren't very many women working in college athletics back in those days, but Rick always treated me with respect and professionalism and gave me much more responsibility than I probably deserved at such a young age.
“Rick also insisted that coaches and media members — who also weren't used to having a woman around — understood that my role was important, that I wasn't just a 'token'."
Brewer stepped away from full-time duties at UNC in 2000, assuming the title of SID Emeritus. He was replaced by Steve Kirschner, who worked first as an intern and five years as an assistant in the Tar Heel sports information office. He remembers in great detail his first encounter with Brewer while interviewing for the internship.
“I got on the phone with Rick and for 55 minutes he extoled the virtues of North Carolina and gave me a history lesson about UNC athletics,” Kirchner said. “At the end, before I had said hardly anything, he just asked; well, do you want to come or not?”
“He was a great boss and I learned a lot from him. Rick was the kind of boss that never looked over my shoulder. He taught me that you hire good people and you let them do their thing.”
Working at Carolina, of course, meant Brewer was associated with one of college basketball’s legendary coaches, Dean Smith. It was a working relationship, as Brewer admits, that was impactful in many ways.
“Dealing with Dean Smith was probably the highlight of my career,” Brewer says. “I’m prejudiced, but he was the best coach I’ve ever seen. He may also well have been the smartest person I ever met. He made my job easier.”
An avid Los Angeles Dodger fan and occasional ballroom dancer, Brewer misses the job.
“Things have been boring after spending so long staying constantly busy,” Brewer admits. “Staying busy has been difficult because I miss the job too much.
“But, things have changed so much that I couldn’t get a job today. Doing almost everything by computer allows people to do more and do it more efficiently. But, there isn’t as much one-on-one contact as we once had.”
It was a labor of love for Brewer. Clearly, he misses the profession. And, let it be said, the profession misses the many talents Brewer exhibited throughout his career.