Courtesy: texassports.com
Bill Sansing was inducted into the CoSIDA Hall of Fame during the 2009 convention in San Antonio as one of the inaugural veteran's committee Hall of Fame selections. Sansing was the first full-time sports information director at the University of Texas.
Read: A long journey ends for Bill Sansing by Bill Little (5/14/2020)
Little, a former CoSIDA President and CoSIDA Hall of Famer and retired SID at Texas, wrote this tribute in honor of the first Texas SID, Sansing. Here's an excerpt from that tribute (read the full LIttle column at the link above).
In the 1940s, colleges and universities were all searching for ways to become relevant after the war, and (Texas AD) D.X. Bible was the first in the southwestern United States to see the opportunity. Other schools around the country, at Notre Dame and in the Big Ten, had realized that the sports page was an immediate entry into every breakfast table in the country.
So, with Sansing's reputation preceding him, Bible offered him a job as "Director of Sports News and Assistant to Athletic Director." The position paid $3,600 a year, and Bill took it. Over the next several years, he learned the new trade. Before CoSIDA, the national organization of the College Sports Information Directors of America, was officially formed in 1955, Sansing and others such as Fred Stabley, Sr., of Michigan State, Val Pinchbeck of Syracuse, Skeeter Francis of Wake Forest and Joe Cahill of Army would gather with the Football Writers of America each summer in Chicago.
In 2009, the CoSIDA Convention – then attended regularly by 1,000 or so members of the profession Bill helped start – was held at the River Center Marriott, so Bill and (wife) Ruth Ann took a rare road trip. CoSIDA had stretched the bounds of its Hall of Fame to include those veterans who had contributed tremendously to the profession before moving on in other areas. Bill Sansing was one of the first four (veteran) people chosen for induction.
In Memoriam: Bill Sansing - 1920-2020
A pioneer in the world of college athletics and public relations, Texas Athletics' first full-time sports information director
Bill Sansing passed away on Thursday, May 14. He was 100 years old.
Sansing, a Dallas, Texas native, graduated from The University of Texas in 1941 after spending two seasons as a manager with the Men's Basketball program (1939-40) and competing in multi-events on the Track and Field squad in 1940.
A former sports editor of
The Daily Texan, Sansing started his career as a sports writer for the
Fort Worth Star Telegram before entering the military in 1942, serving as a combat intelligence officer with the 15th Air Force in Italy. He entered the service as a private and was discharged as a major. In 1945, Texas Football head coach and Athletic Director Dana X. Bible offered Sansing the job as the school's first full-time sports information director, a role he served in from 1945-49. During his tenure, he helped guide the collegiate careers for two of the all-time UT greats – All-American quarterback and future Pro Football Hall of Famer Bobby Layne and eventual Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer Slater Martin.
Sansing left UT to join the Humble radio network, which broadcasted all Southwest Conference football games at the time. He returned to Austin in 1970 and immediately became associated with a growth campaign for Dave Campbell's Texas Football magazine. Before retiring in the 1990s, Sansing formed Anamark, a public relations consultancy, working with only three clients – Jack Nicklaus, the Dallas Cowboys and, as a labor of love, the coaches' television shows at The University of Texas.
He was inducted into the Texas Athletics Hall of Honor in 1986 and the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Hall of Fame in 2009 as part of the inaugural induction class of the CoSIDA Veterans Hall of Fame.
Sansing, who was residing in San Antonio, turned 100 on February 15 this year. More information will be provided when arrangements have been determined by the family.
Bill Sansing 2009 CoSIDA Hall of Fame Induction
CoSIDA Hall of Fame Class of 2009: front row from left: Herb Hartnett, Ron Higgins representing his father the late Ace Higgins, Tamy Boclair, Bill Sansing. Back row: Paul Allan, Bill Hamilton, Eric McDowell, Louis Bonnette. Not pictured: Phil Langan.