College Sports Information Directors of America

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Judy Willson – Louisiana State University, Associate Communications Director

Arch Ward Award
Presented annually to a current CoSIDA member who has made outstanding contributions to the field of college sports information, and who by his or her activities, has brought dignity and prestige to the profession. Voted on by the Special Awards Committee.
 

Note: Story compilation by Andy Seeley, Florida Atlantic University Senior Associate Athletics Director for External Relations and CoSIDA past president and Kent Lowe, LSU Sr. Associate Communications Director.

Judy Willson's professional journey has taken her a long way from the Northeast and her hometown of Cambridge, Massachusetts and her alma mater of Geneva College in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania.

The former CoSIDA President and current Associate Sports Communications Director at LSU, Willson is the 2020 recipient of CoSIDA's prestigious Arch Ward Award, presented annually to a CoSIDA member who has made an outstanding contribution to the field of college sports information, and who by his or her activities, has brought dignity and prestige to the profession.

“I’m humbled and honored to be included in such a prestigious group of professionals representing our organization,” Willson said. “I’m thankful each day that God has placed me on this journey, through all of the great and not so great times. CoSIDA’s members are the ones that will always come alongside you in the sunshine and the storms.”

Willson began her journey in athletics communications as a student at Geneva. From there, she held graduate assistant roles at Northwest Missouri State University and Pittsburg (Kan.) State. It was during those stops, that it became clear to those around her she was destined for leadership in our profession.

“Judy was smart, she wasn't afraid to work, and she knew the sports she was covering,” said Larry Cain, who hired her at Northwest Missouri shortly after her graduation from Geneva in 1988. “Through her hard work and dedication she earned the confidence and respect of the coaches and athletes with whom she worked. It was obvious at the time she was with me that she had a great future in the athletic communications business and I'm glad she has fulfilled the potential I saw in her.”
 

Former CoSIDA President Andy Seeley first encountered Willson shortly after her arrival at Northwest Missouri. As a freshman, he quickly learned – from Willson – what it meant to be professional and what it meant to be an SID.

“She’ll never admit it, because she’s not that kind of person, but Judy probably couldn’t stand me when she first met me,” Seeley said. “I was young and never shy with thoughts or opinions. During one Northwest football game in 1989, I was admonished by Judy for both musing about the nature of an injury in front of the media and for cheering in the press box. During that game, she quickly and thoroughly instructed me on the proper way to conduct myself in a press box. It was the first ‘professional development’ opportunity of my career. And it was a lesson I carry with me to this day.

“Judy has been a mentor and someone I’ve looked up to from day one,” Seeley added. “She’s a tireless advocate for CoSIDA and the amazing people who work in our field. I can think of no one more deserving the Arch Ward honor.”

Willson became the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association’s first full-time sports information director in 1991. At the time, she was one of only three full-time SIDs at Division II conferences. Willson recorded another “first” in 1994 when she was named the first full-time SID ever at Eastern New Mexico University.

Professionalism certainly defines Willson, but so does friend.

M.L. Stark-Hinkle and Willson struck up a friendship in the late 1980s, when Stark Hinkle was a student SID at Northeast Missouri State (now Truman State) and Willson was at Northwest. The two – who were the first two women to serve as sports information directors in the Lone Star Conference – have been thick as thieves ever since. The duo made a now-infamous road trip to the Spokane CoSIDA Workshop in 1997 and were quickly nicknamed after a famous movie duo.

“Judy was one of my first friends in this business and my first female mentor,” Stark Hinkle said. “We had a lot of great times together, including the legendary ‘Thelma and Louise’ road trip to the Spokane CoSIDA convention. The two of us came up under some legendary mentors - Bill Cable, Larry Cain, Bill Turnage, Fred Neusch, Garner Roberts and many more. We were able to learn from great women like Tammy Boclair, Mary Jo Haverback, Tam Flarup and many others. I always knew Judy would be in the company of those greats. Congratulations, my friend. It’s a well-deserved honor.”

Willson’s professionalism and dedication to the profession has never waned through stops at the Sun Belt Conference, Louisiana-Monroe, New Mexico, the Mountain West Conference and LSU, where she is in her third year as an Associate Communications Director.

"Judy is a tireless worker who has done so much for this profession to make it better for everyone," said Michael Bonnette, LSU Associate Athletic Director and Communications Director. "She has promoted the ideas of inclusion and diversity in CoSIDA that helped that organization continue to grow. She has mentored so many who have entered our business and is continuing that here at LSU with the students that are interested in this profession."

Before her time at LSU, Willson served as a member of the Mountain West communications staff. In addition to assisting with the overall communications operation, she served as the local host media coordinator for the NCAA Women's Final Four in Denver and serves on the NCAA Women's Final Four Media Coordination Committee.

Willson has been a CoSIDA leader for many years, including her term as president in the 2015-16 academic year. She is a member of the CoSIDA nominating committee and is in her first year on the Academic All-America committee. Willson has been a member of numerous CoSIDA committees and task forces, while also serving a five-year term on the group's Board of Directors as an At-Large representative from 2002-07. Willson picked up her CoSIDA 25-Year Award in 2017 and was a recipient of the Bob Kenworthy Community Service Award in 2006 while at ULM.

She is a former member and past president of the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association and has been a part of the Football Writers Association of America, the United States Basketball Writers Association, Women Leaders in College Sports, the National Association of Collegiate Marketing Administrators, the Association of Women in Sports Media and the Louisiana Sports Writers Association.

After obtaining her undergraduate degree from Geneva, she earned a Master's degree in physical education with an emphasis in sports administration from Eastern New Mexico University in 1997. She is currently serving on Geneva's Legacy Hall of Fame Committee.