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This story is part of our December 2021 CoSIDA 360 package, to view more stories, click here.
 

COVER STORY

Stabley Family Legacy

An enduring family lineage that has now touched nine decades.

by Doug Vance – CoSIDA Executive Director  @dvancecosida

Eager to trade a life working in a newsroom for a less stressful one on a college campus, Fred Stabley Sr. reshaped his career plans in 1947. Along with his wife, Alma, he moved from a city editor position with a newspaper in York, Pa., to East Lansing, Mich., to join the Michigan State University News Bureau staff.
 
A year later, the MSU sports publicity director job, as the position was called in those days, opened. At that time, it was a position staffed in the campus news bureau. “They asked around the office if anyone had interest in taking the responsibility and my dad said he would do it,” explained Stabley’s son, Fred Jr. “That started an eventful 32-year career in the profession.”
 
 
Conversely, it was a decision that launched an enduring family lineage that is unmatched in the history of the sports information profession.
 
When Fred Sr.’s great granddaughter Kaya Hirschman walked into the Grand Valley State University athletic communications office this fall as a freshman student worker where she reports to Tim Nott, a former student assistant for her grandfather, it marked the fourth generation of Stabley descendants to have a job in the sports information profession.

The unprecedented Stabley athletic communications family tree includes:

• Fred Sr., Michigan State, 1948-80
• Fred Jr., Central Michigan, 1982-2005; Fred’s daughter, Bethanie de la Ossa, student assistant for her dad (1988-92) at Central Michigan and a godson, Matt Staudt, who served as assistant SID (2011-18) at Purdue.
• Amy Stabley Hirschman (daughter of Fred Jr.), Central Michigan student assistant in the SID office, 1987-91; Michigan State intern, 1991-92; assistant at Texas, 1992-97; SID and then senior women’s administrator at Oakland University, 1997-2005
• Kaya Hirschman (daughter of Amy), freshman in athletic communication office at Grand Valley State, 2021

 
Let the record show that, remarkably, a Stabley family member has been a part of a sports information staff on a college campus at some point during eight of the past nine decades.

 
  
It could easily be argued that no other family has had a greater impact during the 65-year history of CoSIDA in terms of its existence and its leadership. To underscore that assertion, consider the following:

• Fred Sr. represents one of the founding fathers of the organization. He served on the executive committee that in 1957 recommended the association be called College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).
• Fred Sr. was also the first to hold the title of CoSIDA’s board first vice-president and convention program chairman. He was CoSIDA’s fourth president, serving in that role in 1958-59.
• Fred Sr. and Fred Jr. are the organization’s only father-son duo to serve as presidents and also the only family pair to be enshrined in the CoSIDA Hall of Fame.
• Fred Sr. is a charter member of the organization’s hall of fame and he was the fifth recipient of the Arch Ward Award (1962). That honor along with the Jake Wade Award (media award) were created during his term in a board leadership role.
• Nick Vista, long-time assistant SID under Fred Sr., served as a CoSIDA president in 1981-82 and was later inducted into the CoSIDA Hall of Fame.

 
Ironically, the Stabley and Vista connection offers another noteworthy CoSIDA moment of significance.
 
“We lived at 412 Rosewood in East Lansing in the mid-50s and Nick was living with us while he was a student at Michigan State. His bedroom was across from mine. In some ways, my career path was established through a daily association with both my dad and Nick,” explained Fred Jr.
 
“When else in CoSIDA’s history did three of the organization’s future presidents live under the same roof at the same time?”
           
And, not only future presidents, but also future CoSIDA hall of famers.
 
By any measure, Fred Sr., affectionately known as “The Chief”, was a symbol of CoSIDA royalty during his tenure at Michigan State. His media hospitality along with the food spread served to the media at football games was renowned. In tribute to that hospitality, acclaimed New York sportswriter Red Smith dubbed the Spartan press box, named in honor of Fred Sr. in 1980, the “Stabley Hilton.”
 
As Joe Falls, the long-time Detroit columnist and author, once wrote of the famed MSU sports information director: “The most amazing thing about this man is the fact that he treats everyone the same. Whether you are from the Kalamazoo Kazoo or the New York Times he treats you with the same respect and the same courtesy. I find this remarkable.”
 
 
Fred Jr. remembers his dad as someone who had abundant passion for helping young people find that first job opportunity. Fred Sr. founded the precursor committee to CoSIDA ‘s current Job Seekers Committee, serving as its first chair, and spent much of his time at conventions lending his knowledge and encouragement to help create a pathway for others into the profession.
 
“He was a mentor to many. In fact, he had 20 to 30 former students who went into the profession, and he proudly dedicated a wall in his office with framed pictures of each of them,” said Fred Jr. “My dad loved going to CoSIDA and bumping into someone who was just starting out in the profession.”
 
Former Mississippi State SID and long-time friend Bob Hartley, who served as CoSIDA president in 1962-63, referred to Fred Sr. as “Mr. CoSIDA.”
 
Fred Jr. couldn’t work in his dad’s office during his undergraduate years at Michigan State due to a university nepotism policy. Special permission, however, was granted once for a three-week period before the start of school when student assistants were back on campus. “I spent most of my time writing hometown stories for football,” recalled Fred Jr.
 
Despite the stabilizing SID influence early in his life, Fred Jr. embarked on a newspaper career after graduation from MSU. He spent 18 years covering sports mostly for newspapers or state-wide sports magazines. At one stage of his reporting career, he was assigned coverage of Michigan State sports and he would often travel and room with his dad during football and basketball road trips.
 
“My dad disliked doing stats and I loved doing them. After some of the tournament basketball games we’d go back to the hotel room and he happily let me update them for him.”
 
Fred Jr. has one significant claim to fame that encompasses both Michigan State and college basketball lore that arose during his days as a reporter at the Lansing State Journal. In 1974, as a 27-year-old covering high school sports, Fred Jr. wrote about a rising young basketball phenom named Earvin Johnson.
 
After watching him score 36 points in a game, Fred Jr. walked into the locker room and told the 15-year-old Earvin that he needed a flashy nickname. “We’ve got to call you something,” he suggested to Johnson. “How about ‘Magic?’”
 
“Well, that’s OK with me, Mr. Stabley,” said Johnson. Credit Fred Jr. with one of the most iconic and recognizable nicknames in basketball history – Earvin “Magic” Johnson.
 
Fred Jr. got a tip from a close friend in 1982 that the Central Michigan SID job was open. The opportunity presented itself at the right time in Fred Jr.’s career. Like his dad had more than three decades earlier, he was ready to also trade the title of reporter for SID. He applied and was on his way to establishing his own 23-year legacy in the profession.
 
His daughter, Amy, obviously inspired by her dad and grandfather, decided she wanted to be the next family member to cross the SID threshold. “When she was young, I’d take her with me to basketball games and she would sit under the press table at my feet and keep her own scorebook,” said Fred Jr.
 
“It was a goal for Amy to work in sports information,” added Fred Jr. “She wanted to be able to say she was part of three generations to work in the profession. There was no one happier when she got that first job than my dad. It was a great moment for him.”
 
 
After working for her dad as a student at Central Michigan and later interning at Michigan State, Amy reached her goal when she was hired by former CoSIDA president and Hall of Famer Bill Little in 1992 as an assistant SID at Texas. Following a position at Oakland University in her home state of Michigan, she left the profession in 2005 to devote more time to her family.
 
And, thus, the Stabley family hit the trifecta in terms of family representation in the sports information profession.
 
Amy’s daughter, Kaya, now carries the family SID torch in representing a fourth generation for the family. “I think she’s enjoying the work, but has plans for a career in nursing,” said Fred Jr.
             
Fred Sr. passed away at age 81 in 1996. CoSIDA preserved his memory in the profession a year later by naming its annual writing contest in his honor.
 
Fred Jr. retired in 2005 and now divides his time between his long-time home in Mount Pleasant, Mich., and a small condo that serves as a winter retreat in New Port Richey, Fla. He returns to his roots in the fall, working part-time as a freelance reporter covering six or seven high school football games in Mount Pleasant each year for the local newspaper.
 
“I’m enjoying myself covering high school games. It’s good to be back in a press box,” said Fred Jr.
 
It’s not a Stabley Hilton press box, of course, but maybe it’s enough of one to occasionally trigger memories for Fred Jr. of a family legacy that continues today.
   

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