College Sports Information Directors of America

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Herb Vincent – Southeastern Conference, Associate Commissioner of Communications

CoSIDA Hall of Fame
Presented to CoSIDA members who have made outstanding contributions to the field of sports information in intercollegiate athletics. Minimum 15 years in the profession. Voted on by current CoSIDA Hall of Fame Members and the Special Awards Committee.

There are three categories for Hall of Fame nominations: University Division (NCAA DI), College Division (NCAA DII, DIII, NAIA, Two-year colleges and Canadian/U Sports) and Veterans (retirees/deceased/ former members who have left the sports information profession). All CURRENT professionals shall be nominated in the University and College Divisions, while all other nominees (retirees, deceased and those who have left the profession) shall be part of the Veterans nomination process.

Note: CoSIDA Hall of Fame members of the Class of 2020 and Class of 2021 were celebrated in pre-recorded awards shows during the #CoSIDA21 Virtual Convention. Click here to watch the show. Below is the full interview with Herb Vincent with expanded answers and thank yous.
 



Award-winning lifetime career at LSU and at the SEC.
by Dan McDonald – CoSIDA Hall of Fame, 2011
 
Where to start?

After all, with his never-ending list of abilities and accomplishments aside, Herb Vincent, the Southeastern Conference Associate Commissioner of Communications, has always been an amazingly talented communicator and writer.

So how to do that justice? How to properly honor and pay tribute to both him and to the College Sports Information Directors of America, an organization that he serves and embraces – and one that now inducts him into its Hall of Fame?

Perhaps it’s best to tell that story through friends and acquaintances, of which there are legions throughout college athletics, both in and out of a CoSIDA organization that honored him with the coveted Arch Ward Award two years ago. That singular honor goes 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.”

Those few words describe Herb’s professional life in exacting terms, but they don’t give the entire story. They don’t tell how he has good friends on both sides of the aisle … and the often-volatile relationship between the media and college coaches and staff can put any Republican-Democrat spat to shame.

Those words don’t tell how he’s walked the halls with the most powerful figures in college athletics but hasn’t forgotten those days as an unpaid newspaper writer and a barely-paid student assistant SID.

Most importantly, they don’t tell how Herb puts service to others above all else, and how he chose a job and a profession that can be moribund and soul-crushing, and made it fun.

In addition, the calm demeanor that is there every day shows through even more in times of crisis and unrest, and that may be the best lesson he’s taught to scores of others.
 

“Herb is the most patient guy I know,” said Kent Lowe, senior associate communications director at LSU and a friend since their days as LSU students. “He always could figure things out, even when he was handing PR for the whole school along with the athletics department. He was the crisis manager, and he handled so many things with such grace, and with the ability to get what needed to be said and what needed to be told out there. He was a giant at that, and still is that at the SEC.”

“He’d go out with the writers after the game and we’d always have fun,” said long-time LSU beat writer Glenn Guilbeau. “But even when we did that, he was always professional. He was very communicative with writers, he’d tell you what he could tell you on the record but also give you background. He was the best at that.

“He studied damage control from other SID’s and he was really smart with that. The 30-year anniversary of Billy Cannon’s run (an iconic moment in Tiger football history) was during 1989 when LSU was horrible. To divert people, Herb brought Billy to the weekly press conference that week, and instead of everyone talking about the football losses, everyone was suddenly doing all these Billy Cannon stories. He was so smart about that.”

Vincent, Lowe and Guilbeau were all products and proteges of the late and legendary LSU SID Paul Manasseh, as were so many others. Manasseh found him as an unpaid writer for LSU’s student newspaper The Reveille and brought him into the fold, and as the cliché goes the rest is history.

“I didn’t know that the profession of sports information existed,” Vincent said. “I started out as the men’s gymnastics SID and just fell in love with the profession from day one.”

“Mr. Manasseh was very fond of Herb,” Lowe said. “He knew that he was someone that could go a long way in this business. He really took Herb under his wing and taught him. When you have someone like Mr. Manasseh do that, it’s easy for it to get into your blood.”

“He was the first student that my dad ever let work for him as a freshman,” said Jimmy Manasseh, a friend of Vincent’s dating back to his days at University High in Baton Rouge. “He just didn’t hire freshmen. But he saw something in Herb and was just taken by him. The rest of his life, he would just beam from ear to ear anytime someone mentioned Herb’s successes.”

The younger Manasseh, now a successful trial attorney in Baton Rouge who has argued twice before the U.S. Supreme Court, became a lifelong friend when he also worked in his father’s sports information office.

“Even when I wasn’t working I was always there,” Jimmy Manasseh said. “When I finished school every day I’d always head over to dad’s office, and I relied on Herb to show me what I needed to know and to tell me what he’d learned.

“He’s still my ‘brother’ and he’s still a sounding board for me. He has such a good way of thinking things through.”

Sports information and athletic administration are better for Herb’s decision to enter that field, and remain there for the past four decades -- even though at times his first writing jobs as co-editor of his Little Rock Catholic High’s school paper and covering American Legion baseball for the North Little Rock Times was safer and more secure.

“Herb’s football record as SID at LSU was horrible,” Guilbeau noted. “If he’d been the coach he would have been fired three times. Several coaches got fired in that time, and he left before (Nick) Saban came in and turned things around.”

Vincent was recently inducted into LSU’s Manship School of Mass Communication’s Hall of Fame, proof that football losses pale in comparison to the talents and passion he brings to his profession. That’s a good thing, since his early jobs included stints with the fledgling USFL’s New Orleans Breakers – who closed up shop and moved  – and the Los Angeles Express – just before the whole league folded.

If I can be forgiven for personal notes, that’s where the story started for me. When the USFL folded, I was SID at Southwestern Louisiana (now UL-Lafayette) and ran a small office, and unexpectedly had an opening for the only full-time assistant position. I knew it didn’t pay much and Herb was vastly overqualified, and I knew it was temporary and it wouldn’t be long before a position fitting his talents and abilities came along. But I also knew it would be good for both of us, for our teams and for our school.

That’s when a casual relationship became a long-time friendship, and I never had more fun in my working life than that 1985-86 year until Herb joined the SEC communications department. He went back to LSU in 1988 as SID, became assistant athletic director a year later, became associate AD for communications, senior associate AD and was associate vice chancellor for university relations for the entire LSU campus before rejoining the SEC staff several years ago.

While at the SEC, he became even more involved with CoSIDA, joining the officer rotation and eventually serving as president in 2018-19, making his unofficial leadership role within the country’s SID community official.

“He could have been a media lawyer, or a really great athletic director,” Guilbeau said. “But he wanted to stay in media relations. It’s worked out pretty well.”

“He’d be successful in whatever he chose to do – business, politics, administration, whatever,” Jimmy Manasseh concluded. “He’d be good at just about anything because he’s good with people.”

Just goes to show that good things do happen to good people.