Doug Vance, a member of CoSIDA's Hall of Fame and a former president of the organization, has served as the CoSIDA Executive Director since September 2013. Prior to his current role, he spent nine years as Executive Director of the Kansas Recreation and Park Association (KRPA) after 30-plus years in in college athletics media relations and administration. Vance worked 20 years as an administrator in the University of Kansas athletics department, and before that was a sports information director at Murray State University and Austin Peay State University.
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http://sportswriters.net/usbwa/tipoff/february21/kathaquinn.html
Loyola's Behrns selected to receive 2022 Katha Quinn Award
See the USBWA story at http://sportswriters.net/usbwa/news/2022/kathaquinn220214.html.
INDIANAPOLIS (USBWA) – Bill Behrns, who is in the his 21st season at Loyola University (Chicago), has been named the U.S. Basketball Writers Association's Katha Quinn Award winner for 2022. He will be presented the award at the Final Four in New Orleans.
Behrns worked at Loyola from 1999-2013, starting as an assistant Sports Information Director, and again since 2016 as Associate Athletics Director. As Loyola's profile rose to prominence, Behrns handled the increased national attention with aplomb, fielding countless interview requests and coordinating availability to help tell the Ramblers' stories during their stunning 2018 Final Four run. His unmatched efficiency, understanding of journalists' responsibilities, and attention to detail and accuracy have been helpful assists for reporters through the years.
Behrns played a key role in helping bring recognition to Loyola's 1963 national championship team, which competed in the "Game of Change," as it became the first team inducted into the National College Basketball Hall of Fame in Kansas City. With care and sensitivity, Behrns also has helped share with the world one of basketball's most iconic and beloved figures: Sister Jean.
"Bill embodies the working relationship sports information directors should have with the media," said Shannon Ryan, the current USBWA president who previously covered Loyola for the Chicago Tribune. "He represents his university and athletic department with dignity, while also understanding reporters' role and helping us get all the information we need to tell the story. He's a tireless worker and often a one-man show without the resources of some power conference teams' sports info departments, but you'd never know it. Basketball fans know so much more about Loyola – from Sister Jean to Porter Moser to Clayton Custer to Drew Valentine – because Bill understands how to assist reporters in sharing these stories."
From 2014-16, Behrns served as the Senior Associate Athletics Director at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and prior to that worked as the Director of Communications at Intersport. Before joining Loyola, Behrns spent three years as the Assistant Sports Information Director at Illinois-Chicago. After graduating from the University of Dayton in 1994, he served as an intern at the University of Illinois, the University of Dayton and with the Kane County Cougars.
The U.S. Basketball Writers Association was formed in 1956 at the urging of then-NCAA Executive Director Walter Byers. With some 900 members worldwide, it is one of the most influential organizations in college basketball. It has selected an All-America team since the 1956-57 season. For more information on the USBWA and its award programs, contact executive director Malcolm Moran at 814-574-1485.
Debby Jennings was inducted into the CoSIDA Hall of Fame in 2002. Her decorated CoSIDA career also includes the Mary Jo Haverbeck Trailblazer Award (2011), Arch Ward Award (2008), Lifetime Achievement Award (2016) and 25-Year Award (2003).
Jennings selected to receive 2022 Mary Jo Haverbeck Award
See the USBWA story at http://sportswriters.net/usbwa/news/2022/haverbeck220214.html.
INDIANAPOLIS (USBWA) – Debby Jennings, a former longtime sports information director at Tennessee, has been named the U.S. Basketball Writers Association's winner of the 2022 Mary Jo Haverbeck Award. The award, established in 2015, pays tribute to someone in sports media relations who embodies Haverbeck's pioneering and visionary spirit while working with reporters who cover college basketball. Jennings will be presented the award at an annual ceremony at the Final Four in Minneapolis.
To reporters who covered Tennessee women's basketball at the height of its dominance in the Pat Summitt era, Jennings was as well-known and important as anyone within the Lady Vols' program. She spent 35 years at Tennessee, beginning her career with the Lady Vols after her graduation in 1977 and becoming the school's first sports information director for women's sports. She's won numerous awards and oversaw national media attention during Pat Summitt and Tennessee’s reign, known as a go-to reference for women’s basketball information.
"She's an institution and the standard-bearer for a professionally run sports information department," ESPN.com’s Mechelle Voepel once wrote. "Who can even count how many thousands of interviews she has set up, game notes she has written and edited, industry-leading media guides she has produced, awards she has won and young people she has mentored."
Jennings has authored three books, assisted on an HBO documentary on the Lady Vols, and was honored by CoSIDA as the second woman to win the prestigious Arch Ward award in 2008 and the third woman inducted into the COSIDA Hall of Fame in 2002. She was the first sports information director to win the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Mel Greenberg Award for lifelong contributions to women's basketball, and she was recognized by the media in Tennessee with induction into the state's Sports Writers Association Hall of Fame in 2009.
Jennings continues to be an advocate for the advancement of women in athletics.
The U.S. Basketball Writers Association was formed in 1956 at the urging of then-NCAA Executive Director Walter Byers. With some 900 members worldwide, it is one of the most influential organizations in college basketball. It has selected an All-America team since the 1956-57 season. For more information on the USBWA and its award programs, contact executive director Malcolm Moran at 814-574-1485.