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2022 Special Awards Announcements
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CoSIDA Special Awards Program
• #CoSIDA22 Convention Homepage
• Past Recipients: Lifetime Achievement | 25-Year
CoSIDA concludes its week-long announcements of the 2022 Special Award recipients by honoring 15 former and current members with Lifetime Achievement Award honors and 19 with 25-Year Awards for a quarter century of service.
The College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) wraps up its week-long announcement of its 2022 Special Awards Friday by recognizing members receiving Lifetime Achievement Awards and 25-Year Awards.
The CoSIDA Lifetime Achievement Awards are presented to members who have served at least 25 years in the profession and who are retiring, have retired, or are leaving the athletic communications profession.
Receiving their Lifetime Achievement Awards this year are:
- Bill Bennett – UCLA, Special Events/Projects Director (retired)
- Russ Blunck – University of Hawaii at Hilo, Sports Information Director (retired)
- Marc Dellins – UCLA, Director of Executive Relations (retired)
- Tom Duddleston – University of Arizona, Sports Information Director (retired)
- Steve Fenk – Oregon State University, Associate Athletic Director (Football), Athletic Communications
- Mike Green – Iowa State University, Assistant AD/Communications
- Lonza Hardy, Jr. – MEAC, Media Relations & Research Consultant (retired)
- Dave Hirsch – former PAC-12, Vice President, Communications
- Tom Kroeschell – Iowa State University, Director of Programming (retired)
- Steve Malchow – Iowa State University, Senior Associate AD/Communications (retired)
- Jim Seavey – UMass Dartmouth, Director of Athletic Communications (retired)
- Tim Tessalone – University of Southern California, Consultant (retired)
- Doug Vance – CoSIDA Executive Director
- Dave Williford – University of Oregon, Executive Assistant Athletic Director
- Dave Wrath – Augustana College, Associate Director of Athletics (retired)
The CoSIDA 25-Year Award is presented to members who have completed 25 years in the profession, with 19 members recognized with a 2022 honor. A complete list of 25-year Award recipients is below.
A closer look at the individuals honored today:
CoSIDA Lifetime Achievement Award
Presented to individuals who have served at least 25 years
in the sports information profession (as of July 2021) who are retiring or leaving the profession.
Voted on by the Special Awards Committee.
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Bill Bennett – UCLA (Special Events/Projects Director) (retired)
Bill Bennett, who served on the UCLA sports information staff for 32 years and spent a combined 38 years in collegiate sports, is a 2022 recipient of a CoSIDA Lifetime Achievement Award.
A 1974 graduate of the University of Nebraska, Bennett served as assistant media relations director for the Cornhuskers from 1974-81. He was then media relations director from 1981-83 at the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) and served one year as media relations director at Nebraska Wesleyan University (1983-84) before heading to the West Coast.
In 1984, he initially joined the UCLA staff as associate media relations director and served in that role until 2006. He worked primarily as a media liaison to the UCLA basketball team for 22 years.
Bennett then transitioned to a role as an athletics writer, researcher, and fundraiser in 2006 and remained in that position until 2016. As part of his duties, he hosted UCLA men's basketball reunions, staffed True Blue Celebration (annual silent/live auction) and Dribble for the Cure (annual Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation fund-raiser) events and worked with the Wooden Fund.
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Russ Blunck – University of Hawaii at Hilo (retired)
The former Hawaii Hilo Associate Athletic Director for Marketing and Communications,
Russ Blunck began his career in collegiate athletics as a student sports information director at Pacific University (Ore.), in 1979 and worked in that position through 1981. He then worked as a sports information contact for Athletes in Action from 1982-90 before taking the job of at Point Loma Nazarene University in 1990. After seven years at Point Loma, he assumed SID duties at Western Oregon University, where he remained through 2009. He was also associate athletic director for his last two years there.
Blunck went back to Point Loma in 2009 as associate athletic director and remained there until 2016 when he made the move to Hawaii Hilo. He retired in September 2021.
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Marc Dellins – UCLA (retired)
Marc Dellins spent more than 50 years in the athletic communications office at UCLA, from the time he was hired as assistant sports information director in 1976 to serving as a part-time employee from 2013-20.
A 2003 recipient of the CoSIDA 25-Year Award and a 2004 inductee into the Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, Dellins also earned numerous CoSIDA awards for his department's media guides and game programs.
After serving as assistant SID from 1976-84, Dellins was promoted to Senior Associate Athletic Director – Sports Information in 1984 and remained in that role into 2011. He then spent two years as UCLA Athletics Director of Executive Relations before moving into a part-time role in 2013.
Early in his career, Dellins also served as an assistant venue press chief at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Tom Duddleston – University of Arizona (Sports Information Director) (retired)
Tom Duddleston spent more than years in the University of Arizona Athletic Department before his retirement in 2013.
Duddleston served as the Wildcats' assistant sports information director from 1982 to 1993, before being elevated to the sports information director's position in 1993. He remained in that role until 2013.
He received a CoSIDA 25-Year Award in 2009.
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Steve Fenk – Oregon State University (Associate Athletic Director - Football, Athletic Communications)
Steve Fenk, who retired from his position as Associate Athletic Director for Communications at Oregon State University in October 2020, had over 30 years of athletics communications-related experience at the NCAA Division I level.
He began his professional career as a media relations intern in the Pac-10 office in 1987. One year later he was hired as the men's sports information director at Montana State and served in that role from 1988-90.
He arrived on the Oregon State campus in 1990 and remained there for the next 30 years.
During his tenure, he led the promotional and communications aspects for the football program during its most successful period in modern day history as the team captured the 2004 Insight Bowl, 2006 and 2008 Sun Bowls, and the 2007 Emerald Bowl titles. He also led a promotional campaign that eventually earned former placekicker Alexis Serna the 2005 Lou Groza Award and former receiver Mike Hass the 2005 Biletnikoff Award.
In his initial role at Oregon State, he worked primarily with the men's basketball program, served as editor of the football game-day program and was the primary contact for several olympic sports. He was the communications coordinator for an NCAA Women's Golf Championships and co-coordinator for the popular everyday champions program that highlights the accomplishments of current and former student-athletes on and off the fields of play.
While working at the Pac-10, Fenk also worked as a press row assistant for the Golden State Warriors of the National Basketball Association and the 1988 Rose Bowl.
Fenk earned a bachelor's degree from Oregon State University in 1987 and also has an associate of arts degree from Mount Hood Community College (1984) in Gresham, Ore.
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Mike Green – Iowa State University (Assistant AD/Communications)
Mike Green, Assistant Athletics Director of Communications at Iowa State, has served in the Cyclone athletic department for 27 years and in his ninth year as the Assistant AD. At the end of the 2022 spring semester, he will be transitioning into a new role at the university with the Letterwinners Association. Green graduated from the University of Northern Illinois in 1993, where he was a two-year letterwinner on the golf team. He received his master's from Iowa State in 1997.
His passion for working for ISU Athletics began as a youngster, as his father, Ken was an All-Big Eight Conference pitcher for Iowa State in 1960.
While at ISU, he has been the primary media relations contact for women's volleyball, wrestling, baseball, golf, football and men's basketball. This included 13 seasons as the men's basketball primary contact.
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Lonza Hardy, Jr. – MEAC (Media Relations & Research Consultant) (retired)
Southwestern Athletic Conference (Associate Commissioner) (retired)
A University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill graduate with 44 years of service in NCAA Division I athletics,
Lonza Hardy excelled as a Director of Athletics, Associate Commissioner for Media Relations and Sports Information Director. He retired in 2021.
During his tenure, he took a 16-year hiatus from media relations work, moving into other administrative roles, before returning to the field in 2018.
A recipient of a CoSIDA 25-Year Award in 2021 and the 2001 recipient of CoSIDA's Bob Kenworthy Community Service Award, then known as the Good Person Award, Hardy was elected to the CoSIDA Board of Directors in 1998 and served until 2001.
Hardy got his start as sports information director/public information aide at Albany State University in June 1978, then served as Alcorn State SID (1980-86) and SID at Southern University. (1986-89).
In 1989 he became the first Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) Assistant Commissioner, and then associate commissioner. He left that role in 2001 to become the Director of Athletics at Mississippi Valley State University then was Director of Athletics at Hampton University in 2007 and at Arkansas-Pine Bluff in 2011. In 2018 he returned to athletic communications with his MEAC duties.
Hardy was inducted into the SWAC Hall of Fame in December of 2018, received the All-American Football Foundation's Lifetime Achievement Award andthe SWAC Alumni Association Lifetime Achievement Award. He was a four-time selection as SWAC Sports Information Director of the Year.
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Dave Hirsch – Pac-12 Conference (Vice President, Communications) (retired)
Currently serving as the Las Vegas Bowl Senior Manager, Events/Associate Executive Director
A graduate of the University of Arizona,
Dave Hirsch's career in athletic media relations spanned from 1988 to 2020 and earned him a CoSIDA Lifetime Achievement Award.
Hirsch left the college athletic communications field in early 2021 and now works as Senior Manager, Events/Associate Executive Director of the Las Vegas Bowl.
For his last 26 years in the college athletics profession, Hirsch served as the Pac-12 Vice President of Communications (1995-2020). In that role, he promoted 24 sports for a 12-member athletic conference with primary responsibility for football, wrestling and golf communications. He was also the sport administrator for men's basketball, track and field and cross country.
He also was media operations director for the Pac-12 Football Championship Game (2011-19) and Pac-12 Men's Basketball Tournament (2011-20).
Prior to his time at the Pac 12, Hirsch served as assistant SID at the University of Arizona from 1988-95 where he led communications efforts for nationally-ranked men's basketball, volleyball and baseball programs.
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Tom Kroeschell – Iowa State University (Director of Programming) (retired)
Tom Kroeschell began his career in sports information as a student assistant at Drake, but he had strong Iowa State ties.
He was later hired at Iowa State as assistant sports information director in 1985 and would remain at the University for the next 36 years.
He retired from ISU on June 30, 2021.
Kroeschell was one of ISU's longest-tenured employees and took over as director of the sports information office in 1993, a position he held until he transitioned to Cyclones.tv in 2013.
A 2011 recipient of CoSIDA's 25-Year Award, he was media coordinator for the 1995 and 2000 NCAA Cross country meets hosted by Iowa State and was the lead announcer for the Drake Relays from 1989-2006. He was also the track announcer for the 1996 and 1997 NCAA Track and Field Championships.
In 1991, he served as a press officer for the U.S. team in the 1991 IAAF World Track and Field Championships in Tokyo, Japan, and he successfully promoted and escorted All-American Troy Davis, the first player in NCAA history to record back-to-back 2,000-yard rushing seasons, to the Heisman Trophy ceremony in New York City twice (1995 and 1996).
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Steve Malchow – Iowa State University (Senior Associate AD/Communications) (retired)
Steve Malchow, a communications professional for more than three decades, spent his final 16 years in intercollegiate athletics as a Senior Associate Athletic Director at Iowa State. He retired in June 2021.
He was the department's senior-level strategic communications director and oversaw athletics communications, marketing, digital media, creative services, information technology and the spirit squads. Additionally, he was the department liaison with the campus Trademark Licensing Office.
Beginning in 2017, Malchow served on the NCAA Honors Committee, which selects winners of the Theodore Roosevelt, Silver Anniversary, Top 10, Valor and Inspiration Awards. He chaired that committee until his tenure concluded in 2019.
Prior to returning to his home state to join the Cyclone staff in the fall of 2005, Malchow served on Wisconsin's Senior Staff (2003-05) after 11 years as Director of Men's Sports Information (1990-2001) and one season (2002) as Assistant AD. Malchow was an Assistant SID at Iowa from 1985-89.
He received more than 40 citations from CoSIDA for excellence in publications.
As Wisconsin football media contact from 1990-2001, the team played in seven bowls and won three Rose Bowls. Malchow led communication efforts for the Badgers' historic 1999-00 season, which included a Rose Bowl victory, a Heisman Trophy for Ron Dayne and a trip to the NCAA Men's Basketball Final Four.
Malchow was named SID of the Year by the National Football Foundation after serving as lead strategist for Dayne's Heisman campaign and handling media demands during Dayne's march to become college football's all-time leading rusher.
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Jim Seavey – UMass Dartmouth (Director of Athletic Communications) (retired)
A 2009 recipient of CoSIDA's Lester Jordan Award, a 2013 inductee into the CoSIDA Hall of Fame and a recipient of a CoSIDA 25-Year Award,
Jim Seavey closed a 35-year career in collegiate athletics in 2021.
He served a three-year term on CoSIDA's Board of Directors and was a member of the Academic All-America® Committee for more than 30 years, including assisting with Academic All-America® Hall of Fame event duties.
Two years after graduating from Marquette University in 1986, Seavey entered the world of college sports information for good as the Sports Information Director of Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa. In the late 1980s, Seavey took over as the sports information director at Nichols College before working a combined eight years at Merrimack College and UMass-Lowell.
Seavey's two longest stays were at Stonehill (1998-2007) and Massachusetts Maritime Academy (2008-17). Seavey continued to promote collegiate athletics and their student-athletes at Mount Ida for a six-month period before the college's closure and then wound up at UMass-Dartmouth in 2018 as director of athletic communications.
He received the Eastern College Athletic Conference Sports Information Directors Association's (ECAC-SIDA) highest honor in 2013 when named as the College Division recipient of the Irving T. Marsh Award. He served as ECAC-SIDA President during its 50th anniversary year of 2004-05.
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Tim Tessalone – University of Southern California (Consultant) (retired)
Prior to his retirement on January 1, 2021, CoSIDA Hall of Famer
Tim Tessalone served as consultant with USC Athletics and was the Trojans' longest-tenured sports information director, serving from 1984-2011. The USC graduate began as a Trojan assistant SID in 1979. He was named a senior associate athletic director in 2012. Tessalone was the primary media contact for USC football and men's volleyball and he retired after 43 years at the school.
In 2016, he was inducted into the CoSIDA Hall of Fame and received his CoSIDA 25-Year Award in 2007. Tessalone is also in the FWAA Hall of Fame and was a 2017 USC Athletics Hall of Fame inductee. Tessalone continues to serve on CoSIDA's Special Awards Committee.
During his time at USC, he and his staff publicized 47 national championship teams, 267 Olympians and 24 Academic All-Americans, and in football 84 All-Americans, 220 NFL draftees and five Heisman Trophy winners. He has served as media coordinator at 17 championships hosted by USC and worked more than 475 Trojan football games, including 29 bowls (12 Rose Bowls).
The USC sports information office has won more Football Writers Association of America "Super 11" awards (8) than any school. He is a member of the USC Athletic, College Sports Information Directors of America and FWAA Halls of Fame. He is a recipient of the FWAA Bert McGrane Award and is a recipient of a CoSIDA 25-Year award.
He was a student assistant in the USC sports information office in 1977, then spent two years at an international public relations agency (working on accounts such as the Rose Bowl and Rose Parade and the Oscars).
He graduated in 1977 with a bachelor's degree in public relations from USC, where he was director of the Student News Bureau as a senior.
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Doug Vance – CoSIDA Executive Director
Link to Vance's CoSIDA retirement announcement
Doug Vance, a member of CoSIDA's Hall of Fame and a former president of the organization, is retiring in June 2022 after his distinguished service to the organization as Executive Director. Vance has held the post since 2013 and has more than 30 years of experience in college athletic media relations administration and association management.
Vance reshaped the direction and governance structure of CoSIDA with his leadership and saw the organization set membership records during his Executive Director tenure. CoSIDA has seen unprecedented expansion in its member benefits, member involvement and professional development opportunities as well under his direction. He is just the second executive director in CoSIDA history.
Vance served as CoSIDA president in 1993-94 and was honored with CoSIDA Hall of Fame induction in 2000.
Prior to his CoSIDA appointment, Vance spent nine years as Executive Director of the Kansas Recreation and Park Association (KRPA). Vance worked 20 years as an administrator in the University of Kansas athletics department. He served 18 years as KU's assistant athletics director for media relations and the final two years as associate athletics director for communications.
At Kansas, Vance coordinated media relations, marketing, information systems, video services, the KU Athletics Hall of Fame and the athletic e-commerce (KUStore.com) program and was liaison with the University's trademark licensing office and KU's multimedia agreement with ESPN Regional.
Prior to his communications positions at Kansas, Vance served as Sports Information Director at Murray State University (1978-83) and Austin Peay State University (1973-78).
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Dave Williford – University of Oregon (Executive Assistant Athletics Director) (retired)
Former University of Oregon Executive Assistant Athletics Director
Dave Williford is a 2021 recipient of a CoSIDA Lifetime Achievement Award.
Having retired from the profession in 2017, Williford began his career in collegiate athletics as assistant public relations director at Culver-Stockton College in 1977. He then moved to Drake University in 1979, where he worked as an assistant SID through 1981. In 1982 Drake promoted him to sports information director, and he served in that role for three years.
Williford arrived at the University of Oregon in 1985 and served as assistant sports information director for 12 years, before being elevated to Co-SID in 1996 and head SID and assistant athletic director in 1997.
He received a 25-Year Award from CoSIDA in 2010.
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Dave Wrath – Augustana College (Associate Director of Athletics) (retired)
A decorated Hall of Famer,
Dave Wrath spent 40 years on the job as sports information director at Augustana College, his alma mater. He graduated from Augustana in 1980 with his bachelor's in English, then returned in February of 1981. work for his alma mater.
The Lifetime Achievement Award will be the fifth major CoSIDA award that Wrath has received. He received the Warren Berg Award in 2000, was inducted into the CoSIDA Hall of Fame in 2003, received the Lester Jordan Award for his long-time service to the Academic All-America® Committee in 2004 and received a 25-Year Award in 2007.
He was inducted into Augustan's "Tribe of Vikings" Hall of Fame in October 1980.
Wrath's accomplishments and honors are well chronicled, as are honors received by his Augustana student-athletes, with 165 of the school's 176 Academic All-Americans named through Wrath's efforts.
Additionally, he served as the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW) Sports Information Director from 1996 to 2005, helping establish and orchestrate the conference's academic all-conference program in 2005.
The CCIW Academic All-Conference Team was recently renamed the Dave Wrath Academic All-Conference Team.
An endowed fund for the Augustana Dave Wrath '80 Sports Marketing Internship was announced on Sept. 5, 2021 in honor of his four decades of sharing Augustana's stories and mentoring students. In 2014, when Augustana completed its new Austin E. Knowlton Outdoor Athletic Complex, the new press box was named for Wrath.
25-Year Award Recipients
Congratulations to the following group of athletic communications professionals who have reached the quarter century of service to the profession!
25-Year Award
Presented to CoSIDA members who have completed 25 years in the sports information profession (as of July, 2020).
Vetted and voted on by the Special Awards Committee.
How do I calculate my 25-year service to CoSIDA?
To receive a 25-year award at the CoSIDA convention, you must have been in the sports information profession full time and/or an active member of the organization for 25 years, at the time of the annual June CoSIDA Convention. Your 25-year total must be met by July 1. Thus if you started full time work as of July 1, 1997, your 25 years would be completed in June of 2022 and you would receive the award this academic year - and be saluted with a feature story leading up to the 2022 Convention. If you started in October of 1997, you would complete 25 years in September, 2022 and would receive your award at the 2023 CoSIDA Convention.
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Ken DeBolt
Hobart and William Smith Colleges
Director of Athletic Communications |
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Adrian Ferguson
Fayetteville State
Assistant AD for Sports Information |
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Mike Green
Iowa State University
Assistant AD/Communications |
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David Johnson
University of Wisconsin-La Crosse
Assistant Athletic Director for Media Relations |
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Kelly Loft
Southwest Minnesota State University
Assistant AD - Communications & Marketing / Assistant Development |
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Steve Malchow
Iowa State University
Retired - Senior Associate AD/Communications |
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John Martin
Colorado State University
Assistant Director of Communications |
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Bryan Messerly
West Virginia University
Associate Athletics Director/Communications |
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Darren Miller
University of Iowa
Director, Multimedia Programming |
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Doug Monson
Stonehill College
Assistant Director of Athletics, Communications |
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Dave Reed
Colorado College
Associate Director, Athletics Communications |
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Lenny Reich
University of Mount Union
Assistant Athletic Director/Sports Information Director |
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Doug Tammaro
Arizona State University
Assistant AD - Media Relations |
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Greg Walker
University of Oregon
Associate Director of Athletic Communications |
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Romanda Noble-Watson
Columbia College (SC)
Sports Information Director |
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Dave Wester
Texas-Dallas
Assistant Athletic Director - Media Relations/Sports Information Director |
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Dan Wilkes
Pittsburg State University
Associate Athletic Director / Communications |
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Roots Woodruff
University of Alabama
Associate Director of Athletic Communications |
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Chuck Yahng
Maryville University
Assistant AD for Communications |
Honoree information complied by CoSIDA Special Awards Committee Chairman Jeff Hodges (University of North Alabama) and Barb Kowal, CoSIDA Director of Professional Development and External Affairs.