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Steve Roe – University of Iowa, Assistant Athletics Director, Communications

CoSIDA Hall of Fame Class of 2022

• Six-Member CoSIDA Hall of Fame Class of 2022 Highlights Special Awards Honorees

by Larry Happel – Central College, Athletic Communications Director // CoSIDA Special Awards Committee

As a new CoSIDA Hall of Fame inductee, he checks every box. More than 42 years’ experience in athletics communications, including 32 at the University of Iowa where he now serves as Assistant Athletics Director for Communications. Twenty-one bowl games and 12 men’s Final Fours. More than 20 CoSIDA conventions.

“He’s pretty much seen it all,” noted Iowa athletics communications associate director Matt Weitzel.

Yet for Weitzel, the essence of what makes Steve Roe a hall of famer is a Christmas story.

Amid the global pandemic in 2020, Weitzel’s son, Grey, was born. In a year of isolation and face masks, there was little that was normal about the experience, but Weitzel was looking forward to some Instagram-worthy moments at Grey’s first Christmas.

That is, until he learned the television network schedulers had other plans. Weitzel serves as the men’s basketball contact and the Hawkeyes were tabbed as the Big Ten team forced to travel for a Christmas night game at Minnesota.

Weitzel had fleeting thoughts of seeking a replacement but decided he couldn’t ask someone to work on Christmas night.

Then Roe stepped into his office.

“He was the one who approached me, about six weeks prior,” Weitzel said. “He said, ‘Hey, I know how important a first Christmas is with your first child. I’d be more than willing to make that trip for you.’

“That really meant a lot.”
 

Above and beyond, but far from surprising to those who know Roe. This, after all, is an SID who got his start not only reporting the news but simultaneously making it. Helping out as a student at Buena Vista University, Roe played for the Beavers’ baseball team, then called in scores to the media after the games.

“He’s someone you want to work for,” Weitzel said. “Steve’s got the respect of everybody: the coaching staff, administration and the media. He’s developed phenomenal relationships not only locally but nationally.”

Buena Vista didn’t even have a full-time SID in the 1970s but as a student Roe helped the college’s communications director with some sports information duties. He stumbled into a career-long passion.

“It was really a learning experience of what the business was about because going into it, I didn’t really know,” Roe said. “Growing up in Iowa City, I knew who (Iowa SIDs) George Wine and Phil Haddy were and that in the press box, those were the guys in charge. But getting the hands-on experience made me decide I’d rather do this as opposed to being a sportswriter. It led me to like the variety of it, doing all the different things that you do in sports information.”

It also led to a graduate assistant position at Northeast Louisiana (now Louisiana-Monroe).

“I got married that August and then, like the next week, we drove to Louisiana,” Roe said.

Roe was there two years when the Northwestern State (La.) SID position opened.

“I was really fortunate,” Roe said. “It was late in the summer and Northwestern SID Dan McDonald was a really good friend of the guy at Northeast. He said, ‘Hey, I think Steve could do the job,’ and I was able to jump right in.”

Northwestern State had a run of good athletes during Roe’s five years, including future NFL stand-outs Bobby Hebert, Mark Duper, Victor Oatis and linebacker Gary Reasons.

A three-year stint at Drake University followed before a job at Iowa in his hometown of Iowa City surfaced in 1990. The transition was seamless, retired athletics communications director Phil Haddy noted.

“You didn’t have to teach Steve anything,” Haddy said “He came to Iowa ready for the job and was an unbelievable asset to our staff. He was the type of person you didn’t need to watch over. You never really needed to proofread his stuff. Steve was unbelievably valuable. He’s a credit to the University of Iowa.”

Haddy and Roe are easy choices for the Mount Rushmore of Hawkeye SIDs, given there have been only four. Remarkably, only CoSIDA Hall of Famers Eric Wilson (1923-68) and George Wine (1963-93) preceded Haddy (1993-2010), with Roe taking over the top job in 2010.

“It would have been a crime if they’d given the job to anybody else,” Haddy said.

Roe has worked with 24 Iowa programs, spending 19 years as the primary men’s basketball contact with coach Tom Davis and others. He was also the secondary football contact, initially under Hall of Fame coach Hayden Fry, and will soon enter his 13th year as primary contact with longtime coach Kirk Ferentz.

“Steve has worked directly with our football program since I became head coach at The University of Iowa in 1999,” Ferentz said. “I truly appreciate Steve’s dedication and adaptability to the profession as the world of communications and media have changed dramatically over the last three decades. I could not ask for a better professional to educate and empower our staff, and thousands of student-athletes in working with the media.”

Roe has worked at numerous NCAA Championships, sometimes in a volunteer role as a means of learning and developing contacts but primarily to help others. That mirrors his steadfast commitment to CoSIDA.

“I felt like when I was young, I was able to learn a lot by attending CoSIDA conventions, and not just in the sessions, but in the hallways and at receptions, being able to learn from the veterans in this business who all were willing to share stories and experiences to help,” Roe said. “And that’s why now, if I can go to a convention and talk to some younger guys and help them, I think that’s a way to give back.”

Roe’s sensitivity to work-life balance in such a demanding profession is evident in his management style, Weitzel said, and is paid back in productivity.

“Steve empowers his staff,” said Weitzel, who joined the staff as an undergrad in 1996. “He’s not a micromanager. He lets his staff do what they want to do. Everyone in the office admires that and because of that it enables everyone to work above and beyond. It’s a culture that he’s developed to have that kind of freedom and sense of trust. He makes everyone want to go the extra mile.”

It’s also increased Roe’s appreciation for his own family, particularly his wife, Janet.

“You miss a lot of time together with your spouse and your families,” he said. “We’re very fortunate that we’ve had a lot of bowl trips and different events that we’ve been able to enjoy as a family. But there are also a lot of times when I’m not around as part of the family and so whenever I do get out of this, I’ll enjoy being the taxi driver for the grandkids. Hopefully there’s more of that down the road.”

That day is not yet imminent. But for now, Roe is still trying to comprehend his Hall of Fame selection.

“It’s obviously a great honor because of all the people who are Hall of Famers that I’ve been able to know and work with,” Roe said. “When your peers vote you into something it has a lot of meaning to it. It does make you reflect a little about what you’ve gone through, the hours you’ve put in but also the good times and all the people that have helped you along the way.”