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Steve Fenk – Oregon State University (Retired)

CoSIDA Lifetime Achievement Award

by Tim Tessalone – University of Southern California, Consultant and Sports Information Director (retired)/CoSIDA Special Awards Committee

It could have taken a while for Steve Fenk to learn that he received a 2022 CoSIDA Lifetime Achievement Award.

The longtime Oregon State SID, who retired in mid-2020 after 30 years as a Beaver, now spends many of his days deep-sea fishing off the Oregon coast. Email and cell phone service can be spotty in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

“This is an honor,” said Fenk, who actually found out expediently about his award. “It means a lot to me. I enjoyed my time as an SID. I have so much respect for the people I dealt with in the business and in the media.”
 

Fenk worked at his alma mater since 1990, the first 15 years as an assistant to CoSIDA Hall of Famer and ex-president Hal Cowan and then taking over the top spot when Cowan retired in 2005. Fenk was promoted from assistant to associate athletic director for communications in 2011. In that role, he was the point person for the Beavers’ football team. Earlier in his career at OSU, he worked with the men’s basketball team and several Olympic sports.

During his tenure, Oregon State’s football program experienced its most successful period, with seven bowl victories in 11 appearances. Fenk led promotional campaigns in 2005 for Lou Groza Award winner Alexis Serna and Biletnikoff Award recipient Mike Haas. In 2013, he promoted another Biletnikoff winner, Brandin Cooks. 

He also was part of OSU’s back-to-back College Baseball World Series championships, a Final Four women’s basketball program and a nationally-ranked women’s gymnastics squad.

“I owe a lot to Hal Cowan and (then-assistant SID) Mike Corwin,” said Fenk. “I didn’t know what I was getting into early in my career, but they helped me a lot.”

Fenk grew up on a dairy farm in coastal Tillamook, Ore., about 90 miles northwest of the Oregon State campus. After earning his bachelor’s degree at OSU, where he was an intern in the Beavs’ sports information office, he became a public relations intern at the then-Pac-10 Conference and a press row assistant for the Golden State Warriors.

“Jim Muldoon (the now-retired Pac-10 PR director) was a mentor to me when I was at the Pac-10,” Fenk said. “He gave me so many opportunities as an intern, so many responsibilities.”

Fenk then was Montana State’s men’s SID from 1988 until returning to Oregon State in 1990.

“Montana State took a big chance on me,” said Fenk. “At the time, I was one of the youngest SIDs in Division I. It was a huge opportunity and experience for me, and I am grateful.”

At Oregon State, Fenk was a master at developing relationships with the media.

“I always thought at Oregon State you have to be a little more open to media than some other schools seem to be,” he told Oregon sportswriter Kerry Eggers, whose father, John, was Oregon State’s SID for 30 years (from 1950-80) and is a CoSIDA Hall of Famer. “As a smaller school that didn’t have a great recent history for winning, I thought we needed it. I also felt that Oregon State people are different than most, maybe more welcoming, more inviting. I tried to reflect that in how I handled my job.”

In his piece on Fenk, Eggers wrote: “Fenk was an excellent conduit between the coaches and players and the media, doing what he could to drum up publicity for his school. When coaches were difficult, he did what he could to make interviews happen.”

The Oregonian’s John Canzano seconded that.

“(Steve) was one of the behind-the-scenes people who was incredibly impactful. His work mattered,” Canzano noted. “Steve made a difference with college athletes. He made a difference every day in the job he did, dealing with people, with media members, with athletes, with coaches, all while working at a high level.”

When Fenk fell victim to COVID-caused cutbacks in the Oregon State athletic department, he decided to retire from the profession. 

Retirement has given him ample time to pursue his love of deep-sea fishing, a love fostered while growing up on the Oregon coast.

Not only does Fenk fish his state’s waters (his 26-foot boat is moored in Newport, an hour’s drive directly west from his residence in Corvallis), but he has traveled to Mexico, Hawaii, Alaska, the Florida Keys and San Diego to pursue his passion. Tuna, halibut, salmon, marlin and sailfish are his primary catches. His girlfriend, Tina, accompanies him “when the weather is nice.”

“I love to fish and I have a lot of time to do it now,” he said. “The fishing in Oregon is so good and I’m able to do it most of the year.”

He also partakes in clamming and crabbing and even grows his own vegetables.

Fenk is involved in ocean conservation measures, having joined a West Coast salmon management team and an international halibut commission.

“I’ve always loved the ocean, being around it, being on the beach,” he told Canzano. “Once you start going out, sure, part of it is the fish you catch, but it’s what you see otherwise. You see all kinds of things, whales, sharks. I even saw a submarine surface when I was tuna fishing!”

In fishing, as it was during his SID days, just when Fenk thought he had seen everything, something new comes along. 

Submarines off the Oregon coast, Biletnikoff winners at Oregon State. Those became the norm for Fenk, as has his Lifetime Achievement Award.