College Sports Information Directors of America

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Lindy Brown – Duke University, Senior Associate Director of Communications

CoSIDA 25-Year Award

by Chris Mitchell – Granite City School District #9 Communications / CoSIDA Goodwill and Wellness Committee Member

The relationships that Duke University Senior Associate Director of Communications Lindy Brown has formed is what has kept him in the athletic communications business for 25 years.
 
Whether it's the student-athletes, coaches, media, fans, families, support staff, co-workers, fellow SIDs, etc., Brown gets to know them as people.
 
"I have been in the business for 25 years and the one thing I pride the most about myself is relationships," Brown said. "We have such top-notch student-athletes, coaches and staff here at Duke and that has made my job so much easier."
 

Brown has also learned along the way how important it is to be visible — whether it's at practice, on the road, or at a game.
 
"Being visible has always been important to me. When you cover a team, show you care. And the best way to show you care is by being around and visible," Brown noted. "I try to go to practice as much as possible to chat with the coaches and student-athletes before or after workouts. The more they see you around the more they will trust you and know you care about the program."
 
Current Duke Associate Professor of Surgery Georgia M. Beasley (Schweitzer), MD, a 2001 Duke graduate and two-time Atlantic Coast Conference Women's Basketball Player of the Year, explains it best about Brown's dedication to Duke and his ability to form relationships.
 
"Lindy is an exceptional director of communications. His work ethic, integrity, and passion for sports have led to an immensely successful career," said Beasley. "As a student-athlete, he was engaging and professional. As an assistant coach, he was detail oriented and efficient. And now as an alum, I find him to be an effective communicator. His impact on the women’s basketball program over his career has been essential to the program’s success."
 
Former Duke women's head basketball coach and current University of Kentucky assistant coach Gail Goestenkors echos Beasley's thoughts.
 
"Lindy's passion and dedication to Duke women's basketball is unmatched. I’ve always felt he was the BEST SID in the country," Goestenkors said. "He has been the one constant in the legacy of women's basketball success at Duke."
 
What have your enjoyed most about being in athletic communications? 
As mentioned earlier, I would have to say the relationships. I get to go out to practice, travel to games, tournaments and see the world. Plus, I have been able to cover sports for a living. It doesn’t get much better than that, right? I grew up loving sports and knew I wanted to do something in sports for a career. The SID profession has allowed me to be able to live this dream. Being able to travel the world with Duke Athletics has been unbelievable.
 
Talk about your approach to mentoring student assistants and interns.
Over the years at Duke and USC Aiken, we have had many different interns and student assistants come through. I have tried my best to get to know them as people and let them know I am here to help in any way possible. If they need to talk about anything, my door is always open.
 
When they start, I try to emphasize this internship will be what you make it. If they come in and just do the minimum and don’t go the extra mile to get the best experience possible this won’t be a great internship. If they get experience with as many sports as possible, learn new things and ask questions then they will have a tremendous experience that will help them get a full-time job after you are done. With our student assistants, we have some that are more dedicated than others, but it has been fun to get to know them and see what career they end up going into since many don’t aspire to work in sports after their time at Duke is complete.
 
Do you have a favorite moment or two that sticks out in your career?
I have been lucky enough to work with some very special teams at Duke — from being part of six NCAA Championships with our women’s golf program to advancing to three NCAA Women’s Basketball Final Fours, two NCAA Women’s Tennis Final Fours and two NCAA Women’s Soccer College Cups. The NCAA Championships were incredible and to be able to see all of the student-athletes hard work come together for a win was so good to see.
 
I have also loved traveling the world with teams. Our women’s basketball team took me and my wife to Australia and Italy, which was amazing. I was able to go to China with our women’s soccer team and go to many tropical destinations with teams. But I would have to say seeing former student-athletes, student workers and interns come back to Durham and say hello have been the best moments of my career. 
 
What advice would you have for an aspiring SID?
I would say to any aspiring athletic communicator, get as much experience as possible. Try to get to know and make connections with as many SIDs/communications professionals in the business. If there is a local college/university around where you live, reach out to the SID and see if they need any help.
 
If you need to volunteer some to get started, do that to show what you can do and make that connection. We had a volunteer intern for one summer that worked for about three weeks with us. That next year we had an internship opening during the middle of the year and he ended up joining our staff. He is now an assistant SID at an ACC school.  If he didn’t do that short stint with our office, I don’t think he would be where he is today. Make those connections, work hard and good things should follow.