College Sports Information Directors of America

Larry Hymel – Southeastern Louisiana University (retired)

CSC Hall of Fame Class of 2025

By Langston Rogers – retired University of Mississippi & Delta State University/ former CSC President/CSC Special Awards Committee member
 

"There is not a person more deserving of earning this tremendous CSC Hall of Fame honor than Larry Hymel. His enthusiasm, love, and dedication to his alma mater for nearly 60 years is unmatched. Larry's work in the sports information profession at both SLU and within the state of Louisiana is something that you want to emulate. The faith he showed in me from the beginning is something that I will never forget. As a newcomer, I quickly learned what it took to succeed in the office with Larry's leadership and advice playing a huge role."

- Matt Sullivan, Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns Director of Athletics Communications

In 2009, the College Sports Communicators Board of Directors established a veterans committee to nominate candidates for the CSC (then CoSIDA) Hall of Fame. With the late CSC legend and past president Bill Little of Texas serving as the Chair of the committee, its purpose was "to recognize those former sports information professionals of distinction from the past whose professional and personal deeds and accomplishments helped make possible the stature of the athletics communications profession today."

When the six-member 2025 CSC Hall of Fame class was announced in January, it included an outstanding retired veteran from long ago in the person of Larry Hymel of Southeastern Louisiana University. 

This year's Hall of Fame induction will be a highlight at the CSC All-Star Night of Honors awards ceremony which takes place June 9 during the CSCUNITE25 convention at the Orlando World Center Marriott. CSC currently has an excess of 4,500 members representing intercollegiate athletics in the United States and Canada.

"I am extremely humbled to be recognized with such a prestigious award from our highly-respected national association," Hymel said.
 

The first full-time sports information director for Southeastern Louisiana, Hymel served in that capacity for 28 years, the first 14 years working without full-time assistants. He was named to the position shortly after his 1966 graduation from Southeastern Louisiana while he was working as the sports editor for the Hammond (La.) Daily Star. While attending SLU, Hymel gained valuable experience as a student worker for public information and as a staff member of the student newspaper, The Lion's Roar.

During his career, Hymel used a few students whenever they were available. When Southeastern added women's sports in the 1974-75 school year, he received no additional students or full-time assistant help until 1980, when he finally got a graduate assistant. A year later, his first full-time assistant was hired.

"I tell people that I worked 20 years BC (before computers), mostly solo," Hymel recalled with a laugh.

Hymel continues to take great pride in how many of his co-workers and mentees have gone on to enjoy successful careers. He currently has two former assistants serving as department heads – Jack Duggan, University of Southern Mississippi Associate AD for Communications, and Matt Sullivan, Director of Athletics Communications at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Another assistant, Matt Smith, was the department head at the University of South Alabama when he passed away of an apparent heart attack in 2004 at the age of 33. Former assistant Barry Niemeyer assumed the athletic communications department head position at Southeastern after Hymel retired.

"I can't tell you how thrilling it was for me to learn that Larry has been chosen for the prestigious CSC Hall of Fame," Duggan said.  "No one is more deserving of this honor. He has selflessly given to his alma mater over five decades of service. I am so grateful that he saw something in me to give me my first full-time opportunity at SLU. 

Larry's guidance also helped me navigate young adulthood and I cherish the times that we spent not only during games, but also the times spent in his office as he taught me the ropes of the profession. While I only worked for Larry just one year, the confidence he had in me as a young 25-year-old to undertake so many important tasks within that office enabled me to become the athletic communicators professional I am some 33 years later."
 

Sullivan echoes similar thoughts about the impact that Hymel has had on his career.

"There is not a person more deserving of earning this tremendous honor than Larry Hymel," Sullivan said. "His enthusiasm, love, and dedication to his alma mater for nearly 60 years is unmatched. Larry's work in the sports information profession at both SLU and within the state of Louisiana is something that you want to emulate. The faith he showed in me from the beginning is something that I will never forget. Our (SID) office that semester had some serious talent, starting with Chief (Hymel), assistant Jack Duggan and student assistant Matt Smith.  As a newcomer, I quickly learned what it took to succeed in the office with Larry's leadership and advice playing a huge role."

Like many college sports communicators of his era, Larry wore many different hats while performing his duties, including broadcasting play-by-play basketball road games and home and post-season baseball games. He was also the first person to broadcast a baseball game at Southeastern. While serving as Southeastern's sports information director, Hymel also served as the statistician for the Gulf South Conference. 

In 1977, he was honored by CSC (formerly CoSIDA) with the Lifetime Achievement Award upon retirement and the 25-Year Award for his service to the association. Hymel was a regular attendee at the annual CSC workshops. He was part of a three-person panel in Kansas City at the 1980 workshop with the topic being "Servicing the Smaller Media" and chaired a "Meeting the Media Needs" panel at the 1975 Houston workshop. The Kansas City post-workshop survey selected Hymel's panel as the second most beneficial of the week. 

Hymel was named to Southeastern Louisiana's Athletic Hall of Fame for Distinguished Service in the 1994-95 academic year and was inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame in 2011 for his many years of service to sports journalism. 

In 1994, the Louisiana Sports Writers Association (LSWA) also bestowed its coveted Mac Russo Award to Hymel, recognizing his valuable and varied contributions to the association. 

With extensive writing and publication honors, Hymel received All-American awards from the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) five times for his football game programs, including a second best in the nation honor in 1974, while winning two CSC district awards for excellence in writing in 1990 and 1991. In 1988, his men's SLU basketball brochure, co-edited by assistants Barry Niemeyer and Mickey Triche, was judged best in the district. Hymel won Louisiana Sports Writers Association (LSWA) awards for best football program in 1984 (third) and for feature writing (second) in 1985.

After leaving the SID office, Hymel was director of Southeastern's University Center (basketball and events center) for 11 years, managing the facility while it became the home for the Louisiana High School Athletic Association's (LSWA) annual state girls basketball championship tournament, known originally as the "Sweet 16." The tourney set attendance records and the arena and its staff earned rave reviews for their management skills as fans filed in from around the state year after year.  The Center also hosted all types of educational workshops, a few concerts, and many southeastern Louisiana and high school graduations.
 

Hymel also served on the Hammond Recreation Commission and was the president and organizer of several summer baseball leagues. Beginning in the 1970s, Hymel also managed the LSWA High School and college newspaper writing contests for several years.

Prior to his SLU position as sports editor of the Hammond Daily Star in 1966, he won LSWA awards for writing (first, second and third places in different categories), and gained recognition for excellence from the Associated Press. Hymel earned an AP Louisiana-Mississippi honorable mention for photography in 1966 and AP La-Miss honorable mention for sports writing in 1966.

Upon his 2005 retirement from full-time duties at SLU, Hymel began a third career, working as the Alumni Athletic Coordinator for the Southeastern Alumni Association. He updated the University's database, which eventually led to hosting reunions in many sports.  Hymel also continues to coordinate Southeastern's Hall of Fame Day activities.  

In 2017, Hymel won the L.E. Chandler Award at Southeastern Louisiana, which is presented to faculty and staff who help students accomplish their goals.  

Hymel fully retired in 2017 and established an endowed scholarship for sports journalism students at Southeastern Louisiana. The scholarship is awarded to a student writer for media relations, a sports journalist on The Lion's Roar, or someone covering sports for the Southeastern (TV) Channel.  

"When I was a student, I received scholarship money to help me through school," Hymel recalled.  "I just want to keep helping students in any way that I can." 
 

In 2021, Hymel wrote and published a book on the 70 Years of Southeastern Lions Athletic History (1930-1999).  

"Having been associated with Southeastern sports for as long as I was, there really was never anything written as far as a total history," Hymel noted. "There has always been extensive documentation about the university and my goal was to write about the history of Southeastern athletics." 

Hymel said one of the most satisfying things he enjoyed during the project was learning about significant people who contributed so much to SLU's athletics history. The book also follows the dynamic impact Jim Corbett had at Southeastern as a student and sports editor of The Lion's Roar, as well as being the person to champion the establishment of the Southeastern Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame. Corbett went on to become Athletic Director at LSU from 1954 until his tragic passing in 1967 at just 47 years of age.  

"I believe Jim Corbett was probably the most dynamic student to ever attend Southeastern Louisiana," Hymel said.

While attending Southeastern, Larry Hymel worked in the campus publications office, which was responsible for news and sports as well as the school newspaper and yearbook. Since his passion is writing, Larry expanded those skills by doing a lot of basic sports writing (releases, etc.) that went through the director before being released. It was also his responsibility to keep statistics of baseball, basketball and football events.  

"During my final three years in school, I was the only student assigned to covering sports, while also doing some writing for The Hammond Daily Star," Hymel said. "I began working full time for the Star in the summers with the knowledge that I would be the full-time sports editor upon graduation. That happened in January and in June I got the opportunity to be the full-time sports information director at Southeastern. I took a cut in pay, left the Star and began my Southeastern journey in athletics communications."

And, the result was a Hall of Fame career for Hymel.