* Veterans Committee Hall of Fame inductee.
Oregon State University
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Credited with Changing the Face of Sports Information Publicity, John Eggers Enters CoSIDA Hall of Fame
John Eggers was inducted into the CoSIDA Hall of Fame during the 2009 convention in San Antonio, Texas, at the Marriott Rivercenter. He is a Veterans Committee Hall of Fame inductee.
Veterans Committee Hall of Fame inductees represent former sports information professionals of distinction from the past whose professional and personal deeds and accomplishments helped make possible the stature of the sports information profession today.
Eggers ranked among the giants of college sports information directors, a trailblazer in the 1960s that student-athletes could receive national attention despite being from lesser known schools, especially those not situated in the eastern third of the nation.
He served in the Oregon State sports information office for more than 31 years, joining as an assistant director in 1950, and taking over from Irwin Harris as director in 1952. He was active member of CoSIDA, attending the organization’s annual workshops in Chicago where he worked many College All-Star football games that followed the convention each year.
For more than half of his career, Eggers was a one-man shop, with only occasional part-time assistance during the football season (his first assistant was hired in 1968). When OSU quarterback Terry Baker received the Heisman Trophy in 1962, Eggers was widely recognized as the guiding hand in his promotion for the award, the first winner west of the Mississippi. Baker went on to be recognized as the most honored college athlete in history, including Sports Illustrated’s Athlete of the Year.
A former all-state high school basketball player at Pendleton, Ore., Eggers played basketball one year at Willamette University before entering the Navy in 1941, where he served in Panama for four years. He returned to complete his education at Oregon State University, 1946-1949, during which time he worked for the Daily Barometer – including one year as sports editor. He later worked a year at the Oregonian newspaper before joining the OSU staff in 1950.
In 1981 he was inducted into the State of Oregon Sports Hall of Fame and later was enshrined in the Oregon State University Athletic Hall of Fame in 1991. In 1963, the Portland Rose Festival Association knighted Eggers for his efforts on behalf of college athletes in Oregon.
This page was last updated Sept. 25, 2018.
