* Veterans Committee Hall of Fame inductee.
Ithaca College / Princeton University / Cornell University / Brown University
Phil Langan was inducted into the CoSIDA Hall of Fame during the 2009 convention in San Antonio, Texas, at the Marriott Rivercenter. He was part of the inaugural induction class of the CoSIDA Veterans Hall of Fame.
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.
Langan served as CoSIDA secretary-treasurer and digest editor from 1972-77 and was a CoSIDA board member in 1970-71. He served as SID at Ithaca College, Princeton University (1973-76), Cornell University (1976-80), and Brown University (SID, starting in 1980), before working with the Hartford Whalers and Pittsburgh Penguins.
Following his unexpected death at the age of 70 on November 23, 2009, the CoSIDA Graduate Internship Grant Program was named in his honor.
Langan was born in Boston in 1939. He attended South Boston High School and received a B.A. degree in English from Boston College in 1960. Following graduation, he was the assistant sports information director at Harvard.
During that time, he served six months of active duty in the United States Army. He received an Honorable Discharge following six and a half years of active reserve duty.
He joined a Boston publishing firm in 1963 and four years later was named sports information director at Ithaca College where he stayed for six years. He served in that same capacity at Princeton for four years, Cornell for three years and Brown University for four years before accepting a position as Vice President of Public Relations and Community Relations for the Hartford Whalers in 1983.
He held the same position with the Pittsburgh Penguins from 1991-96. The community relations programs Langan created in Hartford and Pittsburgh were considered models for many National Hockey League teams.
Langan ran a successful sports public relations consulting business for eight years. Prior to his passing, he worked in customer service and security for the Hood Museum at Dartmouth College.
During his career, he received over 50 awards for publication and public relations excellence on both the college and professional levels. He was inducted into the Ithaca College Sports Hall of Fame in 1973, and served five years on the NCAA Public Relations Committee.
Langan authored a well-received manual on "Public Relations for the High School Athletic Director And Coach." He began, and then coordinated, Halls of Fame for Ithaca College, Cornell, the Whalers and Penguins. He also coordinated media relations for NCAA Championships in ice hockey, lacrosse and wrestling. He also created food drives, blood drives and a wide range of charity events during his professional career that rose well over $6 million.
This page was last updated Sept. 25, 2018.
