Six-member College Sports Communicators Hall of Fame Class of 2024 highlights Special Award honorees
John Bianco is in his 34th year in college athletic communications. His tenure in sports media relations is the second longest of anyone in that role historically at the University of Texas.
He becomes the sixth University of Texas athletic communicator to be inducted into the CSC (CoSIDA) Hall of Fame, following Wilbur Evans (1969), Jones Ramsey (1976), Bill Little (1992), Bill Sansing (2009), Barb Kowal (2010) and Chris Plonsky (2021).
His career at UT began in 1992 as assistant SID handling men's track & field and swimming and diving and serving as media coordinator for the Texas Relays, and by the mid-1990s, he assumed a significant role with Longhorn football and department coordination.
Promoted to men's athletics media relations director in 1998,
John Bianco oversaw all men's sports. Four years later, he was promoted to assistant athletics director during a time when UT had an unprecedented national run, winning national titles in football (2005) and baseball (2002, 2005) while advancing to the Final Four in men's basketball (2003). In 2011, his responsibilities expanded as UT, in partnership with ESPN, launched the Longhorn Network. A year later, he was promoted to associate AD.
During his time heading up his department, Bianco's staff has promoted numerous All-Americans, national award winners and championship teams. Personally, he managed all publicity for Heisman Trophy winner and College Football Hall of Famer Ricky Williams, Heisman Trophy runner-ups/National Players of the Year Vince Young and Colt McCoy, and numerous others receiving national football awards.
In 2016, Bianco was inducted into the Longhorn Hall of Honor and also received a CSC 25-Year Award.
A native of upstate New York, Bianco lettered in track and field and graduated from Baldwin-Wallace University (Berea, Ohio) in 1988. He came to Texas after two years at the University of Cincinnati and a year at Fresno State and the University of Arkansas.