Six-member College Sports Communicators Hall of Fame Class of 2025 highlights Special Award honorees
For 31 years,
Tony Neely has given distinguished service to the University of Kentucky where he currently serves as Assistant AD for Communications and Public Relations.
His athletic communications career began in 1978 as an undergraduate at Vanderbilt University, and Neely spent 16 years in communications at his alma mater from 1978-94. He started as a student assistant at Vanderbilt in 1978 and was hired full time as an assistant sports information director before finishing his final semester as a student. He was promoted to associate SID in 1990 and then to sports information director just two years later. In 1994, he accepted the SID position at Kentucky.
UK's communications/public relations staff have been named one of the best in the country by the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) three times under Neely's direction.
Neely has served eight years on the CSC Professional Development and Continuing Education Committee where he is one of CSC's key moderators for convention sessions and webinars. Throughout his years of membership in the organization, he also served on CSC committees for NCAA Legislative Liaison, Postgraduate Scholarship, and Publications Award Publicity.
Neely earned his 25-year Award at the 2018 CSC Convention and has won numerous publications and writing awards in the CSC Fred S. Stabley Sr. Writing Contest during his tenure. He also co-wrote the official University of Kentucky book commemorating the UK 1998 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament championship.