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Past CoSIDA 25-Year Award Recipients
Terry Small – New Jersey Athletic Conference, Commissioner
2019 CoSIDA 25-Year Award recipient
by Ira Thor, Director of Athletic Communications and Marketing, New Jersey City University
Terry Small asked me not to nominate him for a 2019 CoSIDA 25-Year Award. He’s the type of consummate professional who shuns the spotlight. But I didn’t listen. Because after a quarter century, Small deserves a tip of the cap as a well-respected professional who began his career in athletic communications and successfully moved into upper administration.
Today, Small, the long-time Commissioner of the New Jersey Athletic Conference, has meticulously led one of the most successful conferences in NCAA Division III for 17 years. And while he has since handed off the SID baton and is exclusively an athletics administrator, Small will always consider himself a SID first, having never forgotten his sports information roots — roots that were planted by accident.
Attending Elon University in North Carolina in the early 1990s, Small was a saxophone musician in the school band who was at a crossroads as a sophomore.
“With a music degree, the only thing you can do is perform or teach,” recalled Small. “I knew I didn’t want to teach and knew I wasn’t good enough to perform.”
Outside of music, his other interest was sports. Small knew he didn’t have the talent to play and wasn’t going to coach. He had no desire to be an athletic trainer.
A chance encounter while walking through the gym at Elon turned Small’s attention from the sax to stats when he ran into the school’s student assistant SID, Tom Kosempa.
The Small family: Terry with wife Lisa, daughter Peyton and son Benjamin celebrating the Eagles first Super Bowl victory with the Vince Lombardi Trophy at Lincoln Financial Field.
Kosempa, today, the Director of Development for the School of Business at Duke, was graduating, and needed someone to replace him. Small fell into that role his junior and senior years and a new path was blazed.
While working for the school’s first-ever SID, Bill Grubbs, Small did a little of everything, including traveling with the teams.
“One piece of advice Bill gave me was to save everything you do. Working at a small school I thought I had good work samples.”
Returning to his native South Jersey the summer between his junior and senior years, he knew he needed more experience if he was going to make a career out of sports information, so Small wrote to all the New Jersey and Pennsylvania schools in the area seeking a summer internship. Only one answered: Sheila Stevenson of Rowan, who years later would be the most veteran SID in the league Small now leads as commissioner.
While Stevenson couldn’t hire Small because of a hiring freeze, she told him if she could ever help him, she would. She held true to her word.
Weeks from graduating from Elon in 1992, Small got a call from Mike Gilbert, the new assistant director of public relations for the Philadelphia Eagles. He was looking for two post-graduate interns and Stevenson had recommended him.
“I got a call ‘Would you be interested in interning for us?’ said Small. “I thought it was someone playing a joke. I’m a huge Eagles fan [Editor’s Note: Even Terry Small isn’t perfect]. I had a Randall Cunningham poster on the wall. Sheila gave my name to the Eagles.”
“Mike asked ‘Are you coming home for spring break?’ All I thought was ‘Now I am!”
The Eagles gave Small his first major opportunity in sports. While the length of the internship was never defined, in the middle of his second year he knew it was time to find a full-time position.
Flying back with the Eagles after a game against the 49ers in San Francisco, Small was reading the NCAA News and perusing the NCAA Market, saw an opening at the College of Staten Island. Knowing that then-Eagles head coach Rich Kotite was from Staten Island, Small courageously walked from the back of the plane to first class to speak with him.
“I was torn about making a career as a PR person in the NFL or going the college rout. But I did the math — back then there were only 60 NFL jobs; two per team. There were 1,100 SIDs in college athletics. I played the odds that the chances were greater of landing a permanent job in college athletics.”
Small’s efficient math skills and the fact he approached Kotite on a cross-country flight after a 40-8 win paid off. Kotite knew the Staten Island AD, helped him get an interview, and six games through his second season with the Eagles, Small made the tough decision to depart the NFL for the CSI.
Small expressed an interest in learning more than just sports information in his time at Staten Island, adding such skills as eligibility and compliance to his tool chest. Small served as SID from November 1993 to July 1996, was promoted to Assistant Athletic Director for two years, then served as Acting Director of Athletics for a full year (1998-99).
After not getting the permanent AD role, Small moved on to John Jay College for one year (July 1999 to August 2000) as Associate AD then went back across the river to Stevens Institute of Technology for two years (August 2000 to September 2002) under current AD and former SID Russell Rogers.
“He gave me a lot of responsibility,” Small said of Rogers. “I was fortunate to learn under him. I could probably still be working at Stevens for Russ and be happy.”
But by then, in classic Bon Jovi or Springsteen fashion, the former musician had fallen in love with a girl from South Jersey, knew he wanted to get married and had yet another decision to make — move back home and find a new career. Today, Small and wife, Lisa, have been married for almost 16 years and have two children, Benjamin and Peyton.
Once again, timing and relationships opened the door one more time, as a vacancy for Commissioner of the NJAC came at the right time.
Gene Marshall, whom Small worked under as the AD at Staten Island and then the AD at league-member Ramapo, along with such legendary NJAC ADs as New Jersey City’s Larry Schiner, were instrumental in Small’s current position.
“I was always intrigued with the idea of working for a conference,” said Small. “Something had to give in our lives. By the grace of God this opportunity opened up, I became the frontrunner, and the rest is history.”
“Being NJAC Commissioner, there’s a little something different every day. One day you’re meeting with presidents, then another day with athletic trainers, then another day SIDs. I am really fortunate to be in a league with 10 good SIDs. In my heart if you asked me, I still consider myself a SID.”
Small gave up SID responsibilities in the NJAC in 2013, and today he relies on Michelle Serabian, the NJAC’s assistant commissioner, to oversee the league’s sports information operation.
“I’m very, very thankful to have her,” Small said of Serabian. “I’m learning stuff about sports info and social media from her every day and we are fortunate to have someone of her caliber in the league office.”
While Small is no longer an SID, unlike most Philadelphia fans, he never officially gave up on the Eagles. After leaving the internship, he moved into a gameday role with the team and for the last 16 years has served as the statistician for Eagles radio broadcasts with Merrill Reese and Mike Quick. He has also contributed to the franchise with pregame media coordination and post-game quotes. Then, on February 4, 2018, hell froze over and the Eagles won their first Super Bowl.
“I grew up a big Reese and Quick fan, so to sit with them for 10 Sundays a year is very special. To be there in Minneapolis and celebrate in the booth with them when the Eagles won the Super Bowl, was something I will never forget.”