College Sports Information Directors of America

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Jon Terry – Bucknell University, Associate Director of Athletics, Athletic Communications

CoSIDA 25-Year Award

by Todd Newcomb, Bucknell University Senior Associate Director of Athletics/Director of Bison Club

How would we describe a sports information director to those outside the world of athletics? Contrary to the belief of some not educated about the profession, it’s not someone who just gets paid to watch sporting events. 
 
A sports information director is so much more – a story teller, a communicator, a historian, a statistician, a connector, an innovator, a promoter, a publicist, a salesperson, and maybe most importantly, a trusted friend and supporter to our student-athletes.
 
Bucknell University Associate Athletic Director Jon Terry, known as “JT,” exemplifies those characteristics, and it’s my honor to tell you a little about him as he prepares to receive his 25-Year Award from CoSIDA this year in recognition of his long-time service and commitment to the profession.
 
 
Much like so many in our profession, JT did not set out to become a sports information professional when he began his college journey back in the fall of 1989 at Bucknell University. A geology major (of which to this day JT claims there can’t be many among the CoSIDA membership!!), he was preparing to move on the grad school when Bucknell’s then sports information director Bo Smolka said, “Hey, I’ve got this internship you might be interested in.” 
 
That statement changed JT’s life and opened the door for our profession to welcome in another great SID.
 
“I took the barely-paying position, much to my parents’ horror, but it didn’t take long to know that this was right up my alley, recalls Terry. “I actually stayed on for a second year of the internship, and then got hired full-time at Army in the summer of 1995.”
 
Although he had a nice little niche going at Bucknell with Bo, their secretary Katie, and radio icon “Bullet” Bob Behler who also had sports information responsibilities, the move to West Point allowed JT to experience his first taste of “the big time.” Yes, Bucknell and Army were conference mates in the Patriot League in most sports, but the big difference was I-A football. During JT’s first year there Army played teams like Washington and Notre Dame in the regular season, and then he got to experience his first of six Army-Navy games, huge events that generated more media and fan attention than most of the bowl games.
 
JT learned from one of the industries’ best in Bob Beretta at Army, and says the experience there prepared him to eventually run his own shop at Bucknell.
 
“He was a great leader, and along with Mike Albright and Mady Salvani, we all felt like we had important roles, and more importantly were part of a family,” said Terry.
 
“There’s a reason “Double” is being inducted into the CoSIDA Hall of Fame this year. Bob was a star, and West Point was an inspiring place to come to work every day. There’s no way I would have been prepared for my current role at Bucknell without those six years at Army, and that first year was such an eye-opener,” Terry noted.
 
In 2001, I transitioned from the SID role here at Bucknell to more of an athletics fundraising position, and took the opportunity to lure JT back to Lewisburg and his alma mater as our director of athletic communications. Now 19 years later, Jon continues to flourish in the role as he supports our 27 sports programs and more than 750 student-athletes.
 
JT is quick to recognize that there have many people during his career that have influenced him in so many ways, starting with the coaches he worked alongside as a young pup in the profession.
 
“The first of those relationships began during my senior year at Bucknell when as the co-sports editor of the school paper I assigned myself to the baseball beat since I had friends on the team,” said Terry. “That’s when I really got to know Gene Depew (Bucknell’s baseball coach). I had a standing meeting with Gene in his office every week, where we would just sit and talk, and only sometimes was it about baseball. It was the beginning of a friendship that rekindled later when I returned to Bucknell in 2001. 
 
“It was invaluable getting to know and learn from the “legendary” coaches like Gene Depew, Terrie Grieb, Art Gulden, Sid Jamieson, Charlie Woollum, Tommy Thompson, and Craig Reynolds at Bucknell, and coaches like Jack Emmer, Rob Riley, Gene Ventriglia and Jerry Quiller at Army.”
 
JT also credits the many mentors and colleagues he has had over the course of his career as folks whom have helped him grow in so many ways.
 
“In addition to Bo Smolka and Bob Beretta, Mike Albright and Mady Salvani at Army were also amazing mentors and great friends. One thing that Bo, Bob and Mike all shared was a love and a talent for writing. I feel like I’m a decent writer, and one of the unfortunate things about the digital, real-time nature of the profession today is that it has taken away some of those longer-form storytelling opportunities. Those three guys were masters at it, and it was a big goal of mine to bring some of that back this year at Bucknell with a weekly student-athlete profile series.”
 
JT also is quick to note another mentor at Bucknell.
 
“I have to mention Brad Tufts, the Hall-of-Famer who had many roles at Bucknell, but I think he would tell you he is an SID at heart. Brad was an administrator when I first broke in as an intern at Bucknell, but I learned so much from Brad, particularly about attention for detail. I will never forget him coming down to the office as the conference championship swimming results would be spitting out of the dot-matrix fax machine. He would be peeking in and reading them line-by-line even as the page was still printing. He knew everyone’s PR off the top of his head. SIDs have to be the historians for the department, and almost all of my knowledge about Bucknell history comes from Brad. We still trade emails regularly, and I cherish every one of them, even the ones that ask me if I know when the last time two guys named Jones had interceptions in the same football game.”
 
There have been a long line of talented assistants that have worked under JT during his time at Bucknell, and each has influenced him and helped him to become a better mentor himself.
 
“Todd Merriett was with me for 12 of those years, and folks like Kelli Sheesley, Jillian Jakuba, Becky Hart, Matt Torres and Matt Jackson were all great to work with and brought great ideas. Doug Birdsong has been a great friend for a long time, and my current team of Jen Dobias, Cole Cloonan and Ben Blumenthal are all young up-and-comers in the profession. They are great partners, and much better at social media than me!” claims Terry.
 
To work in one place for nearly two decades has certainly become more of a challenge these days. But JT says Bucknell has been special for many reasons, but maybe none more than the people who are there that support each other each and every day.
 
He notes, “I couldn’t ask for a better situation than the one at Bucknell, and it starts with our administrative team. Todd Newcomb has been a wonderful mentor, having been in the business himself for many years at Bucknell and the Patriot League office. Todd is a great resource, but I also very much appreciate the way he stepped aside into his new fundraising role at Bucknell and gave me the space to work without being micromanaged. Besides being my alma mater and a place I had already grown to love, one of the biggest factors in coming back to Bucknell 2001 was the chance to work with Todd and deputy AD Tim Pavlechko. Three Bucknell grads with kids the same age who all grew up together -- it’s part of that family atmosphere here that is so special.”
 
Everyone who works in our profession knows its demands, and there may not be a more important part of ones team than their own family. JT has also hit a home run there, and gets tremendous support from his wife Carmen, son Dustin, and daughter Emma.
 
“Carmen is an athletic trainer and completely gets the college athletics lifestyle,” says Terry. “My two kids got to grow up around a college campus, and they come to many games, home and away. The Bucknell basketball team has afforded us the opportunity to travel as a family to NCAA Tournaments, summer European trips, and holiday tournaments to places like Honolulu and Orlando. Seeing their faces in the stands (or getting texts yelling at the refs while they watch from back home) make all of the long hours more bearable.”