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Past Lifetime Achievement Award Recipients
Bill Bennett – UCLA, Special Events/Projects Director (Retired)
CoSIDA Lifetime Achievement Award
by Tim Tessalone – University of Southern California, Consultant and Sports Information Director (retired)/CoSIDA Special Awards Committee
It figures that 2022 CoSIDA Lifetime Achievement Award recipient
Bill Bennett would have some pretty good sports information chops.
After all, he learned under legendary Nebraska Sports Information Director and CoSIDA Hall of Famer Don “Fox” Bryant and then, after running his own show as the head SID at several stops, he worked many years alongside fellow 2022 Lifetime Achievement Awardee recipient Marc Dellins at UCLA.
“Yes, I was very fortunate in my career to have worked with two of the all-time great SIDs in Don and Marc,” said Bennett. “Don was a great human being and a wonderful boss. To be as young as I was and work with a legend like him and learn everything about the job, I was very lucky.
“And working with Marc was a wonderful experience. One of John Wooden’s philosophies was that you work ‘with’ people, they don’t work ‘for’ you. That’s how Marc was. He let you do your job. That’s why I was at UCLA for so long.”
Bennett began his 43-year collegiate career as an assistant SID at his alma mater, Nebraska, from 1974 to 1981.
He spent the fall of his senior year as the sports editor of the
Daily Nebraskan and then was a student intern in the sports information office in the spring. Intending to be a sportswriter, he was well into his job search when Tom Simons, one of the full-time assistants in the Cornhusker SID office, took a PR job with the NFL’s St. Louis Cardinals. Bennett applied for the opening and Bryant hired his one-time intern.
“To this day, I still thank Tom,” laughed Bennett. “Had he not left and his position opened up, I don’t know where my career would have headed. That got me started in the sports information profession.”
After eight years, Bennett moved on from Nebraska to become the head sports information director at UNLV (1981-83), which included working with “Tark the Shark” (legendary men’s basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian). He then went to Nebraska Wesleyan (1983-84) before heading west again in 1984 to serve as an associate SID at UCLA.
One of Bennett’s UNLV interns was current South Carolina Executive Associate AD/Chief of Staff and chief communications officer Charles Bloom, who became a CoSIDA president and a Hall of Famer. When Bennett left UNLV, it took a giant like long-time CoSIDA member Joyce Aschenbrenner to replace him.
Bennett spent 22 years as the SID liaison to UCLA’s historic men’s basketball team, including the 1995 NCAA champions. He also served as the media relations director for the Bruins’ men’s and women’s track and field teams, which won five NCAA indoor and outdoor crowns during his time.
At UCLA, he had the privilege to work closely with the late Wooden, the iconic Hall of Fame basketball coach.
“When I came to UCLA, I knew who Coach Wooden was, but I had never met him,” said Bennett. “Due to the job I had with the basketball team, media would come to me to get to him, so I got to know Coach Wooden and we became great friends. I learned so much from him, with his Pyramid of Success, his philosophies and ideas.”
Wooden and Bennett even shared the same birthday - October 14.
“I’d always call him first thing that morning and wish him a happy birthday,” said Bennett. “One year, I went to call him and I saw a voice message. It was Coach singing ‘Happy Birthday’ to me. For years, I started each day playing that message.”
Bennett also fondly remembers a time when the athletic embodiments of his Nebraska and UCLA programs—longtime friends Wooden and Cornhusker football coach Tom Osborne, by then both retired from coaching—got together for lunch in Southern California. They invited Bennett to join them.
“Coach Osborne came to town to speak to a Nebraska booster group and I picked him up at the airport,” said Bennett. “We drove to Coach Wooden’s condo, had lunch and hung out. It was so cool to sit there and listen to the two of them talk and tell stories.”
After leaving the SID field in 2006, Bennett remained at UCLA to help the athletic department with special projects and fundraising events (including for the Wooden Fund) before retiring from the university in 2017 after 33 years.
Among his projects during that time were hosting men’s basketball reunions, the True Blue Celebration auction and Dribble for the Cure events. Bennett also co-authored with broadcaster Chris Roberts the book, “UCLA Football Vault: The History of the Bruins.”
“The highlights of my career were working with all the student-athletes,” said Bennett. “They come in as freshmen, you watch them grow and mature, you become friends, including some who become lifelong friends.”
These days, Bennett and his wife Joanne (who also worked in the UCLA athletic department before retiring) live a quieter life in Venice (in California, not Italy!), walking their dog along the canals, exercising (yoga for Joanne, swimming for Bill) and traveling a bit.
That gives Bennett plenty of time to look back on a career deserving of a Lifetime Achievement Award, all thanks to an opportune job opening many years ago.
Gallery: (3-22-2022) Bill Bennett - 2022 Lifetime Achievement