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Russ Blunck – Hawaii Hilo (Retired)

CoSIDA Lifetime Achievement Award

by Blake Timm – Great Northwest Athletic Conference, Assistant Commissioner For Communications / CoSIDA Special Awards Committee

Russ Blunck readily admits that retirement has been a bigger adjustment than he expected it to be.
 
After years of meeting deadlines, preparing and staffing games and needing to be organized to be at your best, Blunck has found himself with a bit too much time on his hands.
 
It didn’t help that upon retiring from the University of Hawaii Hilo in September 2021, Blunck moved to Warrenton, Oregon where his wife Shelly had moved in 2020 after losing her job at Hawaii Hilo due to COVID. After traveling back and forth between Oregon and Hawaii for a year, Blunck settled into life on the Oregon coast just as the storm season was setting in.
 

 
“I have plenty of hobbies, like tennis, hiking and playing with my grandbabies, but I made the mistake of retiring to the Oregon coast in November!” Blunck said. “It was terrible weather and most of the things I like to do were negated by the rain.”
 
So how did Blunck fill the time? By climbing right back in the saddle, writing remotely for a handful of schools and working as the lead broadcaster for the PacWest Basketball Championships in March.
 
It is not the first time that Blunck, who capped a 29-year career in sports information with his retirement from Hilo last year, found himself drawn back to the profession after trying to step away.
 
He spent nearly 20 years in athletic communications, beginning as a student SID at Pacific University to work with Athletes in Action, the Portland Breakers of the defunct USFL and stops at Point Loma and Western Oregon. Blunck was then approached by Western Oregon’s president about stepping into an administrative position with the goal of eventually replacing WOU’s longtime athletic director, Jon Carey (when he decided to retire).
 
Blunck wasn’t so sure until a lunch date with Azusa Pacific’s Gary Pine, who was transitioning from his sports information role into that of an athletic director.
 
“Gary said, ‘Listen. You want to be an AD and here’s why.’ His arguments made sense and I first began to consider advancing out of my comfort zone,” Blunck recalled. “I did a myriad of things as an assistant AD, including overseeing sports information, but never ever worked as many hours as I did as a SID.”
 
Blunck made the jump, serving two years as an assistant athletic director at Western Oregon and four years at Point Loma before stepping away from athletics to work for himself.
 
Three years later, however, Blunck was drawn back in as the lure of returning to his alma mater, Pacific University, proved too attractive. His second stint at Pacific begin in 2015 where he succeeded CoSIDA Hall of Famer Blake Timm, who moved on to the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.
 
Within a year, Blunck was lured away from Pacific but not out of the business as he took over as the sports information director at Hawaii Hilo.
 
When he returned to being a full-time SID after a decade away, Blunck admits that the demands and technology had changed so much that it took time to catch up. The slower pace of the Big Island, with its palm trees, black sand beaches and warm temperatures went a long way to make the learning curve feel a bit flatter.
 
“My last job at Hawaii Hilo was more like my student SID job at Pacific than any other,” Blunck said. “In both cases, the expectations were achievable and Hilo had so many old-school aspects to it. I got to work with media again. I did a lot of writing, returned to broadcasting and enjoyed the small community and campus.
 
“Obviously so much had changed between 1981 and 2001 and again between 2001 and 2015, but Hilo helped rejuvenate my love for the work.”
 
For much of his career, Blunck’s college athletics work was a family affair. During his tenure at Western Oregon, Blunck handled the play-by-play duties for the Wolves football and basketball teams with his father providing the color commentary. On home football weekends, his mom would sell game programs alongside his two children.
 
“To this day, the highlight of my work in college athletics was that special time with my dad and family,” Blunck said.
 
During his time at Hilo, Blunck’s wife Shelly was a constant presence on the sidelines. She provided much of the action photography that flashed across the Vulcans’ website and social media in his five years there.
 
“With social media exploding, I took advantage of Shelly’s interest of all things Instagram and turned that over to her along with my photography needs,” Blunck said.
 
The family ties are something that Blunck hopes the younger generation in athletic communications will take to heart.
 
“Embrace the experience (of working in college athletics) but don’t give up your home life,” Blunck said. “I sacrificed too much family time over the years. It’s a tricky balance to juggle both and do both successfully.”
 
Blunck’s other piece of advice: never stop learning, both from the generation before or the one coming up.
 
Blunck was blessed to have great mentors ahead of him in CoSIDA Hall of Fame Paul Madison at Western Washington and longtime Central Washington and GNAC SID Bob Guptill. And, he learned as much from such contemporaries as Pine, Nick Dawson (Azusa Pacific/Pacific Lutheran), Rich Rosenthal (Southern Oregon), Ted Gosen (San Diego) and Kelly Bird (Linfield).
 
And then he learned from those that he taught the ropes of the business to.
 
“Ironically, I often asked questions of two guys that worked for me, Danny Barnts and Jonathan Gordon. Those two are the source of great pride and have always been a resource to me. Both went on to very successful sports information careers and more importantly are tremendous family men.”
 
So while his full-time career is in the rear-view mirror, don’t be surprised to see Russ Blunck show up on the sidelines, in a byline or in your ears or painting a play-by-play picture on a webcast near you. It is hard to keep an old SID down for long.