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2023 Special Awards Announcements
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CSC Hall of Fame
The Hall of Fame class, which will be honored at the 2023 College Sports Communicators CSCUNITE23 annual convention in June at the Orlando World Center Marriott, is comprised of a former CSC (CoSIDA) president (Judy Willson, Geneva College); former Board of Directors member (Gregory Goings, Bowie State); former D2SIDA leader (Bill Powers, Hawai’i Pacific); and three others from NCAA Division I (Marc Dellins, UCLA; Phil Haddy, Iowa; and Oliver Pierce, Gonzaga). All six inductees are retired from the athletic communications profession.
by Barb Kowal, CSC Director of Professional Development and External Affairs
The College Sports Communicators (CSC) will honor nearly 60 members, distinguished external colleagues, media members and collegiate administrators with its 2023 Special Awards, the association’s annual awards of distinction.
CSC is composed of intercollegiate athletic communications and creative professionals from colleges, universities and athletic conferences at all divisions of competition in the United States and Canada.
The Special Awards, to be announced throughout the week of Feb. 16-22, are presented for outstanding contributions to the organization and to CSC’s mission. Honors will be presented at CSC’s 66th annual convention, CSCUNITE23, from June 11-14 at the Orlando World Center Marriott. The CSC's CSCUNITE23 convention is held in conjunction with NACDA and Affiliates Convention Week.
The 2023 Hall of Fame class highlights the Special Awards. In addition to the Hall of Fame, other Special Awards recognize emerging leaders, community service, lifetime achievement, organization trailblazer, outstanding media contribution, and 25-Year service honors.
Highlighting the 2023 CSC honorees are the six new Hall of Fame inductees:
- Marc Dellins – UCLA, Director of Executive Relations and Senior Associate Athletics Director - Sports Information (retired)
- Gregory Goings – Bowie State University, Assistant Athletic Director for Media Relations (retired)
- Phil Haddy – University of Iowa, Sports Information Director (retired)
- Oliver Pierce – Gonzaga University, Assistant Athletics Director/Sports Information Director (retired)
- Bill Powers – Hawai'i Pacific University, Assistant Athletics Director of Strategic Communication (retired)
- Judy Willson – CSC past president / Geneva College, Director of Graduate and Online Admissions / Previously held athletic communications positions at numerous colleges and universities
These six members of the Hall of Fame class will be inducted into the Hall on Monday, June 12, in ceremonies during a special CSC Celebrations Award night at the Orlando World Center Marriott.
“The week we announce our Special Awards recipients is one of the proudest and most exciting weeks we have annually in our association, as we recognize our award winners for their impact on our college athletics communications industry,” stated College Sports Communicators President Jessica Poole, Chicago State deputy athletic director/chief operating officer. “We are excited for the opportunity to honor these worthy individuals at our CSCUNITE23 convention and celebrate their many accomplishments. We thank our CSC Hall of Fame recipients Marc, Bill, Judy, Greg, Phil and Oliver for being champions in our profession.”
This year, Dellins and Haddy are the two former SIDS selected as part of the Veteran's Committee nominations. Veterans Committee Hall of Fame inductees represent former sports information professionals of distinction from the past whose professional and personal deeds and accomplishments helped make possible the stature of the athletics communications profession today.
"Congratulations to an outstanding class of CSC award winners who share a common passion and dedication to the sports communications profession and college athletics," said CSC Executive Director Erik Christianson. "We salute our six 2023 CSC Hall of Fame inductees for reaching the ultimate achievement in our profession. We also congratulate our award winners from outside our organization, who will be recognized during our week-long Special Awards announcements. They are a distinguished group, and we honor them for their contributions to intercollegiate athletics and commitment to the values and mission of College Sports Communicators and college athletics overall.”
Each of these six 2023 CoSIDA Hall of Fame inductees will join their predecessors on the CSC Hall of Fame plaques that are on permanent display at the NCAA Hall of Champions in Indianapolis.
Following the Special Awards announcement week (Feb. 16-22), feature stories on all Special Awards recipients will be posted on collegesportscommunicators.com and on CSC social channels from late February through May.
The 2023 College Sports Communicators Academic All-America Hall of Fame® Class and the 2023 Dick Enberg Award winner will be announced at a later date.
A closer look at the College Sports Communicators Hall of Fame Class of 2023.
Established in 1969, CSC inducted 39 individuals in its inaugural class. A total of 242 members have been inducted to date. See CSC Hall of Fame all-time inductees.
Marc Dellins – UCLA (retired)
Director of Executive Relations and Senior Associate Athletics Director - Sports Information
Marc Dellins spent more than 50 award-winning years in the athletic communications office at his alma mater, UCLA, from the time he was hired as assistant sports information director in 1976 through serving as a part-time employee from 2013-20. During his illustrious tenure, he publicized nearly 100 NCAA team champions and hundreds of nationally and internationally-recognized UCLA athletic luminaries such as John Wooden, Terry Donahue, Ann Meyers, Bill Walton and Troy Aikman, to name only a few. The Bruin men and women’s teams won a remarkable 91 NCAA team championships during his tenure.
Last year, he was honored at the CSC (then-CoSIDA) June convention with a Lifetime Achievement Award. This followed a 25-Year Award in 2013 from the organization. Dellins was a 2004 inductee into the Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. He also earned numerous CSC awards for his department's media guides and game programs.
The UCLA graduate interned in the sports information office, starting as a freshman in 1972 under CSC Hall of Famer Vic Kelley. Soon after, he began his illustrious professional career in 1976 as an assistant SID for the Bruins.
Serving as assistant SID from 1976-84, Dellins was promoted to Senior Associate Athletic Director–Sports Information in 1984 and remained in that role for 27 years (into 2011). He then spent two years as UCLA Athletics Director of Executive Relations before moving into a part-time role in 2013 for seven years. In that role, he helped the Bruins with football and basketball scheduling and TV contracts and served as a resource on UCLA’s athletic history.
Early in his career, Dellins also served as an assistant venue press chief at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
Gregory Goings – Bowie State University (retired)
Assistant Athletic Director for Media Relations
Working in athletic communications for three decades,
Gregory Goings led the athletic communications efforts at NCAA Division II Bowie State from 2003 until his retirement in May 2021. Prior to his Bowie State tenure, Goings began his illustrious career at his alma mater, Virginia State University, serving as sports information director from 1988-2000.
Goings served on the CSC Board of Directors as an at-large representative for a three-year term from 2011-14. Among his numerous national and regional leadership positions, he was president of the national Division II Sports Information Directors Association group (D2SIDA) from 2011-2014, becoming the first and only African American to hold this position.
While at VSU, Goings also served as president of the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) Sports Information Directors Association from 1993-1999.
The CIAA and the CIAA Sports Information Directors Association selected him as the "John Holley" Sports Information Director of the Year three times. He earned the honor in 1993-1994, 1995-1996 and again in 2008-2009.
Among his most recent honors, Goings was inducted into the CIAA John B. McLendon Hall of Fame in 2022.
Goings was a long-time member of the Black College Sports Information Directors Association (BCSIDA) and a former member of the Harlon Hill Division II Football Player of the Year Advisory Committee. In the summer of 1995, he was selected as a as press officer for the United States Olympic Festival in Denver, Colorado.
Additionally, Goings served as a high school and college basketball official for nearly 40 years.
Phil Haddy – University of Iowa (retired)
Sports Information Director
For 41 years, starting in 1971,
Phil Haddy worked for the University of Iowa athletic department, before retiring in the 2011-12 academic year. He became the third sports information director in school history in 1993; in 2010, he began a two-year phased retirement. At the time of his retirement, Haddy was the longest tenured sports information professional in Big Ten Conference history.
He joined the Iowa athletic staff as assistant sports information director in 1971 and became Iowa's third sports information director in 1993 when he replaced George Wine. He left the position on a full-time level in 2010 when he entered a phased, two-year retirement. Haddy turned the department over to Steve Roe officially in July 2011, and then served as a special assistant.
Iowa holds the distinction of being the organization with the most CSC Hall of Fame inductees, as Haddy becomes the fourth Hawkeye SID to be enshrined. He follows Eric Wilson (1969), Wine (1985) and Roe (2022).
Haddy received a CSC Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012. Haddy was named Wrestling Publicist of the Year in 1992 by the Wrestling Media of America and was recognized with the 2001 Elmer “Scoop”
Hudgins Lifetime SID Award from the All-America Football Foundation. His UI wrestling guides were judged “Best in Nation” three times, as picked by CSC (CoSIDA) and Amateur Wrestling News.
In September 2011, Haddy was inducted into Iowa’s Kinnick Stadium Media Wall of Fame.
Oliver Pierce – Gonzaga University (retired)
Assistant Athletics Director/Sports Information Director
Oliver Pierce retired in September 2014 after serving 33 years in the college athletic communications field. A CSC member all those years, Pierce spent 26 years as the assistant athletic director and sports information director at Gonzaga University.
Pierce joined the Bulldogs in 1989 and was responsible for the overall operations of the sports information office, overseeing a staff responsible for publicizing Gonzaga’s combined 31 NCAA post-season appearances involving the sports of men’s basketball, women’s basketball, volleyball, men’s soccer, women’s soccer, women’s golf, baseball and women’s rowing.
He began his sports communications passion during his undergraduate years at Washington State University when he worked in the Cougar sports information office. Following graduation from WSU, Pierce served as a sportswriter for the Tri-City Herald in Pasco, Washington and then returned to his alma mater as the assistant SID from 1977-85.
In 2011, he was awarded the U.S. Basketball Writers Association's Katha Quinn Award for outstanding service to the media and to the game of college basketball. Pierce received a CSC Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015.
Pierce directed the media campaign that led to Gonzaga’s Adam Morrison sharing the 2006 USBWA Oscar Robertson Trophy as national player of the year. He was editor of the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association monthly newsletter from 1991-94, served on the West Coast Conference (WCC) awards committee, and is a former chair of the WCC Sports Information Directors.
Bill Powers – Hawai'i Pacific University (retired)
Assistant Athletics Director of Strategic Communication
In August 2022, after a distinguished 35-year career as an athletics communicator and administrator in the college division, Hawai’i Pacific University Assistant Athletics Director of Strategic Communication
Bill Powers announced his retirement. He served at Hawai’i Pacific, a NCAA Division II institution, for six years (2016-22).
While in athletic communications, Powers had an extensive length of time serving on national and regional committees and holding leadership positions. In the summer of 2022, Powers completed his term as the president of Division II Sports Information Directors of America (D2SIDA). In that role, he also served on the CSC Advisory Council. He also completed a four-year term on the NCAA Division II Men's and Women's Tennis Committee and served on the PacWest Scheduling Committee.
The third longest-tenured sports information director at HPU behind Neil Everett Moffit (nine years) and Trey Garman (seven years), Powers was honored with HPU's Ke Kaukahi Award in the Spring of 2018 for a recognition of excellence by the Staff Council.
Prior to serving six years at Hawai’i Pacific, his career path took him to New Mexico and Texas. He was New Mexico State University assistant athletic director/media relations (2014-16), Midwestern State assistant AD (2005-14), Texas A&M University-Commerce sports information director (1990-1995 and again from 1998-2005) and Stephen F. Austin director of sports information and marketing (1995-97).
Judy Willson – Geneva College, Director of Graduate and Online Admissions
2015-16 CSC President // Previously held athletic communications positions at numerous colleges and universities
A past president of CoSIDA,
Judy Willson served at a variety of schools and conferences as an athletic communications professional during her award-winning career. After concluding her career in college athletics in 2020, Willson is now in her second year at her alma mater, Geneva College, as Director of Graduate and Online Admissions and also volunteers in the athletics department and sports information office at the college.
She registered more than 30 years of experience in NCAA Division I and Division II collegiate athletics communications, working at both the conference level - Mountain West, Sun Belt, Lone Star and Mid-America Collegiate Athletics Association – and at the institution level: at LSU, University of New Mexico, University of Louisiana-Monroe, University of Denver, Eastern New Mexico University, Pittsburg State University and Northwest Missouri State University. She came to Geneva from LSU where she served as an associate athletics communication director for four years.
Willson served as president of CoSIDA during the 2015-16 academic year as the fourth female to hold that role. As a past president, she is on the CSC Nominating Committee and is in her second year serving on the CSC Diversity and Inclusion Committee. She also served a five-year term on the CSC (CoSIDA) Board of Directors as an at-large representative. In total, she logged 11 years of Board service to the organization.
In 2020, she earned the 2020 Arch Ward Award from CSC for outstanding contributions to the profession and earned the 2006 Kenworthy Community Service Award.
Willson served as the local host media coordinator for the 2012 NCAA Women's Final Four and previously worked on the NCAA Women's Final Four Media Coordination Committee for a decade.