College Sports Information Directors of America

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Herb Benenson – University of California, Associate Athletic Director, Communications (retired)

CSC Lifetime Achievement Award

by Tim Tessalone, CSC Special Awards Committee member/ USC Sports Information Director (retired)

Considering his fashion faux pas at his job interview, it is somewhat surprising that 2023 CSC Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Herb Benenson was given the opportunity to put together such a long and distinguished career at California.

Benenson, you see, wore a RED tie to his 1990 interview. Cal’s colors are blue and gold, while the hues of cross-Bay rival Stanford are cardinal (!) and white.

Fortunately, Cal’s athletic administration overlooked this and hired Benenson as its women’s sports information director. He spent the next 32 years capably spreading the word about the Golden Bears, including 16 years as the men’s basketball sports information director and nine seasons as SID of the championship women’s swimming program. Herb was named assistant athletic director and SID of the 30-sport department in 2007 (the men’s and women’s SID offices merged in the early 1990s), then became an associate AD in 2017 before retiring at the end of May 2022. 
 

During his tenure, Benenson worked with 90 head coaches and seven athletic directors, and Cal teams won 58 national championships. Among the Golden Bear stars with whom he worked were Olympic gold medal swimmer Missy Franklin, Super Bowl winning quarterback Aaron Rodgers and NBA champ Jason Kidd.

Upon his retirement, Cal athletic director Jim Knowlton said that Benenson was “a rock for our department, helping us smoothly navigate the good times and the challenging ones. We will miss his trusted leadership and loyalty, and the tremendous positive effect he has had on so many throughout his time at Cal.”

UC Berkeley chancellor Carol T. Christ joined Knowlton on the field during a recent football game to present Benenson with the prestigious Berkeley Citation, in recognition of his “distinguished achievement and notable service to the university.”

“Herb was always the calm center of any given storm, a mature voice of reason, and a stickler for getting the details right,” said Dan Mogulof, UC Berkeley assistant vice chancellor for executive communications. “Through thick and thin, he epitomized professionalism, decency, collegiality, honesty and acumen. Herb was always, every day, everything this university needed and could have hoped for from someone in his position.”

“I was incredibly fortunate to work at Cal,” said Benenson, who also chaired the Cal Athletic Hall of Fame selection committee, served as the department’s liaison with the Pac-12 Network and edited the Cal Sports Quarterly magazine. “I remember when I was showing someone around and a group of our swimmers walked by. I said, ‘Sixteen gold medals just walked past us.’ There are not many places where you can say that.

I was so fortunate to have experienced that level of excellence across the board. Not only in athletics, but Cal is the No. 1 public university in the country and I got to know many on the academic side. It is such a dynamic place. There were lots of wins and championships, but I remember the individuals more. And not just the stars, but those who maybe just had a moment. I enjoyed telling all their stories.”

Benenson not only was surrounded by great student-athletes and coaches during his career, but he was mentored by some iconic sports communicators.

The Dallas native was a 1985 journalism graduate from the University of Texas. He wrote for The Daily Texan but decided newspaper work wasn’t for him. So, he became a student assistant in the Texas women’s SID office under Chris Plonsky, now the Longhorns’ chief of staff and executive senior associate athletic director and a 2021 CSC Hall of Fame inductee.

He then was a graduate assistant in Tennessee’s women’s sports information department under Debby Jennings, another CSC Hall of Famer like Plonsky. 

Those formative years forged an invaluable foundation. Benenson helped the Longhorns host several high-profile NCAA events, including the women’s basketball Final Four, track and field championships and women’s volleyball regionals. While at Tennessee, legendary women’s basketball coach Pat Summitt won her first NCAA crown.

Benenson got his MBA from Tennessee and parlayed that into a marketing job at a high-end hotelier. But his foray out of collegiate sports was brief, as he realized he missed the energy of being on a campus. So, with recommendations from Plonsky and Jennings, Cal senior administrator Chris Dawson hired him at Cal … red tie notwithstanding.

Said Dawson: “Herb brought energy and enthusiasm about women’s sports…He was always somebody who didn’t want to be out front taking the credit. He wanted to make sure the work got done, and he made relationships with coaches and players behind the scenes.”

“I just thought Cal was going to be my ‘next’ job,” said Benenson, who received CSC/COSIDA’s 25-Year Award in 2016. “But 32 years later, I was still there. It didn’t seem that long; I remember so much of it like it was yesterday.

“You don’t think about your career too much when you are in the middle of it. But now that I have been able to reflect, what a special time it was. I worked at one of the top athletic departments and with some of the top collegiate athletes and coaches in the country, and we all worked so well together.

“I really enjoyed working with the Cal SID staff and watching many of our younger people—often in their first job in college athletics—grow and thrive and advance their careers.”

Benenson acknowledges the sports communications field now is “a different animal” from when he first started, but he and his co-workers learned to adjust so they could continue to promote their teams, student-athletes and coaches at a high level. However, the time when he could take a quick ski trip to nearby Lake Tahoe in the middle of a home basketball week is long gone.

“I wasn’t able to ski for the last 25 years,” he chuckled.

Now retired, he said he and wife Heidi spend their days “doing things I couldn’t do when I was working. I was always the ‘phantom husband’ when I worked. Now we do things as a couple. But I still consult a bit with Cal Athletics to keep the connection going.”

A serious cyclist, Benenson also now has time to get on his bike up to five days a week, taking off from his Walnut Creek home and pedaling sometimes 60 miles around the Bay Area. He rides with a group that includes fellow retiree Rich Feller, who was Cal’s longtime women’s volleyball coach.

“Cycling was always a stress release for me when I was working,” Benenson said. “On rides, I was able to free my mind and work through office issues.”

Now he can cycle stress-free, spend more time with Heidi and their child, Lake, and not worry about the color of his tie.