College Sports Information Directors of America

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Rick Bender – Dartmouth College, Senior Associate Athletics Director for Varsity Athletics Communications

CSC 25-Year Award

by Jeff Hodges – North Alabama, Senior Associate Athletic Director-Communications // CSC Special Awards Committee chair

Prior to the 2022-23 academic year, Rick Bender started his 15th year at Dartmouth College with a promotion to senior associate AD for varsity athletic communications.

Bender is the primary contact for the Big Green’s football, baseball, women’s golf and skiing teams while overseeing the communications efforts for the Big Green’s 35 Division I varsity sports. 

This is Bender’s 26th year working in college sports communications/media relations at the Division I level. He previously served at his alma mater, Davidson College. He was hired as an assistant SID in the fall of 1996 and served in that role for three years before being promoted to the head SID position.

A former standout collegiate and pro baseball player, Bender was a three-time all-conference shortstop for the Wildcats’ baseball team and played four summers of independent professional baseball in the Frontier and Texas-Louisiana leagues. Bender also served as an assistant coach at Davidson for three seasons before moving into the media relations department.
 

As you started your athletic communications career, what was the transition like from a professional baseball player and collegiate baseball coach into the world of athletic media relations?
RB: I began helping out in sports information as a statistician while a student at Davidson, serving on the stat crews at football and basketball games (when in-game stats were still compiled by hand). My role as a statistician at those games continued after graduating, but in my third year as an assistant coach, I was asked to write the bios on the baseball players since I had the most knowledge about them.

That led to the department offering me a position as an assistant SID the following fall, but I would have to end my playing career after that summer. I knew my time as a professional athlete was not going to go further than the independent leagues at that point, so the timing was right for the move. Everything about the job, outside of stats, I learned on the job starting in the fall of 1996. I did play in an adult baseball league for a couple of summers to get my baseball fix in, but overall it was a smooth transition.

How do you see the connection with your degree in mathematics and this profession, and in particular your love for scoring baseball games?
RB: I was always a numbers person. I discovered my interest in mathematics was more about the actual numbers rather than some of the theoretical subjects I took in college, and sports statistics — baseball most notably — are something I gravitated toward naturally. I played Strat-O-Matic baseball (as well as football and basketball a little bit) growing up, and my father, one of his friends that lived across the country and I replayed the entire 1984 season for every team, compiling each team’s statistics from every game by hand. I absolutely loved doing that!

I still enjoy compiling various teams’ statistics now (which is obviously much easier to do with the software available), creating an intricate historical record to be able to know the last time a player hit three homers in a game, struck out 15 batters, caught three touchdown passes, scored 30 points or a hat trick, whatever. The historical nature of the statistics and how current players compare to those from 50 years ago fascinates me. And by including information about players from the past, it keeps those alums connected to the program, shows that they have not been forgotten about, that what they accomplished lives on.

You have been at Dartmouth for the last 15 years. What has kept you there?
RB: Certainly, a very important part of being here for 15 years is the people I work with, those I report to and those that report to me. I have been blessed with an excellent staff in my office, and that makes all the difference in the world. I grew up in the Chicago area, but I found that I prefer a more laid-back lifestyle and a quieter existence than one usually finds in an urban area, similar to what I had at Davidson before coming here.

What are some of the highlights of your time at Dartmouth?
RB: As for highlights: the baseball team advancing to an NCAA Regional in each of my first two years was a big one, with two future big leaguers on those rosters; football returning to the top of the Ivy standings perennially after losing the first 15 games after I arrived; running the press box at Yankee Stadium for the Dartmouth football game against Princeton in 2019; and having numerous Olympians coming through here.

Also, winning national titles in sailing and women’s rugby … successfully nominating a Theodore Roosevelt Award winner … making sure the 14 deserving student-athletes (thus far) received recognition as CSC Academic All-Americans … writing a “Son of Sidd Finch” story as an homage to the original [the person who posed as Sidd Finch was actually my woodworking teacher in junior high, and his son played football at Dartmouth a few years ago — https://spark.adobe.com/page/XsdsojsQndXOY/] … traveling with men’s basketball back to my alma mater for a game in 2018 … I’m sure I’m forgetting a few other things as well.

How have you successfully navigated the changes that have happened in our profession over the last 25 years?
RB: When I started in the fall of 1996, statistical software was in its infancy as well as athletic department websites, so I was pretty fortunate in that regard. I was able to learn how to code on my own — even had an HTML for Dummies book in the office — and be a big part of shaping the look of the Davidson athletics website in those early years.

Then came video streaming in the early to mid-2000s, and we embraced it early on at Davidson, streaming anything we could with one camera and a laptop at a size of 320x240 pixels. Basketball, wrestling and volleyball were the sports of choice since they were all played in the same arena.

After I arrived at Dartmouth, HD streaming and multi-camera events took off — we were actually the first FCS school to stream football games in HD. But as that became a bigger part of the operation, we had to create a video position (and now two) just to manage all the streaming needs (and we’re still understaffed in that area with all the video demands these days). And over the last dozen years or so, social media has become such a big part of what we do, and it can be a monster that needs to be fed all the time.

We finally created a position in our department to oversee our social media efforts, but for the previous decade, my staff did what we could, primarily on Twitter, to spread the word of Dartmouth Athletics. It isn’t easy keeping up with the newest trends in this profession, and social media is best handled largely by the younger generation for they grew up with it, they have a better feel for it. Giving them autonomy of it while providing some guidance has worked best in our department.
 
Who are the people that have been influential in helping you reach 25 years in the profession?
RB: There are so many people that have been helpful along the way, but I would not be this far along without the support of my wife, Mitze. It is not easy to balance the work with home life, and I was not very good at it early in my career; she has spent too many weekends without me at home. And although I feel like I’m better at it now, it is always a challenge to make sure that I make time for my family because there is always something that can be done for the job. Figuring out which things have to get done and which things can be done another day makes a big difference in finding that good work-life balance we all strive to achieve.

And others who have mentored or influenced you? 
RB: Those within the profession that have been influential are my first boss, the late Emil Parker (a CSC Hall of Famer) who first gave me the opportunity in this business; John Maxwell, who helped cultivate some graphic design skills and demonstrated that letting your personality come through in your work made the job more fun; former Davidson AD Jim Murphy for putting his trust in me to lead the office when I was just 28; and the great sports information directors in the Southern Conference as I was learning the ropes — Hunter Reid (Furman), Tom McClellan (formerly at East Carolina, Georgia Southern, Stetson), Art Chase (Duke) and Steve Shutt (Wake Forest), to name a few.

I am grateful to former Dartmouth AD Josie Harper who hired me here 15 years ago; (and to) a great many coaches that I worked with, particularly Dick Cooke and Bob McKillop at Davidson, and Bob Whalen and Buddy Teevens at Dartmouth.

As noted before, I’ve had so many wonderful people work for me at both Davidson and Dartmouth that elevated and enhanced the work coming out of our office — Derek Smith, Mike Clark, Erica Madden, Joey Beeler, Lauren Biggers, Dara Ely, Matt Faulkner, Pat Salvas, Charlotte Brackett, Cindi Mansell and many more … without them, I would never have made it 25 years.