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2024 Special Awards Announcements
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CSC Hall of Fame
The Hall of Fame class, which will be honored at the 2024 College Sports Communicators #CSCUnite24 annual convention in June at the Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas, is comprised of a former Board of Directors member (Amy Yakola, ACC); current CSC staff member (Will Roleson) and long-time Division III member and leader Lisa Champagne (NESCAC). Three others from NCAA Division I also will be honored: current member John Bianco (Texas) and retired athletic communications leader Tim Tolokan (Connecticut), with a posthumous honor to the late publicist Beano Cook (Pittsburgh, ABC Sports, ESPN).
2024 Special Awards Announcements:
by Barb Kowal, CSC Director of Operations and Professional Development
The College Sports Communicators (CSC) will honor nearly 60 members, distinguished external colleagues, media members and collegiate administrators with its 2024 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 January 16-19, are presented for outstanding contributions to the organization and to CSC's mission. Honors will be presented at CSC's 67th annual convention,
#CSCUnite24, from June 9-12 at the Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas. The convention is held in conjunction with
NACDA and Affiliates Convention Week.
The 2024 Hall of Fame class highlights the annual CSC 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 2024 CSC honorees are the six new Hall of Fame inductees:
- John Bianco – University of Texas, Senior Associate Athletics Director, Sports Communications and Media Relations
- Lisa Champagne – New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) Assistant Director for Media Relations
- Beano Cook – former University of Pittsburgh Sports Information Director, ABC Sports publicist and commentator, ESPN commentator (posthumous)
- Will Roleson – College Sports Communicators, Associate Executive Director
- Tim Tolokan – former University of Connecticut Associate Director of Athletics-Communications and Associate AD-Licensing and Traditions (retired)
- Amy Yakola – Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Deputy Commissioner/Chief of External Strategy / past CSC Board of Directors member
The six members of the Hall of Fame class will be inducted into the Hall on Monday, June 10, in ceremonies during a special CSC Celebrations Award night at the Mandalay Bay convention center.
"On behalf of the CSC Board of Directors, we offer our sincerest congratulations to all our 2024 Special Award winners. They are so deserving of the recognition. You will become more familiar with their accomplishments when their stories are told both on our website and social channels and in person at CSCUnite24 in Las Vegas in June," stated College Sports Communicators President
John Paquette, BIG EAST Conference Senior Associate Commissioner/Sports Media Relations.
Cook and Tolokan 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.
"The annual CSC Special Awards proudly honor the leaders and talented sports communicators in our organization and others outside our organization who make meaningful contributions to college sports," said CSC Executive Director
Erik Christianson. "We congratulate all of our award recipients and are inspired by their legacy of leadership and innovation as they share a common passion and dedication both to the sports communications profession and college athletics."
Following this week's announcements of all awards, CSC will highlight recipients throughout the spring with special individualized content and social media recognitions and honor them in person during the June CSC UNITE24 convention in Las Vegas, Christianson said.
Additionally, each of these six 2024 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.
The College Sports Communicators Academic All-America Hall of Fame® Class and the 2024 Dick Enberg Award winner will be announced at a later date.
A closer look at the College Sports Communicators Hall of Fame Class of 2024.
Established in 1969, CSC inducted 39 individuals in its inaugural class. A total of 248 members have been inducted to date. See CSC Hall of Fame all-time inductees.
John Bianco – University of Texas
Senior Associate Athletics Director, Sports Communications and Media Relations
John Bianco is in his 34th year in college athletic communications. His tenure in sports media relations is the second longest of anyone in that role historically at the University of Texas.
He becomes the sixth University of Texas athletic communicator to be inducted into the CSC (CoSIDA) Hall of Fame, following Wilbur Evans (1969), Jones Ramsey (1976), Bill Little (1992), Bill Sansing (2009), Barb Kowal (2010) and Chris Plonsky (2021).
His career at UT began in 1992 as assistant SID handling men's track & field and swimming and diving and serving as media coordinator for the Texas Relays, and by the mid-1990s, he assumed a significant role with Longhorn football and department coordination.
Promoted to men's athletics media relations director in 1998, he oversaw all men's sports. Four years later, he was promoted to assistant athletics director during a time when UT had an unprecedented national run, winning national titles in football (2005) and baseball (2002, 2005) while advancing to the Final Four in men's basketball (2003). In 2011, his responsibilities expanded as UT, in partnership with ESPN, launched the Longhorn Network. A year later, he was promoted to associate AD.
During his time heading up his department, Bianco's staff has promoted numerous All-Americans, national award winners and championship teams. Personally, he managed all publicity for Heisman Trophy winner and College Football Hall of Famer Ricky Williams, Heisman Trophy runner-ups/National Players of the Year Vince Young and Colt McCoy, and numerous others receiving national football awards.
In 2016, Bianco was inducted into the Longhorn Hall of Honor and also received a CSC 25-Year Award.
A native of upstate New York, Bianco lettered in track and field and graduated from Baldwin-Wallace University (Berea, Ohio) in 1988. He came to Texas after two years at the University of Cincinnati and a year at Fresno State and the University of Arkansas.
Lisa Champagne – NESCAC
Assistant Director for Media Relations
A long-time CSC member from the Northeast,
Lisa Champagne has served as NESCAC Assistant Director for Media Relations since the 2016-17 academic year. She oversees the conference's website, social media platforms, awards system and assists with conference championships. The NESCAC is a group of 11 highly selective liberal arts colleges and universities in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New York and Vermont.
Prior to that, Champagne spent 17 years in the athletic communications department at the University of Vermont. She joined the staff as the assistant director of athletic communications in 1998 and was promoted to director of athletic communications in May 2005. She then was named director of social media and website development in September 2015 while overseeing several sports.
Champagne has vast experience at international sports events. She served as a media relations staff member at Soldier Hollow for the Nordic, biathlon and Nordic-combined events at the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, Utah. Champagne worked the 1999 and 2003 Women's World Cup, the Special Olympics World Games in 1995, the 2012 Ice Hockey Women's World Championships and was a media relations volunteer at the 2004 USGA Women's Open.
Among her numerous honors, Champagne earned a 2023 CSC 25-Year Award at last year's convention. She received the prestigious Irving T. Marsh Award (university division from EAST-COMM (formerly ECAC-SIDA) in 2013. The award, named after Irving T. Marsh, the ECAC Service Bureau founder and director, is given annually to a university and college division sports information director who has exhibited excellence in the field of sports communications. Champagne was the seventh woman to receive the honor since its inception in 1966.
Prior to her time at Vermont, Champagne served as director of sports information at Saint Michael's College (Vermont) for two years and was a two-year member of the Quinnipiac University sports information office, serving as assistant director for 16 months before being appointed interim SID. Champagne was a student assistant in the sports information office at her alma mater, Southern New Hampshire University, for three years.
Beano Cook – University of Pittsburgh/ABC Sports/ESPN (posthumous)
Pittsburgh Sports Information Director / ABC Publicist and commentator / ESPN commentator
Carroll Hoff "Beano" Cook spent 55 years in college sports, first as a sports information director and then as a noted and national figure as a media network sports publicist and commentator.
Beano was often referred to as the "Pope of College Football," a title that acknowledged his work as a college football analyst and historian.
After earning his degree from the University of Pittsburgh in 1954, Cook Beano" served a stint in the Army before he returned to Pitt to become its sports information director in 1956. During his time running the Pitt sports information office (1956-66), he became one of CoSIDA's leaders in the profession.
Cook left Pitt in 1966 to join ABC Sports as the network's NCAA press director, a position he held until 1974. Over the years, he held a number of different jobs in sports, including being a sports writer for the
St. Petersburg Times, vice president of the Pittsburgh Civic Arena, public relations director for the Miami Dolphins and the Mutual Radio Network, and publicist for CBS Sports before becoming an on-air commentator for ABC Sports from 1982-85. In 1986, he moved to ESPN, where he became a household name and continued to contribute to the network for many years afterward on ESPN Radio and ESPN News and the network's website. He maintained a blog, beano-cook.com, where he wrote about a variety of subjects.
Cook passed away October 11, 2012 at the age of 81.
Will Roleson – College Sports Communicators
Associate Executive Director
Will Roleson has served the College Sports Communicators national association since 2012, joining as the director of internal operations. He was promoted to associate executive director in January 2017. Among his numerous roles, he serves as the financial and human resources coordinator for CSC and as manager of the annual CSC convention (CSC Unite).
His prior college athletic communications experience included a six-year tenure at the Horizon League where he was associate commissioner for communications and multimedia in his final years. Roleson started the first conference-wide video-streaming platform in 2005 (the Horizon League Network) while overseeing the communications team, serving as liaison to the League's media partners and coordinating scheduling for men's and women's basketball. He was the local media coordinator for the NCAA Women's Final Four in 2005 and the Men's Final Four in 2006 and 2010.
Roleson was an at-large representative on the CSC (CoSIDA) Board of Directors from 2006-09.
Prior to joining the Horizon League, he served in Kent State athletic media relations (1996-2004), was an assistant editor at Host Communications Publishing in Lexington, Ky., from 1994-96 and was sports information intern at the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 1993-94.
Tim Tolokan – University of Connecticut (retired)
Former Associate Director of Athletics-Communications and Associate AD-Licensing and Traditions
During his years the University of Connecticut (full-time from 1980-2009, part-time for nine years after),
Tim Tolokan was a maverick in athletic communications, a creative storyteller, and a mentor to hundreds of assistants and student-athletes – many who continue to work in college and professional athletics and at national media leaders. He was an early industry leader in licensing and marketing, beginning UConn's marketing and licensing processes in the mid-1980's.
Prior to coming to the UConn campus in 1980, Tolokan was a sports writer and editor at the
Norwich (Conn.) Bulletin. During his time working at Connecticut, Tolokan held the positions of associate director of sports information (1980-83), director of media relations (1983-86), associate director of athletics- communications (1986-2001), and associate director of athletics-licensing and traditions (2001-2008) before retiring from the full-time role in 2009. He also was curator of the Husky Heritage Sports Museum on campus. Post-retirement, he continued to serve UConn on a part-time basis as special assistant to the athletics director until 2018.
A frequent attendee at CSC (CoSIDA's) national conventions, Tolokan's career at Connecticut saw him working with national championship teams and Hall of Fame coaches, while helping UConn become a national brand.
A member of the NCAA Men's Basketball Coordination Committee from 1984 to 2001, Tolokan received the 2000 Katha Quinn Award from the USBWA and also received the 2000 UConn Outstanding Contribution Award (the athletic department's highest honor).
He also was one of three national representatives from college basketball on the "Content Advisory Committee" for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame (Springfield, Mass.) re-opening in 2002. For his contributions and commitment to college athletics, Tolokan received the 2023 Dean of Sports Award by the Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist (Connecticut).
Amy Yakola – Atlantic Coast Conference
Deputy Commissioner/Chief of External Strategy / past CSC Executive Board of Directors member
Amy Yakola joined the ACC in 1998 and has served many roles within the conference office, including public relations, communications and external affairs. In her current role as deputy commissioner/chief of external strategy, Yakola oversees the external affairs department of the conference office (communications, public relations and brand marketing). She also develops and oversees the public relations efforts for the Commissioner.
Yakola serves as the ACC chief spokesperson and oversees promotional efforts to prioritize the ACC and its nearly 10,000 student-athletes, 15 institutions, 28 sponsored sports, championships and events across the League. She also serves as the conference office liaison to the league's development directors.
Among her numerous national honors, she was recognized as
Sports Business Journal/Daily Forty Under 40 Recipient in 2016, which is the annual celebration of the country's best young talent in sports business.
Throughout her time at the ACC, Yakola has been involved in three league expansions, with conference expansion growing from nine to 15 members. She was part of the August 2019 launch of ACC Network, a 24/7 national network dedicated to ACC sports, as part of the league's partnership with ESPN.
Yakola serves as College Football Playoff national championship game press conference moderator and was formerly a member of the NCAA Women's Basketball Division I Media Coordination Committee. She also serves as a member of the Corrigan-Faircloth Chapter of the National Football Foundation and was the long-time Chair of the Chapter Council for the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame.
Yakola served a three-year term the CSC (CoSIDA) Board of Directors as a university division at-large representative from 2016-19. She has helped set the future of CSC, serving on the executive director search committee during that time. The current chair of the CSC Membership Recognition Committee, she is a frequent presenter and moderator on CSC webinars and in-person sessions at the convention. Yakola also serves as emcee of the annual CSC convention (CSCUNITE) special awards luncheon.
A 1998 graduate of Clemson University, Yakola earned a bachelor of science degree in mathematics teaching before beginning her tenure with the ACC.