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2024 Special Awards Announcements
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Special Awards Program
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Mary Jo Haverbeck Trailblazer Award
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Bob Kenworthy Community Service Award
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Lester Jordan Award
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Achievement Award
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Jake Wade Award
On the third day of its 2024 Special Awards announcements, CSC recognizes the following six award winners: Barb Kowal (Mary Jo Haverbeck Trailblazer Award); Greg Pellegrino (Bob Kenworthy Community Service Award); Jeff Schwartz (Lester Jordan Award); Achievement Award recipients Patrick Rydeen and the late Heather Brown; and Bill Raftery (Jake Wade Award);
2024 Special Awards Announcements:
Please note: 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 (June 9-12).
by Blake Timm – Pacific University, Associate Director of Communications // CSC Special Awards Committee vice chair
Some of the best and the brightest that the athletic communications profession has to offer are among the latest set of College Sports Communicators special awards winners.
This year’s Jake Wade Award, honoring members of the media who have made outstanding contributions to intercollegiate athletics, will go to
Bill Raftery, one of the most recognizable voices in college basketball who has worked extensively with CBS Sports, FOX Sports and ESPN.
A contemporary and friend of the award’s namesake, CSC Director of Operations and Professional Development
Barb Kowal will receive the Mary Jo Haverbeck Trailblazer Award. The award is presented to an individual who has worked to increase diversity within the athletic communications profession.
The Bob Kenworthy Community Service Award will be presented to
Greg Pellegrino, sports information director at Penn State Abington. Recognizing civic and volunteer involvement both within and outside of the athletic communications profession, Pellegrino is being recognized for his work with the Bennett Strong Foundation.
Jeff Schwartz, the retired senior associate athletic director for athletic communications at North Dakota State University, will receive the Lester Jordan Award. Honoring exemplary service to the CSC Academic All-America Program, Schwartz continues to serve the program four years after his retirement from the profession.
The CSC Achievement Awards, honoring excellence among professionals who have been career-long assistants, are being awarded to the late
Heather Brown, former director of communications for the Ohio Valley Conference (University Division) and
Patrick Rydeen, associate director of communications at Concordia University, St. Paul (College Division).
All of the 2024 CSC special award winners will be honored 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.
A closer look at these six awards winners:
MARY JO HAVERBECK TRAILBLAZER AWARD
Barb Kowal – College Sports Communicators
Director of Operations and Professional Development
The longest-tenured member of the CSC staff and a pioneer for women in the profession for four decades,
Barb Kowal is the recipient of the 2024 Mary Jo Haverbeck Trailblazer Award.
Currently CSC’s director of operations and professional development, Kowal was the second full-time staff member hired by the organization in 2009. As the main coordinator of CSC’s professional and continuing education programs, Kowal has played a critical role in the growth of the program, its national reach, and its accessibility of those programs to all members.
This programming has annually caught the attention of NACDA leaders and convention attendees, whom Kowal has brought in to partner with CSC. In addition to her work with professional development, Kowal leads operations and coordination for the prestigious CSC Academic All-America Program related to the nominating and voting process. Kowal was also responsible for the creation of CSC’s ChangeMaker Award program.
A 2010 CSC Hall of Fame inductee, Kowal joined the CSC staff in 2009 after 29 years in athletic communications offices. From 1997 to 2008, Kowal served as the assistant athletics director for media relations at the University of Texas, overseeing all women’s sports athletics communications and serving as the main contact for Hall of Fame coach Jody Conradt’s basketball program. While leading the university’s women’s athletics communications department, Texas won more than 100 CSC Publication & Digital Design Contest awards, including 35 “Best In The Nation” citations.
From 1983 to 1997, Kowal served as the senior associate director of athletic communications at the University of Connecticut, where she led promotion efforts of the Huskies’ rise as a women’s basketball power under Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame head coach Geno Auriemma. The Huskies built the largest national and regional media following in women's sports during her tenure.
While at both Texas and UConn, Kowal helped promote 12 CSC Academic All-Americans, including three Division I-AAA Team Members of the Year, along with six finalists for the NCAA Woman of the Year award. At UConn, Kowal co-produced a video on UConn’s undefeated 1994-95 women’s basketball season that was nominated for a New England regional Emmy award.
Kowal began her athletic communications career as the first full-time sports information director at Manhattanville College (Purchase, NY). She also spent two years as a graduate assistant at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst under CSC Hall of Famer Howie Davis.
Kowal’s numerous honors in college athletics include the 2016 United States Basketball Writers Association’s Mary Jo Haverbeck Award (presented for outstanding service and commitment to the media). In 2021, Kowal became the first female athletic communicator named to the USBWA Board of Directors. From 2002 to 2005, Kowal served on the CSC Board of Directors. She also has been heavily involved in CSC Women (formerly named WoSIDA and FAME) to support, advocate for and mentor females in the profession and navigate the challenges facing women working in college athletics.
“Without question, there are very few SIDs in the country who have had a greater impact on the sport of women’s basketball than Barb Kowal,” Auriemma said. “Barb was instrumental in the growth of our program by providing the media here in Connecticut, and more importantly, nationally, with the information needed to make Connecticut women’s basketball a household name.”
Mary Jo Haverbeck Trailblazer Award
Voted upon by the Special Awards Committee, the Mary Jo Haverbeck Trailblazer Award is presented annually to an individual who is a pioneer in the field of athletic communications who has mentored and helped improve the level of diversity within College Sports Communicators.
BOB KENWORTHY COMMUNITY SERVICE AWARD
Greg Pellegrino – Penn State Abington
Sports Information Director
Greg Pellegrino and his wife, Mary, have harnessed the energy of health challenges experienced by their son, Bennett, to help others facing the same struggles.
For his work with the Bennett Strong Foundation, Pellegrino, the sports information director at Penn State Abington, is the recipient of the 2024 Bob Kenworthy Community Service Award.
In 2017, the Pellegrinos founded the Bennett Strong Foundation to provide support to families of medically complex children who are patients in the neonatal intensive care unit at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). The heart of that outreach is providing a “survival kit” to families, which includes a 5x7 journal and pen so that parents can keep important notes on treatment or simply journal their experiences.
The Pellegrinos were inspired to start Bennett Strong after their experiences at CHOP with Bennett. Born prematurely at 25 weeks, the struggles that Bennett endured from his premature birth required many surgeries and plenty of time at CHOP. At age 3, Bennett was diagnosed with hepatoblastoma, a rare form of liver cancer requiring surgery and chemotherapy.
It was after the cancer battle, which Bennett survived, that Greg and Mary founded Bennett Strong.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Pellegrinos partnered with Victory4Vincent and Brave Gowns for a Sponsor A Mask program, soliciting donations that, in turn, purchased protective face masks for CHOP healthcare workers.
The Bennett Strong Foundation hosts an annual gala to raise funds for the purchase and production of the survival kits. The 2022 gala raised over $10,000 and also was the starting point for the creation of a parent space within CHOP’s NICU unit. The 2023 gala was supported by nearly 50 different sponsors that contributed monetary contributions, in-kind contributions or provided silent auction items.
Pellegrino is in his 20th year in college athletic communications. He currently serves as the president of EAST-COMM (Eastern Athletic Communications Association).
Prior to arriving at Penn State Abington in 2022, he spent 12 years as the director of sports information at Holy Family University. Pellegrino was a member of the media relations team at the Northeast 10 Conference from 2006 to 2010 and began his career as a sport information assistant at Skidmore College from 2004 to 2006.
Pellegrino was the recipient of EAST-COMM’s Bob Kenworthy Award in 2021. He has been recognized by CSC’s Volunteer 15 program every year since 2020 for over 200 hours of community service.
Bob Kenworthy Community Service Award
Voted upon by the CSC Special Awards Committee, the Bob Kenworthy Community Service is presented annually to a CSC member for civic involvement, community service and accomplishments both within and outside the athletic communications profession.
LESTER JORDAN AWARD
Jeff Schwartz – North Dakota State University (retired)
A mainstay of the CSC Academic All-America® Core Program Committee, retired North Dakota State Senior Associate Director of Athletic Communications
Jeff Schwartz will receive the 2024 Lester Jordan Award.
Schwartz retired from North Dakota State in 2020 after 31 years chronicling the Bison, and has continued to serve student-athletes as the Academic All-America Program’s co-director of publicity, a role that he has filled since 2016. Schwartz has held positions within the core committee related to publicity of the teams since 2010.
Prior to the AAA publicity roles, Schwartz spent 10 years as a district coordinator for the program, serving as a University Division coordinator for nearly every sport and program conducted by the Academic All-America Committee.
Schwartz started at NDSU in 1989 as the women’s sports information director. Prior to his arrival in Fargo, Schwartz spent one year (1988-89) as the assistant sports editor for the Mount Vernon News in Mount Vernon, Ohio and seven years (1981-88) as the coordinator of information services and sports information director at his alma mater, Mount Vernon Nazarene University.
In addition to his work with the Academic All-America Committee, Schwartz promoted over 50 CSC Academic All-Americans for North Dakota State along with three Division II Honda Female Athlete of the Year Award winners and six American Football Coaches Association Good Works Team members.
Schwartz received a CSC Lifetime Achievement Award in 2020. He was the recipient of the inaugural Grant Burger Media Award from the American Volleyball Coaches Association in 1997 and was inducted into Mount Vernon Nazarene’s Cougar Wall of Fame in 2007. He won 44 CSC Publication Awards, including 11 “Best In The Nation” awards, and six Fred Stabley, Sr., Writing Contest awards.
Lester Jordan Award
Named after the program’s founder, the Lester Jordan Award is presented to an individual for exemplary service to the Academic All-America Program and the promotion of the ideals of being a student-athlete. Nominations are solicited by and voted upon by the Academic All-America Core Committee.
ACHIEVEMENT AWARD, UNIVERSITY DIVISION
Heather Brown – Ohio Valley Conference (posthumous)
Former Director of Communications
During her 20-year career,
Heather Brown never wanted to be in the limelight. She delighted in shining that light on the Ohio Valley Conference’s teams and student-athletes.
Brown, the former director of communications for the Ohio Valley Conference, will be honored posthumously with the CSC Achievement Award for the University Division. The conference’s longest-tenured full-time staff member, Brown passed away in October 2023 after a 16-month battle with breast cancer.
Brown spent almost her entire athletic communications career in the OVC office, starting as an intern in 2003 before being hired as assistant director for media relations. Promoted to director of media relations in 2006, she had her title changed to director of communications in 2016.
A versatile professional, Brown was the media coordinator for the OVC Softball Championships and the assistant media coordinator for the OVC’s Basketball and Baseball Championships, which included serving as the official photographer for the OVC baseball tourney. In 2013, Brown was instrumental in the planning and execution of the OVC’s Title IX Celebration Luncheon, which honored Title IX pioneers from each of the conference’s 12 member institutions.
A 2003 graduate of Bowling Green State University, Brown spent one year as a student assistant in the sports information office at her alma mater. She also served a three-month internship in the sports information office at The Ohio State University before joining the OVC staff.
Achievement Award
Voted upon by the CSC Special Awards Committee, the CSC Achievement Awards are presented annually to one University Division member and one College Division member who have made outstanding contributions to the field of athletic communications and provided exceptional service to their institution, conference or other intercollegiate athletics affiliated association. A nominee must have 10 or more years of experience in the athletic communications field and must not have served in the lead role overseeing an athletic communications office. This award is designed for an individual who has not been a recipient of any CSC major award in their careers (such as Warren Berg, Arch Ward or Hall of Fame).
ACHIEVEMENT AWARD, COLLEGE DIVISION
Patrick Rydeen – Concordia, St. Paul
Associate Director of Athletic Communications
A homegrown member of the Concordia-St. Paul athletic communications team,
Patrick Rydeen, the Golden Bears’ associate director of communications, is the recipient of the 2024 CSC Achievement Award for the College Division.
A baseball student-athlete at Concordia-St. Paul, Rydeen began as an undergraduate intern in the athletic communications office in 2012-13 before spending two years as a graduate assistant. In 2015, Rydeen was promoted to assistant sports information director before being elevated to associate director of athletic communications in 2022.
The primary contact for Concordia-St. Paul’s volleyball, men’s basketball and track and field programs, Rydeen has overseen the publicity for three of the Bears’ NCAA Division II championship volleyball teams. His work with the program has helped elevate the university’s overall profile in the No. 13 media market in the United States.
Initially hired to oversee internal webcasting efforts for select sports in addition to his communications duties, Rydeen is now instrumental in helping oversee operations of nearly every aspect of the department.
In addition to his Concordia-St. Paul duties, Rydeen has spent the last 10 years assisting the Minnesota State High School League in various roles with the association’s prep state championships. He is in his fourth year as an official statistician for the Minnesota Timberwolves (NBA) and Minnesota Lynx (WNBA) and recently completed two seasons as an official scorer for the St. Paul Saints, the Minnesota Twins’ Triple-A affiliate.
Rydeen graduated from Concordia-St. Paul in 2013 and completed a master’s degree in sport management in 2015.
Achievement Award
Voted upon by the CSC Special Awards Committee, the CSC Achievement Awards are presented annually to one University Division member and one College Division member who have made outstanding contributions to the field of athletic communications and provided exceptional service to their institution, conference or other intercollegiate athletics affiliated association. A nominee must have 10 or more years of experience in the athletic communications field and must not have served in the lead role overseeing an athletic communications office. This award is designed for an individual who has not been a recipient of any CSC major award in their careers (such as Warren Berg, Arch Ward or Hall of Fame).
JAKE WADE AWARD (MEDIA AWARD)
Bill Raftery – TV Sports Broadcaster
CBS Sports / FOX Sports / ESPN
“Onions!” “A little kiss.” “Send it in Jerome!”
For four decades,
Bill Raftery has been one of the most recognizable voices in college basketball, providing his perspective to broadcasts for CBS, ESPN, Westwood One, FOX Sports, Turner Sports and numerous other outlets.
A lead analyst for CBS’ coverage of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament for many years, and now also for FOX Sports’ men’s basketball coverage, Raftery is the 2024 recipient of CSC’s Jake Wade Award.
A four-time Sports Emmy Award winner, Raftery is a 2015 inductee into the National Sports Media Association Hall of Fame and a 2017 inductee into the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame. In 2006, Raftery received the Curt Gowdy Media Award from the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame which honors members of the electronic and print media for outstanding contributions to the sport.
Known for his catchphrases and excitability in the game’s big moments, Raftery arrived in the broadcast booth after 18 years on the sidelines. He was the head men’s basketball and golf coach and the associate athletic director at Fairleigh Dickinson University from 1963 to 1968. From 1970 to 1981, Raftery served as the head men’s basketball coach at Seton Hall, leading the Pirates to four ECAC Tournament appearances and three National Invitation Tournament berths.
Raftery moved to broadcasting in 1983 where he has been a constant presence ever since. Initially part of ESPN’s staff, Raftery moved to FOX when the network acquired the Big East Conference’s rights. It was there that he was paired for Gus Johnson (CSC’s 2021 Jake Wade Award Winner).
For 23 years, Raftery was the lead analyst for Westwood One’s radio coverage of the NCAA Division I Men’s Final Four. Since 2015, Raftery has lent his voice to CBS Sports along with doing his FOX broadcasts. He will be paired with Ian Eagle this March for the 2024 edition of the tournament.
Raftery was inducted into the Fairleigh Dickinson Hall of Fame in 1997. He earned his bachelor’s degree from LaSalle University and a master’s degree from Seton Hall, while receiving honorary doctorates from LaSalle (2001) and from Seton Hall (2009). He and his wife, Joan, have four children and five grandchildren.
Jake Wade Award
Presented annually to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution in the media to the field of intercollegiate athletics. Voted on by the Special Awards Committee. The nominee must be a member of the media.