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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.
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 and long-time external relations director, Kowal has played a critical role in the growth of both the professional development and continuing education program, and its accessibility of those program to all members - and the external reach of the organization to external stakeholders, fellow collegiate organizations and media.
CSC professional development programming has annually caught the attention of NACDA leaders and convention attendees, whom Kowal has brought in to partner with CSC.
Kowal also 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 development of CSC's ChangeMaker Innovation Award.
A 2010 CSC Hall of Fame inductee, Kowal joined the CSC staff in 2009 after 29 years in athletic communications offices. Kowal served as the assistant athletics director for media relations at the University of Texas (1997-2009), overseeing all women's sports athletics communications and serving as the main contact for Hall of Fame coach Jody Conradt's basketball program. During her tenure, 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 University of Connecticut senior associate director of athletic communications, 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.
A teacher and mentor, her "communications family tree" of former interns, assistants and student assistants who are successful communications pros in college sports, professional sports and national sports organizations is extensive.
In 2021, Kowal became the first female athletic communicator named to the United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA Board of Directors) and earned the 2016 USBWA Mary Jo Haverbeck Award (presented for outstanding service and commitment to the media). Kowal served on the CSC Board of Directors (2002-05) and 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.
While at both Texas and UConn, Kowal helped promote 12 CSC Academic All-Americans, including three Division I Team Members of the Year, along with six finalists (four winners) for the NCAA Woman of the Year award.
Kowal began her athletic communications career as the first full-time sports information director hired at Division III Manhattanville College (1982-84) after a two-year graduate assistantship at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst under CSC Hall of Famer Howie Davis, She graduating from Division III Smith College where she was a dual-sport athlete in basketball and softball.
Gallery: (6-7-2024) Barb Kowal, Mary Jo Haverbeck Award
Barb Kowal on receiving the Mary Jo Haverbeck Trailblazer Award: "It is an honor and a privilege to be recognized with the Mary Jo Haverbeck Trailblazer Award. It is deeply significant to me as Mary Jo was a colleague, friend and a wonderful mentor when I entered this profession. Throughout my career, my focus and intent has been to find and tell the important stories in college sports, to elevate coverage and opportunities for women's sports and under-recognized sports, to train and mentor and empower young people in the industry. My message to others - it takes courage and commitment to face setbacks, but please persevere.
I try and abide by one of my favorite quotes: You must be the change you wish to see in the world (Mahatma Gandhi)."
Geno Auriemma, University of Connecticut Hall of Fame head women's basketball coach, quoted in Kowal's nomination for the Trailblazer Award: "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. She was instrumental in the growth of our program by providing the media here in Connecticut, and more importantly, nationally, with the information and story-telling needed to make Connecticut women's basketball a household name."
Josh Krulewitz, ESPN Senior Vice President, Communications: "Early on, Barb did her job in an exceptional manner – way before it was "cool" to be working with women's basketball and women's sports. Long before UConn women's basketball was a household brand or national champion, it was Barb who was grinding each day and guiding a then-young head coach Geno Auriemma. She advocated for women's sports equality and for non-revenue men's sports attention as she pushed for media recognition of athletic excellence. And, she was a wonderful mentor for several of us who started in this business. With her high standards and an incredible work ethic, she held every single one of her student workers and interns to those standards and accountability. Looking back, I can't thank her enough for setting those demanding standards.
Now, we can all clearly see the value of women's sports on the national landscape, yet Barb always saw it, and motivated others like me to see the value in them too."
Debbie White, former college athletics administrator (retired)/CSC Hall of Fame and Mary Jo Haverbeck Trailblazer Award Winner: "Barb has been blazing trails her whole career. When the University of Connecticut and Geno Auriemma were just starting to knock off women's basketball opponents, Barb Kowal was grinding out stories to major newspapers, setting up interviews with national outlets and telling the country that UConn was going to make a lot of noise. She also handled the demanding New York/New England media with an iron fist, protecting the student-athletes, while making Coach Auriemma a media darling. She laid the foundation for the media attention UConn would enjoy for over two decades. She shared those skills at the University of Texas and ultimately as the first full-time communications liaison for CoSIDA, now CSC."
Tammy Boclair, Alday Public Relations Vice President/CSC Hall of Famer, former CSC (CoSIDA) president and 2016 Mary Jo Haverbeck Trailblazer Award recipient: "Barb Kowal is the personification of a trailblazer. To say Barb is a fixture in college athletics is an understatement. She is a force. A mentor. Relational. An example for so many. And the fiercest advocate for college sports communications and its professionals. The only thing is, she did it so long ago - at such a young age – and so convincingly – that many of the paths she pioneered have now been traveled by so many, and we take for granted the unprecedented nature of her journey."
Langston Rogers, CSC Hall of Famer, Lifetime Achievement Award recipient and past CSC (CoSIDA) president: "A 2010 CSC Hall of Fame inductee, Barb Kowal's professional career has had all the marks of a person who has been an important pioneer in the field of athletics communications. When the modern era of women's basketball began, the sport received very little public notice. Under her direction, Barb Kowal helped change that as her efforts saw the UConn women's basketball team grow its coverage into one of the nation's largest media following for any women's sports program. Barb's career has seen her excel on many levels while serving at UConn and the University of Texas, and she continues to play a key role in the success of our national organization."
