CSC Hall of Famer Herb Hartnett, award-winning athletic communications leader during his tenure at the University of Maryland and University of Pennsylvania, recently passed away due resulting complications following an illness. A memorial contribution in Hartnett’s honor has been set up to assist the College Sports Communicators scholarships and grants fund.
Herb Hartnett Memorial Contributions
In lieu of a public memorial or service, the Harnett family has asked that those who wish to make a contribution in memoriam that they donate to the College Sports Communicators' (CSC) Scholarship and Grants fund.
As Hartnett’s daughter Jennifer (Hartnett) Reeves wrote in setting up this memoriam, “CoSIDA (CSC) was such a big part of my father’s life and being a writer and storyteller was who he was. It would be important to him to see that carried on. My sister and I truly appreciate the organization. This will honor him in a very special way.”
Those interested may send contributions to:
Herb Hartnett Memorial
c/o College Sports Communicators
P.O. Box 7818
Greenwood, IN 46142
Regarding an electronic donation, you may contact Will Roleson, Associate Executive Director, at (317) 490-2905.
As a 501c6 membership association, donations to College Sports Communicators are not tax-deductible.
also see:
CSC Hall of Fame Class of 2009 - Herb Hartnett
Gallery: (5-23-2025) Herb Hartnett, CSC Hall of Famer
CSC Hall of Famer Herb Hartnett, award-winning athletic communications leader during his tenure at the University of Maryland and University of Pennsylvania, recently passed away due to complications following a medical situation.
Hartnett passed on April 30th in Reston, VA, where family members resided, after living for the last several years in Columbia, MD.
Hartnett was inducted into the CSC Hall of Fame during the 2009 convention in San Antonio, Texas. He was part of the inaugural induction class of the CSC (CoSIDA) veterans hall of fame recipients. (Veterans 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 sports communications profession today.)
In 1998, Hartnett received both a 25-Year Award and a Lifetime Achievement Award from CSC.
Hartnett began his career as assistant sports information director at the University of Pennsylvania from 1969-76 and then becoming sports information director from 1977-88. He then served at the University of Maryland as sports information director for eight years.
At Penn, Hartnett was the assistant media director for the prestigious Penn Relays from 1969-76 and was the director from 1977-88. While at Penn, he was twice selected to work with the U.S. Olympic Team as a media relations specialist, in 1980 and 1984.
Hartnett served as the media relations director for countless NCAA men's basketball tournament games at the famed The Palestra in Philly. which was a regular host site for NCAA Tournament games, in addition to working three Final Fours, once as a participant in 1979 with Penn.
Penn bestowed upon Hartnett what he considered his greatest honor, that of membership in the Friars, an exclusive society founded on the credo, “It's not what you're going to get out of life, but what you are going to give to life.”
Hartnett served as the point person/coordinator for two CSC conventions (Philadelphia in 1981 and Washington in 1988) and helped create CSC’s Writing Contest Committee. Hartnett won 15 CSC publication and writing awards in his career, including several “Best in Nation” honors.
Testimonials on behalf of Herb Hartnett:
Kevin Trainor, 2024-25 CSC President, University of Arkansas Sr. Associate Director of Athletics for Public Relations & Former Student-Athlete Engagement: "The CSC family was saddened to learn of the recent passing of retired Hall of Famer Herb Hartnett. Herb was a longtime respected sports communicator at both the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Maryland. He was active in our organization and instrumental in helping organize our first writing contest. Thanks to the generosity of his family and others who knew him, he will continue to be celebrated with a scholarship named in his honor. This lasting tribute will help ensure his legacy lives on through CSC."
Chris Plonsky, CSC Hall of Famer (2021), CSC Mary Jo Haverbeck Trailblazer Award (2010), University of Texas Executive Senior Associate AD/Chief of Staff: "Herb Hartnett was a stalwart defender of the baseline reasoning of college sports’ place in higher education. At Penn and Maryland (lucky them!), he was the well-read and remarkably gifted wordsmith, the eager student-athlete, the rewarded or embattled coach and the hard-working yet exhausted SID staff member’s relational confidante. On top of that, he was a media-trusted public relations soldier.
Herb loved what CoSIDA (now CSC) programming and conventions provided him and his professional colleagues…including happy hours and fun dinners and storytelling. He would be SO PROUD we have a Villanova graduate as Pope. His faith was Herb’s All-American certificate. He is so missed by us all.”
Langston Rogers, CSC Hall of Famer (2010), CSC Mary Jo Haverbeck Trailblazer Award (2008), CSC Arch Ward Award (2001), CSC Past President (1980-81), Ole Miss Special Assistant to the Athletics Director for History/retired Senior Associate AD for Media Relations: "I, like so many others, have such great memories of Herb. He had a great wit, and was a joy to be around. Herb was a phenomenal storyteller, professionally and personally, and writing was important to him. He was very serious about the craft of writing, and one of his most important contributions to CoSIDA (now CSC) was as a founder of the organization’s writing awards contest (now the Fred S. Stabley Sr. Writing Contest) and serving as chair of that awards committee.
There was a group of us who hung together every convention - Herb, Bill Little and his wife, Kim Scofield (Texas), Rick Brewer (North Carolina) and myself. We had such a great time together, conversing, going to dinner, sitting with each other on panels. I hold onto those great friendships and great memories from over the years.
Herb was a tremendous asset to our organization, and when we had a problem and needed to fix it, he would step up. During my presidential year, in planning for our 1981 convention in Philadelphia, he called to tell me that our convention hotel (the Ben Franklin Hotel) had just closed. In dire need of a convention hotel, I flew to Philadelphia and Herb took me around to different properties, all unfortunately very expensive. Having done some research, Herb knew of a property being built - the Franklin Plaza hotel - so we went to the construction site where it sat, unfinished. We negotiated our hotel room rates and meeting space, crossed our fingers, signed the contract…and they lived up to their word of opening that beautiful property before our convention. If it wasn’t for Herb, I am unsure we would have had a convention that year.”