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2020 Special Awards Announcements

Updated May 2020 to reflect other Lifetime and 25-Year Award recipients

The College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) wraps up its week-long announcement of its 2020 Special Awards Friday by recognizing members receiving Lifetime Achievement Awards and 25-Year Awards.

The CoSIDA Lifetime Achievement Award is presented to members who have served at least 25 years in the profession and who are retiring, have retired or are leaving the profession.

Receiving their Lifetime Achievement Awards this year are:

• Blair Cash, the former Sports information Director at Multnomah University (retired);
• Debbie Darrah, former Assistant Athletic Communications Director at Texas A&M (retired);
• Doug Dull, Associate Athletic Director for Communications at American University (retired);
• Joe Hernandez, Associate Athletic Director at Ball State University (retired);
• Stew Salowitz, Sports Information Director at Illinois Wesleyan (retired);
• Jeff Schwartz, Senior Associate Director of Athletic Communications at North Dakota State;
• Jim Sheehan, Sports Information Director at Hofstra University (retired);
• Jim Vruggink, Manager of Special Projects in Intercollegiate Athletics and Public Affairs (retired)

Three of these Lifetime Achievement Award recipients – Dull, Herandez and Vruggink – served as presidents of CoSIDA during their illustrious careers.

The CoSIDA 25-Year Award is presented to members who have completed 25 years in the profession. More than 20 members will be recognized this summer. A complete list of 25-year Award recipients is below.

All 2020 Special Award winners will be honored at CoSIDA’s annual Convention which takes place June 7-10 at the Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas in conjunction with NACDA and Affiliates Convention Week.

Previous Lifetime Achievement recipients

Previous 25-Year Award recipients

Here's a closer look at the Lifetime Achievement Award recipients.

25-year Award recipients is below.

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Blair Cash – Multnomah University
Sports Information Director (retired)

Outstanding SID in the Northwest.

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Debbie Darrah – Texas A&M University
Assistant Athletic Communications Director (retired)

An Aggie for life.

After 28 years at Texas A&M, Debbie Darrah retired in February 2019 to continue her world travels. Through her work, Darrah assisted at three Olympic Festivals, three Olympic Games, three Pan-American Games, a World University Games, and traveled to Taiwan with USA Softball.

Darrah earned a business degree from Texas-Arlington but found out that the corporate world wasn’t gratifying enough. She joined A&M’s four-person staff in November 1989 and oversaw women’s basketball, volleyball and softball. Darrah was the part of numerous NCAA tournament appearances and SEC titles for with volleyball, women's basketball, and tennis.

Darrah earned numerous national and regional awards from CoSIDA’s Publications and Digital Design contests. She also served for several years on that committee.

Darrah continues to live in College Station where she volunteers her time grant writing and working for a local non-profit, VOOM Foundation, that completes medical missions to Nigeria twice a year to do open-heart surgery on the poor and indigent.

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Doug Dull – American University
Associate Athletic Director for Communications (retired)

Former CoSIDA president and Hall of Fame inductee.

A former CoSIDA president and member of the organization’s Hall of Fame, Doug Dull retired in June of 2019 after nearly 30 years of service to the athletic communications profession.

He was inducted into the CoSIDA Hall of Fame in 2016.

Dull began his career at Chico State in 1989 and also served at UC Davis, Kansas State, and Maryland before completing his career at American University where he was the Associate Athletic Director for Communications. He also owned and operated his own communications company for two years.

Dull served on the CoSIDA Board of Directors as a college division representative from 1998-2000. He entered the presidential rotation in 2003, serving as the organization's president in 2006-07.

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Joe Hernandez – Ball State University
Associate Athletic Director (retired)

Ball State lifer also served as CoSIDA president.

For 35 years, Joe Hernandez worked at his alma mater Ball State University. He started as a graduate assistant with the Cardinals in 1984, working his way up in the sports information office before retiring in October of 2019 as an associate athletic director. Hernandez was assistant SID (1986-90), Sports Information Director (1990-95) after taking over from Earl Yestingsmeier, Director of Athletic Communicatiions (1995-99), then was promoted to Assistant Athletics Director for three years (1999-2002) before assuming the role of Associate AD from 2002 until his retirement.

He served as Ball State's Associate Athletics Director for Sports and Alumni Relations for the last five years. Other duties included overseeing the Ball State Athletics Hall of Fame and serving as sport administrator for several sports.

Hernandez served as the CoSIDA president in 2005-06 and also served on the Academic All-America committee for over 10 years. He received a 25-Year Award from CoSIDA. He was recognized with a Ball State Benny Award for outstanding contributions to the university. Nearly 20 of his former student workers and graduate assistants have gone on to establish careers in the athletics profession.

He currently serves as the Athletics Director at Lafayette Jefferson High School in Lafayette, Indiana.

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Stew Salowitz – Illinois Wesleyan University
Sports Information Director (retired)

SID for one of the best DIII programs in the Midwest.

For more than 20 years, Stew Salowitz served as the sports information director at his alma mater, Illinois Wesleyan University. He retired from Illinois Wesleyan in August of 2019.

Over his career, Salowitz received a CoSIDA 25-Year Award in 2014 and was inducted into the Illinois Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame in 2012. The graduate of Illinois Wesleyan publicized numerous Titan teams that competed in NCAA Division III championships, including serving as the host institution for many of them.

Salowitz also contributed to the university's general news coverage and the IWU alumni magazine and had free-lance articles appear in the Chicago Tribune, Sports Collectors Digest, and the USA Today. He is also the author of four books.

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Jim Sheehan – Hofstra University
Senior Sports Information Director (retired)

Award winner for wrestling, basketball and lacrosse.

Hofstra's longtime senior sports information director Jim Sheehan retired in December 2019. Sheehan came to Hofstra in 1988 after serving as assistant commissioner for information at the Gateway Conference. He also served as coordinator of media information for the Houston Gamblers of the United States Football League, was sports information director at the University of Tampa, sports information director at his alma mater, Biscayne College, and information director for the Sunshine State Conference.

Among his honors, Sheehan was named the 2005-06 Publicist/SID of the Year by the National Wrestling Media Association. He was recipient of the 2016-17 Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association Distinguished Service Award and also received the 2017 Doyle Smith Sports Information/Media Award from the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association.

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Jim Vruggink – Purdue University
Manager of Special Projects in Intercollegiate Athletics and Public Affairs (retired)

Former CoSIDA president with more than 50 nationally-recognized and award-winning years in sports communications.

After 52 years in athletic communications work in Michigan, Illinois and Indiana, Jim Vruggink retired on August 2019 from the position he held for nearly four decades - Manager of Special Projects in Intercollegiate Athletics and Public Affairs at Purdue University.

Vruggink spent 37 years at Purdue, starting with the Boilermakers as Sports Information Director (1982-1986) before becoming (1986-2001) Athletic Public Relations Director, then became Director of Special Projects. Prior to his time in West Lafayette, Vruggink was SID at Northwestern University (1978-82), assistant SID at the University of Michigan for four years (1974-78) and was sports editor at the Ypsilanti Press prior to that.

He served as president of CoSIDA in 1996-97 and spent seven years - 1993 through 2000 - on its board of directors. During that time, Vruggink helped guide CoSIDA with new mission statements and other initiatives to help the organization adapt to the 21st century. He received the Scoop Hudgens Lifetime SID Award in 2002 prior to being inducted into the CoSIDA Hall of Fame in 2004. Vruggink wa the second Boilermaker, and the eighth Big Ten Conference representative, chosen for the Hall of Fame. In 2012, he was honored by his alma mater, Central Michigan University, by being the 52nd person inducted into its Journalism Hall of Fame.

Vruggink served as the press chief for baseball at the 1987 Pan American Games in Indianapolis and as press information manager for baseball at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta.

Vruggink is a member of the Purdue President's Council and the John Purdue Club. continues to play a significant leadership role in the National Football Foundation, serving as executive director of the NFF's Joe Tiller Chapter of Northwest Indiana, a role he has held since 2004.

25-Year Award Recipients

Congratulations to the following group of athletic communications professionals who have reached the quarter century of service to the profession!

Two of these professionals have continued their membership and association with CoSIDA as they have assumed Director of Athletics positions: Tom Galbraith (Simpson University) and Greg Sietz (Jacksonville State). Kevin Trainor, Arkansas Senior Associate Athletics Director/Public Relations, currently sits on the CoSIDA Board of Directors in the first year of a three-year term.

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