By Jenny Leonard, CoSIDA

Dennis O'Donnell has been a fixture at the University of Rochester since 1988.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. - In the early fall of 1988, Dennis O'Donnell boarded an 8 a.m. flight out of LaGuardia with a pot of chili on his lap. He was headed for his first home game at Rochester, a place where he has built a remarkable career as the university's sports information director.

O'Donnell says his "lucky chili" had been a great way to open the seasons at Kings Point, the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, where he worked for almost a decade. His wife, Carol, had suggested that he continue the tradition in Rochester.

But when O'Donnell flies into San Francisco this year to attend the College Sports Information Director's of America annual convention, he won't have to lug that crock pot filled with chili across three time zones.
In fact, he won't have to cook at all because the banquet will be in his honor.

Dennis O'Donnell has been selected as the 2010 Warren Berg Award winner for his outstanding contributions and activities to the field of college sports information. O'Donnell is being honored not just for these contributions and activities, but for the dignity and prestige he brings to the profession.

He will receive the award during the CoSIDA Kickoff on Monday, July 5, at the San Francisco Marriott Marquis in San Francisco.

But knowing O'Donnell, he will cook up something.

"I called ahead to find out if I could arrange to have a hotplate and some dishes in the press box," he recalled of that first journey to Upstate New York. "I think the folks in Rochester were starting to wonder about this guy they had just hired. The check-in person at the airport looked at me funny when she put the chili through screening. 'Is that your lunch?' she asked. 'No,' I told her, 'it's my in-flight snack. I've flown this airline before.' She just looked at me, a little confused. I picked up my chili and walked through the gate. The game started at 1 p.m., and the chili was still in good shape. Rochester played Union College and won big."

In O'Donnell's more than 20 years at Rochester he has seen his fair share of big wins, including the 1990 NCAA men's basketball championship, an experience that he describes as one of the "wow" moments in his career. He's also seen lots of long hours, thousands of games, and an endless stream of stats, many of which he seems to recall with remarkable detail.

The down-to-the-wire showdowns and overtime thrillers keep the work exciting, but it's that search for the great story that O'Donnell says makes it seem less like a job and more like a passion.

"What I love most about this job is that I get to tell the students' stories. When I was growing up in Long Island my parents used to watch this police show called Naked City. At the end it always had the same line: 'There are eight million stories in the Naked City. This has been one of them.' On a college campus, there are thousands of stories, and as a sports information director I get to tell a few of them. I love writing, and I love what I do. I try to share that passion with my student interns."

O'Donnell's passion earned him national recognition for his work in the field when he was inducted into the CoSIDA Hall of Fame in 2007.

While O'Donnell is one of few sports information directors from Division III schools to be inducted into the CoSIDA Hall of Fame, the Warren Berg Award specifically honors sports information directors from school other than NCAA Division I.

Eric McDowell, director of sports information for Union College, who nominated O'Donnell for the CoSIDA Hall of Fame back in 2007, says sports information directors at small colleges, such as Rochester, have to do everything themselves.

"There is no to-do list, you have to know how to do it all, and you have to think on your feet to be able to handle whatever situation develops," McDowell said. "Beyond the new technology and the intense 80-hour weeks, Dennis loves what he does and knows that in the end it's a people business. He is a model person, both personally and professionally, as a father, husband, and sports information director. He's the example I point to when I want to show young people that you can do what you love, you can stay in this field for a long time and be passionate about the work you do, and you can succeed. That's who Dennis is, someone who is passionate about his profession and about the students who play the sport." 

Dave Hilbert, an assistant athletic director from the University of Chicago, has known O'Donnell for years and describes them both as "grizzled veterans." While the profession has changed dramatically in the past two decades, from the days of typewriters to today's sonic speed of posting instant stats to websites, O'Donnell has adapted while staying true to his roots as a writer and reporter.

"He's always looking for that unique story," Hilbert said. "He's genuinely interested in the person behind the athlete - who they are as students and as human beings. Dennis also is a great sounding board. I probably call him once a week for advice or just to see how he would approach a certain issue. I think I speak for all my colleagues in the UAA in saying that he is an invaluable resource on how to do this job and do it well. Whatever the issue, you know he's been there."

Terry Gurnett, associate director of athletics and the women's soccer coach at the University of Rochester, says he is fortunate to have worked with the same sports information director for nearly two decades. O'Donnell, he says, throws himself completely into the job and cares deeply about the athletics program and the young people who take part in it.

"Dennis personalizes his work. He knows every kid, who they are and where they grew up. He not only knows them while they're here, but he keeps in touch after they leave. We have athletes from around the country, and their parents just can't wait for the game stories to hit the website. Dennis knows that and he makes it happen, game after game."

It's in his office in the Goergen Athletic Center where he makes it all happen. The space is a chaotic landscape of athletic programs, paperwork, binders of stats dating back to the 1930s, and crates filled with 20-ounce bottles of Diet Coke - the latter may explain how he's able to get those game stories up so quickly on those long Friday and Saturday nights.

Ask O'Donnell what he'd be doing if he weren't working in this field, and there's a rare moment when he's speechless. "I've got the mouth to be a lawyer, but I don't have the discipline," he laughs. "Well, maybe the hours could be better, but, really, I love what I'm doing."