Smith honored by CoSIDA

SAN FRANCISCO — Assistant athletic director for new media Bill Smith received the 25-Year Award from the College Sports Information Directors of America at the national organization for collegiate media relations annual convention.

The CoSIDA Awards Luncheon recognized association members who have achieved the quarter century milestone within the profession.

Smith began his career at Northeast Louisiana University in 1986 as the assistant sports information director and women’s sports information director. He came to Arkansas in 1989 as the women’s athletics sports information director, and progressed to associate athletic director for communications with the women’s athletics department.

Over the course of his time as the women’s SID, his publications garnered over 30 national awards from CoSIDA. While having taken a turn as the primary contact for all 11 women’s sports during his career, he was best remembered as the women’s basketball contact for 20 seasons, logging over 550 games as the color commentator for women’s basketball.

Since 2008, Smith served as the assistant AD for new media for the combined athletic department, overseeing Arkansas’ new website, ArkansasRazorbacks.com, creating the new Twitter and Facebook pages for Razorback Athletics, the executive producer for RazorVision and project originator and manager for iHog, the official iPhone app for Razorback sports.

Following today’s award luncheon, Smith is a presentor for tomorrow’s convention session on how media relations offices can leverage digital media to deliver athletic department information to a world-wide audience.