Huff inducted into CoSIDA Hall of Fame
06/25/2012 | 12:00:00 | General
June 25, 2012
By Bill Ford
SIUSalukis.com
ST. LOUIS— Longtime Southern Illinois sports information director Fred Huff was inducted in to the College Sports Information Directors of America Hall of Fame Monday during the annual CoSIDA Convention in St. Louis.
Huff was one of seven new inductees recognized at CoSIDA's Hall of Fame luncheon. Also honored were Debbie Copp of Oklahoma, Tom Di Camillo of the Pacific West Conference/Central Arizona College, Sue Edson of Syracuse, Lawrence Fan of San Jose State, Chuck Prophet of Mississippi Valley State and Kennan Timm of Wisconsin-Oshkosh.
The honor marked the fourth Hall of Fame induction of Huff's career as he also claims membership in the Illinois High School Basketball Coaches Association, the SIU and the Missouri Valley Conference Halls of Fame. Nonetheless, Huff said his CoSIDA induction was special.
"The fact that it comes from your peers really means something," Huff said. "At my age, and the fact that I have been out of it for so many years, I was quite a surprised. I thought they had forgotten about me."
A native of Du Quoin, Ill., Huff spent 35 years with the SIU athletic department as sports information director and assistant athletics director.
During his career as the Salukis' SID, he promoted some of the school's most historic sports moments, including the 1967 Walt Frazier-led NIT Championship men's basketball team and the 1983 national championship football season. In addition to promoting top-flight coaches and student-athletes, he trained some of the top collegiate and professional sports publicists in the country.
His passion for Saluki athletics culminated in his book, Saluki Sports History ... 100 Years of Facts and Highlights, chronicling the university's proud athletic history in facts, figures, highlights and photos. Huff donated the proceeds from the book to an endowment fund for a sports information graduate assistant position in Saluki athletics.
Huff has attended 37 CoSIDA conventions during his career starting with the 1960 convention in Chicago. He received the CoSIDA lifetime Achievement Award upon his retirement in 2001.
