University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Duggan Selected for CoSIDA's Bill Esposito BackBone Award
5/4/2007 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 4, 2007
Jack Duggan, associate director of media relations at the University of Southern Mississippi, and Donna Turner, currently associate athletic director for communications at Northern Illinois University, have been selected to receive the College Sports Information Directors of America*s Bill Esposito Backbone Award. The award goes to a CoSIDA member who displays sound judgement and unusual courage in guiding their institution through difficult public relations situations.
Duggan and Turner will both receive their awards at CoSIDA*s 50th Anniversary workshop this summer in San Diego.
Both Duggan (New Orleans) and Turner (Tulane) were in athletic communications positions at schools that were greatly affected when Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast and both were instrumental in helping their institutions cope with that national disaster.
Duggan is in his first year as associate director of media relations at the University of Southern Mississippi, returning to his alma mater, Aug. 1.
Duggan, who has almost 20 years of media relations experience, handles the day-to-day media relations operation for the men*s basketball and men*s and women*s golf programs, while assisting with football and myriad other activities within the media relations unit.
Duggan went to Southern Miss after serving as the sports information and media relations director at The University of New Orleans for the previous three years. He supervised the media relations operation for the 15-sport athletics department with major emphasis on men*s basketball and baseball. He oversaw the department*s web site, produced media guides and event programs for the each of the department*s sports and facilitated media coverage.
Prior to that, he spent time as the media relations manager of the Huntsville Flight of the NBA Developmental League (2002-03), the associate sports information director at UAB (2000-01), the assistant director (1995-98) and the sports information director (1998-2000) at Nicholls State and the assistant sports information director at Southeastern Louisiana (1993-95).
During his tenure at Nicholls State, Duggan served as publicist for the USA Baseball Junior National Team from 1995-97, making four tours with the teams including trips to Brazil, Cuba and Canada (twice).
Duggan is a 1989 graduate of Southern Miss with a bachelor*s degree in accounting and earned his master*s degree in sport administration also at Southern Miss in 1991. While a student at Southern Miss, he was a member of the baseball team, before moving into media relations, serving as a student assistant for two years and then as a graduate assistant for two seasons.
Duggan, and his wife, Hilary, have twin daughters, Betty and Mary-Margaret.
Now in her first year as the associate athletic director for communications at Northern Illinois University, Donna Turner has made an immediate impact by upgrading the office*s technology and expanding the outreach of Huskie Athletics across the region and the nation.
In her first season at NIU, Turner led the publicity efforts for Northern Illinois All-America running back Garrett Wolfe while ensuring that a media guide was published for each of the school*s 16 athletic teams.
Turner came to DeKalb after six years as the assistant athletics director for media relations at Tulane University in New Orleans, La. Turner played a vital role in helping Tulane Athletics cope with the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina in the Fall of 2005, when the Green Wave student-athletes and coaches scattered to four separate campuses while continuing to compete. Turner and her staff ran six *home* football games in six different cities, and, upon returning to New Orleans, assumed increased responsibilities in marketing and promotions due to staff cuts.
In 2003, she directed a massive publicity campaign * the *Think Green* effort * and compiled a 70-page presentation to the Board of Tulane which resulted in the Board*s recommendation to continue athletics at the Division I-A level.
Prior to her arrival in New Orleans, Turner spent one year as the director of media relations and publicity for the WTA (Women*s Tennis Association) Tour, after a five-year stint as the assistant athletics director for sports information at the University of Houston. At Houston, Turner was responsible for developing the first official athletics website.
From 1988-94, Turner was assistant and then associate sports information director at Florida State University, where she was the primary contact for the Seminoles* nationally-ranked football and baseball teams. She was the football contact for Heisman Trophy winner Charlie Ward and the 1993 National Championship FSU team and also worked with award winners Marvin Jones, Casey Weldon and Derrick Brooks during her tenure. In addition to six consecutive New Year*s Day bowl appearances during her time at FSU, the baseball Seminoles made multiple trips to the College World Series.
Her experience includes working at the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games in Atlanta, Ga. and in press operations at the 1999 NCAA Men's Basketball Final Four and numerous NCAA Men*s Basketball Regionals. Turner has been media relations director for six NCAA Baseball regionals. She served as the local media coordinator for the 2004 NCAA Women*s Final Four, hosted by Tulane at the New Orleans Arena.
A native of Gainesville, Fla., she received a bachelor*s degree in communications from FSU in 1985 and a master*s in sports administration from Ohio University in 1987.
