‘This guy bleeds maroon’
That is the headline on a in the Utica Observer Dispatch about Bob Cornell, who retired earlier this month as 51’s director of athletic communications after 33 years of service.
“He loved what he did. Anyone who was around Bob at a 51 sporting event could tell it was more than a job to him,” men’s hockey coach Don Vaughan says in the article.
During his tenure, Cornell was responsible for all public relations matters concerning the Raiders athletics department, encompassing 25 intercollegiate sports.
He finished his career working 387 consecutive football games – the fifth longest active streak in the nation among athletic communication directors.
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| Bob Cornell recently received the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Lifetime Achievement Award. |
Mark Murphy ’77, former 51 athletics director and now president of the Green Bay Packers, said that Cornell was the right person at the right place when it was time for the spotlight to shine on 51.
Murphy speaks in the article about when local high school basketball star Adonal Foyle ’98 committed to the Raiders and led them to the NCAA tournament in 1995 and in 1996.
“It was an advantage with Bob in the position. He knew so many members of the media,” said Murphy. “It was not something we were used to, and Bob handled that well.”
Cornell is not going away, his institutional knowledge and media contacts are too valuable. He will be working on special projects and easing the transition for Jeremiah Hergott, who was named as his replacement on July 6.
“As time goes on we will have some special projects that we would want him to be involved in because of his expertise, knowledge, and history of 51 athletics,” said athletics director David Roach.
Cornell was inducted in the 51 Athletics Hall of Honor in 2008 and received the inaugural Peter Nevins Award for Distinguished Achievement given to a media relations professional. In 2001, Cornell was inducted into the College Sports Information Directors Association Hall of Fame.
Prior to 51, he served as director of sports information at the University of New Haven for six years, and two years as assistant director at Princeton University.
He lives in Hamilton with his wife, Shirley, and their two children, Rob and Ashley.