Fran Elia with his wife, Heather, at his induction into the Cortland C-Club Hall of Fame in 2012 (Photo credit: College Information Sports Directors of America)
SUNY Cortland sports information director Fran Elia is being recognized by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) with a 25-Year Award for his service in the sports information profession.
Elia is currently completing his 26th year as Cortland's sports information director — the award only considers years fully completed.
He started as an intern/assistant SID at Cortland in the fall of 1991 and was promoted to sports information director in the fall of 1992.
He was inducted into the Cortland C-Club Hall of Fame as an honorary inductee in 2012, earned CoSIDA's Warren Berg Award in 2015, and the Eastern College Athletic Conference-Sports Information Directors Association (ECAC-SIDA) College Division Irving Marsh Award in 2009.
“Honestly, there are times when the changes in our profession are a great challenge to me. There’s part of me that wants things to be the way they were when I started, but most of the time I’m excited about what’s new in the business,“ Fran Elia said. “I continue to remind myself that no matter what new technologies are introduced in our profession, the messages we send are still more important than the media we use to send them. It’s exciting, but sometimes overwhelming, to find new and better ways to get out our messages."
