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Duke’s Sports Info Staff Among Best in College Football

Football Writers Association of America honors Duke

Chris Cook, second from right, leads Duke wide receiver Connor Vernon off the field after the 2012 Belk Bowl. Cook and his colleagues in Duke Athletics were recently recognized as one of the 11 best sports information departments for football by the Foot
Chris Cook, second from right, leads Duke wide receiver Connor Vernon off the field after the 2012 Belk Bowl. Cook and his colleagues in Duke Athletics were recently recognized as one of the 11 best sports information departments for football by the Football Writers Association of America. Photo courtesy of Duke Athletics.

In recent years, the Duke football team has garnered the attention of a national audience with trips to bowl games and finishing its most recent season ranked among the top-25 teams in the country.

This off-season, staff members who support the team got their own recognition.

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Duke Athletics’ sports information department was recently named by the Football Writers Association of America as one of the “Super 11” schools in the country, an annual recognition honoring departments deemed best in the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision.

“With interest in Duke football picking up nationally and Coach [David] Cutcliffe taking over, the challenges for Duke’s staff became more intense, but they stepped up to the task and have done an exemplary job,” said Tim Griffin, committee chairman with the Football Writers Association of America. “Duke has always had the type of sports information department willing to go the extra mile.”

Duke, representing the Atlantic Coast Conference, joins big-name football schools like University of Georgia, University of Southern California, University of Nebraska and Texas Tech on the list. Recognition is based on criteria that include providing coach and player availability to media, providing statistics and professionalism.

Last year, the Blue Devils had one of their most successful seasons in almost 20 years, going 10-4 with a trip to the Chick-fil-A Bowl in Atlanta.

Chris Cook, assistant director of sports information, said that during last season, Duke football received upward of 10 media requests a day to speak with members of the team, double what it received three years prior. Requests could be for anything from phone interviews with local media to television interviews for a national audience.

Sometimes, requests could be rather unique, too.

Kenny Anunike
Kenny Anunike poses with props from Duke Libraries during a photo shoot for Sports Illustrated last year. The event was coordinated by staff in Duke Athletics' Sports Information Department. Photo by Rachel Ingold, Duke's history of medicine curator.

Last year, Sports Illustrated was working on a story called “Revenge of the Nerds,” a piece to highlight how ‘smart schools’ like Duke, Stanford and Northwestern “got good at football.” Editors at Sports Illustrated wanted to highlight Duke defensive end Kenny Anunike, who earned a degree in biological anthropology and anatomy.

“They wanted him in the library, so I had to get with library staff to see what medical textbooks they had and it turned out there were centuries old medical texts to use and we hauled a skeleton from our training room across campus,” Cook said. “It was really fun walking around with that skeleton and Kenny, who was 6-feet-5 and 280 pounds.”

During football season, Cook and Art Chase, assistant director of athletics for external affairs, spend their days during the week coordinating interviews with reporters and updating injury reports and statistical packets.

On nights before games, Cook, Chase and two other colleagues will prepare the Ted E. Mann Press Box in the Finch-Yeager Building for up to 125 media representatives. They’ll spend about 12 hours at Wallace Wade Stadium on Saturdays before, during and after the game handling any media needs, cleaning up press areas and updating stats on GoDuke.com.

“We’re very much a behind-the-scenes industry in sports information,” Cook said. “But we all pitch in every week and everyone shares in this award. It’s a pretty big deal.”