Nelson earns CoSIDA Lifetime Achievement Award
3/4/2021 12:00:00 PM | Baseball, Women's Cross Country, General, Men's Golf, Men's Basketball, Men's Hockey, Nordic Skiing, Softball, Men's Swim & Dive, Men's Tennis, Men's Track & Field, Women's Basketball, Women's Hockey, Women's Soccer, Wrestling, Volleyball, Men's Cross Country, Women's Swim & Dive, Women's Track & Field, Women's Tennis, Women's Golf, Men's Soccer
| CoSIDA Release |
ST. CLOUD, MINN. - Former St. Cloud State University Assistant Athletic Director of Strategic Communications Tom Nelson continues to make headlines. After a stellar, 24-year career with St. Cloud State, the new retiree earned the College of Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Lifetime Achievement Award, the organization announced in early March.
The CoSIDA Lifetime Achievement Award is annually given to athletic communications professionals who have served at least 25 years in the profession and who are retiring, have retired or are leaving the profession. An award winning athletic communications professional in every sense of the word, Nelson announced his retirement from St. Cloud State athletics in mid-January and left behind a legacy no one will soon forget. He was hired by the department as the Assistant Director of Athletic Media Relations in 1996 before being promoted to the Assistant Athletics Director of Strategic Communications in 2017. In all that time with the Huskies, Nelson covered 1000 of games and served as the primary media contact for dozens of teams, including men's hockey and wrestling. He additionally spearheaded several projects, including the overhaul of the St. Cloud State athletics website and helped the department transition into the social media age.Â
Prior to joining the Huskies staff, Nelson spent four years at Saint John's University down the road in Collegeville, Minnesota from 1992-1996 and worked as the sports information director at Aurora University in Aurora, Illinois from 1986-1992. While at Saint John's, he served as the publicity director for the Gagliardi Trophy, which is presented annually to the nation's top Division III football player.
Since then, Nelson has served on several committees and earned a plethora of awards in his multi-decade career. He received the CoSDIA Achievement Award in 2015 and was named the 2014 Small College Wrestling SID of the Year for his work with the Huskies wrestling program. Additionally, Nelson served as the Central Region coordinator for the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA), media coordinator for numerous USA Hockey Player Development Camps and has been the media steward for the Minnesota State High School League Class AA Baseball Tournament since 1997. He attended 20 CoSIDA conventions in his career and served on the former Site Selection Committee from 2000-2009.Â
