NAADD Selects 2001-02 Award Recipients

Cleveland, Ohio -- The Officers and Executive Committee of the National Association of Athletic Development Directors (NAADD) have selected their award recipients for the 2001-02 year.

Award recipients include Frank Bassett (Duke University) as the University Division Volunteer of the Year; Paul Bourget (Rhode Island College) as the College Division Volunteer of the Year; Edward and Nadine Carson (Arizona State University) as the University Division Donor of the Year; William Reynolds (Sonoma State University) as the College Division Donor of the Year; Brian Crockett, executive director of the Scarlet R Club at Rutgers University as the University Division Fund Raiser of the Year; and Erv Inniger, associate athletics director for development and external relations at North Dakota State University as the College Division Fund Raiser of the Year. Additionally, Moyer Smith of the University of North Carolina Educational Foundation, Inc., will be presented with the second NAADD Lifetime Achievement Award.

The awards will be presented at NAADD's Ninth Annual Workshop, June 14-16 at the Wyndham Anatole Hotel in Dallas, Texas. The NAADD/NACMA Awards Luncheon will take place on Sunday, June 16.

NAADD is the first organization of its kind to provide educational and networking opportunities, enhancement of acceptable operating standards and ethics, and establishment of the overall prestige and understanding of the profession of athletics development and fund raising.

NAADD is administered by NACDA, which is now in its 37th year. NACDA serves as the professional and educational association for more than 6,100 college athletics directors, associates, assistants and conference commissioners at more than 1,600 institutions throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico. Throughout its series of management seminars, clinics and workshops and publication of the bi-monthly magazine Athletics Administration, NACDA offers educational opportunities to its members. More than 1,200 athletics administrators annually attend the NACDA Convention. Additionally, NACDA operates the Sears Directors' Cup program, which honors the all-sports champion in each of the NCAA Divisions--I, II and III--and the NAIA, for a total of four trophies.

A brief biological sketch of each of the honorees follows:

NAADD University Division Volunteer of the Year
Frank Bassett, Duke University
In 1999, Frank Bassett volunteered to lead the Duke University Football Campaign. The goal was to raise $10-12 million. Serving as the campaign's co-chair, he helped raise more than $20 million. The result, the Yoh Football Center, will be dedicated this fall. Bassett's involvement in the campaign ranged from high-level decision-making to writing letters, making phone calls and having personal visits with prospective donors. Additionally, he donated significant funds for naming rights of space in memory of his grandson, who passed away in 1997. A nationally renowned professor in sports medicine, Bassett was the football team's doctor from 1966-93. He also served Duke as the director of sports medicine from 1985 until his retirement in 1993. Many of the calls he made and letters he wrote in the campaign were to student-athletes he once recruited. Bassett earned his bachelor and master's degrees from the University of Kentucky in 1950 and 1951, respectively, where he played football. He earned his medical degree from the University of Louisville in 1957, before serving his orthopedic residency at Duke in the early 1960s. He was inducted into the Duke Sports Hall of Fame in 1994.

NAADD College Division Volunteer of the Year
Paul Bourget, Rhode Island College
Paul Bourget's commitment to Rhode Island College athletics began in 1997 when he became a charter member of the RIC athletics booster club, the Anchor Club, which now boasts more than 300 members. He also helped sponsor the first Anchor Club Golf Day, which has become an annual event and assists with RIC athletics student-athlete fund-raising drives. Bourget's efforts extend beyond athletics, as he is a corporate sponsor of the Alumni Golf Tournament, supports honors scholarships and the fine arts, has chaired the Hall of Fame and Golf Day committees, works at auctions, speaker events, camps and clinics and has established a permanent endowment to support scholarships for future students. He is vice chair of the Capital Campaign for RIC, chair of the college's Steering and Investment committees and treasurer of the RIC Foundation. The 1969 RIC graduate owns Bourget & Associates, Inc., a financial consulting firm based in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. He was named the College's Alumnus of the Year in 1999.

NAADD University Division Donor of the Year
Edward and Nadine Carson, Arizona State University
Edward and Nadine Carson have been major contributors in the advancement of Arizona State University athletics. The Carsons, who met at ASU and graduated from there in the 1950s, recently completed the Campaign for Leadership, which raised more than $560 million. As the national co-chairs, they led a project that surpassed the original monetary goal by more than $260 million. They also contributed the lead gift toward the $19.1 million renovation of the Nadine and Ed Carson Student-Athlete Center, which will house the entire athletics department administration, operations program and coaching staff. The center features a 16,000 square foot strength and conditioning facility, an academic center, sports medicine/rehabilitation area, hall of fame and theater. Ed also was instrumental in helping to secure a $5 million naming rights sponsorship for the Wells Fargo Arena. A business and banking leader, Ed retired in 1995 as chair and CEO of First Interstate Bancorp. He has also been active in the foundation of numerous university groups. Nadine has dedicated her life to humanitarian efforts and has earned multiple awards for community service.

NAADD College Division Donor of the Year
William Reynolds, Sonoma State University
William Reynolds served as a professor of business at Sonoma State University for 20 years. He retired 12 years ago, but still assists the School of Business with various projects. He established the Margaret Reynolds Endowed Scholarship Fund for Athletics in 1994 when his wife passed away, and has increased the endowment each year with contributions to keep the fund as one of SSU's top athletics endowments. He was also an initial financial supporter of the Sonoma State Hall of Fame, which was established in 1998, and was as an inductee three years later. In the fall of 2001, he established the Ron Logsdon Men's Basketball Classic, a four-team tournament in memory of a recently deceased fellow faculty member. A fixture at all Cossack home events, Reynolds had a distinguished 20-year military career before graduating from SSU in 1969 with his degree in business management. He also holds an MBA from SSU.

NAADD University Division Fund Raiser of the Year
Brian Crockett, Rutgers University
Brian Crockett was named executive director of the Scarlet R Club at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey in 1993. Since then, annual gifts have consistently risen, reaching the $6 million mark in 2001, and more than 5,500 donors have become involved. With scholarships as a top priority, more than 380 students-athletes received $945,000 towards their studies in 2000. During Crockett's tenure, other major gifts or campaigns have resulted in improvements to women's basketball facilities, the track and field complex, a stadium expansion, an endowment fund for the band, numerous scholarships and an academic center for student-athletes. Crockett brought a background of corporate sales and marketing to his position at Rutgers, which has resulted in a more efficiently run department and an increase in annual gifts. He also serves on numerous committees that impact the fund-raising process at the university. A past president of NAADD, Crockett earned his undergraduate degree in health and physical education while staring on the football team at Rutgers.

NAADD College Division Fund Raiser of the Year
Erv Inniger, North Dakota State University
Erv Inniger came to North Dakota State University as a basketball coach in 1978 and was named associate athletics director for development and external relations in May 1992. In the last decade, he has raised close to $5 million from athletics endowments. Inniger is currently completing a $75,000 campaign for the renovation of the concession area, restrooms and storage building at the Ellig Sports Complex, which was completed this past spring. He has also spearheaded fund drives that resulted in the $6.2 million Newman Outdoor field, a $2.5 million project at Ellig Sports Complex, a new outdoor track facility, major improvements to the soccer fields and wrestling room and the establishment of endowment funds for almost every sport at NDSU. On the horizon for Inniger is a capital campaign for the remodeling of the Bison Sports Arena. A 2001 inductee into the NDSU Hall of Fame, Inniger played in the American Basketball Association after graduating with a degree in physical education from Indiana University in 1967. In 1975, he earned his master's degree in physical education at Saint Cloud State University.

NAADD Lifetime Achievement Award
Moyer Smith, University of North Carolina Educational Foundation, Inc.
Moyer Smith, current consultant and former president (1986-2001) of the Educational Foundation, Inc. at the University of North Carolina, successfully led capital campaigns for the building or refurbishing of six athletics facilities. These include the Kenan Stadium Project, Eddie Smith Field House, McCaskill Soccer Facility, Finley Golf Team Facility, Cone-Kenfield Tennis Complex and the Francis Henry Field Hockey and Lacrosse Facility. As Educational Foundation president, he doubled the number of donors and raised approximately $80 million in capital gifts, which resulted in more than $95 million being donated in endowments in his 15 years. During the university's Bicentennial (Academic) Campaign, the Educational Foundation contributed a top 10 gift of $3.6 million. Smith came to UNC in 1967 as an assistant football coach, before a short stint in a similar capacity at Florida State University. He returned to UNC in 1974 and was an assistant and then associate athletics director until 1980. Shortly thereafter, he became involved with the Educational Foundation. In 1993-94, he earned the school's Athletics Fund Raiser of the Year Award. Smith continues to serve the Educational Foundation on numerous boards and committees throughout the university, public and business communities. He is also heavily involved with local chapters of the American Cancer Society. Smith earned his bachelor and master's degrees from North Carolina in 1961 and 1965, respectively. He was also a three-year letterwinner for the Tar Heels' football team.