Harry Paidas: Lenny's legacy will live through others

In 2019, my friend and colleague Lenny Reich, who passed away recently, was recognized by the national professional organization, CoSIDA, with the Warren Berg Award, a national award that goes to one person annually who has made outstanding contributions to the field of college sports information and who has brought dignity and prestige to the profession.

This was a high honor that he cherished and richly deserved, as his work at Mount Union was exemplary. Prior to receiving the award, Lenny asked that I be the author of his recognition piece that was a part of the program that described the award recipients.

I was truly honored that Lenny asked me to be his author. Lenny and I have had a lot in common, including working for two Ohio Athletic Conference institutions that we grew to love – Capital and Mount Union.  His work in public relations and sports information at Mount was first class. His death has left a void in all of our lives but the marks he has left behind are permanent.

As a tribute to Lenny, I have reproduced the piece that accompanied his award at the 2019 national convention:

While today’s sports information function has gotten complex, the key characteristic remains as fundamental as always – communication.And appropriately, communication is a core element of this year’s CoSIDA Warren Berg Award winner, Lenny Reich, sports information director/assistant to the athletic director, at the University of Mount Union.The Berg Award is presented annually to a college division member who has made outstanding contributions to the field of college sports information, and who by his or her activities, has brought dignity and prestige to the profession.The age-old debate about the role of the sports information director in terms of media needs versus coaches’ needs will likely rage on, but Reich has found the perfect balance between supplying the media with what they need to be effective and keeping the coaches happy.In the athletic communications field for 22 years, another important factor in Reich’s success has been his ability to adapt. He’s old enough to remember the days of drive charts and mimeograph machines, yet he has been able to stay ahead of the curve with the rapidly changing technology and has become a small-college guru of social media.Ironically, despite Reich’s climb to the top of his profession, the sports information field was not high on his list of choices when he was a student at Georgia Southern University in the mid-1990s.“I was actually the equipment manager for the baseball team when I was a student,” Reich said. “But I used to observe how hard all the SIDs would work and all the hours they had to put in and I remember saying to myself that I didn’t want that job.”As his career began to evolve however, he found that he had a knack and the communication skills to effectively take on sports information functions. This change of heart occurred when he interned his senior year at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, located just 30 miles from his hometown of Erie.“Knowing that I wanted to get into athletics in some capacity, I realized that nearly every college had a sports information director and my best shot at a job was sports information,” Reich said. “At Edinboro I was doing a little of everything and decided sports information was my strongest suit and best chance to have a career in athletics.”After a number of stints at Centenary (N.J.), the Gulf Coast Conference, Marian, and Defiance, Reich landed the sports information director’s position at Capital University in Columbus, Ohio. While at Defiance, Reich met Helen West and had the wherewithal to know what every sports information director needs to know – your life’s partner had better have an understanding of what lies ahead.“Helen said that if we could stay in Ohio, which is where most of her family lives, that she could deal with the quirks of sports information,” Reich said. “And now, after 19 years of marriage, she, my daughter Caroline and all of our family have been unbelievably supportive.”

Reich’s eight-year stay at Capital proved to be a turning point. Although a Division III school in the Ohio Athletic Conference living in the shadow of Ohio State, he made numerous contacts with the state’s media and became widely recognized as one of the best SIDs in the high-profile OAC.Those contacts helped him land a job as sports information director at Mount Union where, at the time, the Purple Raiders had reeled off nine NCAA Division III national championships in football. Reich proved to be the perfect fit for the high-profile athletic program at Mount Union because his experience was needed to maintain and enhance the image and reputation of Mount Union.Reich had the advantage of national exposure due to the success of Mount Union’s football and track programs and, given the modest budgets in Division III, he has maximized the publicity by being efficient. Often a one-person show, Reich has been able to recruit work-study students and an intern or two to try and meet the rising demand.Perhaps the best testament to Reich’s abilities is the number of his former students who are currently in the athletic communications profession. While the coaching tree of legendary former Mount Union head football coach and athletic director Larry Kehres has numerous branches in the collegiate and high school ranks, Reich’s sports information branches reach far and wide as well.According to Josh Reilly, current sports information director at Mercyhurst University, who was Reich’s first assistant SID at Mount Union, the award is well-deserved.“You can see the impact Lenny has had in sports information with what we have termed the ‘Lenny Reich Tree’,” Reilly said. “Several of his students and assistants can be found at every level of the NCAA and NAIA; it just shows the solid reputation he has throughout college athletics. It is no secret that Lenny is a great teacher, mentor and friend.”Reich became one of the pioneers of using appropriate social media to promote programs. Kehres also has Reich conduct meetings with student-athletes on the proper uses of social media as well as ways to conduct themselves with the media.“Lenny has brought a professionalism to sports information that has been a benefit to our student-athletes and to the university as a whole,” Kehres said. “He has an excellent grasp of the sports information field and has taken on some other aspects of our athletic program as well.”Essentially, Lenny Reich has come full circle – having started his career with a potpourri of mundane responsibilities and now, in the prime of his career, juggling a series of varied vital responsibilities.The difference of course is that he has gone from looking at the sports information field with reticence to receiving the ultimate achievement – being the best in his profession – the Warren Berg Award. 

Rest in peace, Lenny.  And may your memory be eternal.

Harry Paidas is faculty emeritus at Mount Union and writes a monthly column for The Review.  He can be reached at paidashp@mountunion.edu. 

This article originally appeared on The Alliance Review: Harry Paidas: Lenny's legacy will live through others