Hall of Fame
Dan O’Connell devoted over 35 years of his professional life in athletic media relations to Towson University. However, his career in the communications field began well before he signed on with the Tigers.
As a high school junior at Fairfield Prep in Connecticut he worked as a sportswriter for The Fairfield Citizen until 1971 when he entered nearby Loyola College where he majored in English. It wasn’t long before he joined the staff of The Greyhound, the school’s student newspaper, rising quickly to the position of sports editor. After two years Dan was recruited by Loyola’s Office of Public Relations, serving as an undergraduate assistant from 1974 to 1976, working primarily with the men’s basketball program.
In 1977 he was appointed Sports Information Director at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, a position he held for two years. In 1979 he began his lengthy association with the Tigers.
Dan excelled at promoting the Tigers’ teams and student-athletes on local, regional and national stages. His commitment to the promotion of their academic success as well as their athletic accomplishments developed into a national position with the College Sports Information Directors of America when he served on CoSIDA’s signature outreach program, the Academic All-America committee, for 27 years. He eventually rose to the position of vice-chairman for public relations.
In 2008 he received CoSIDA’s prestigious Lester Jordan Award for his longtime service on that committee. In 2016 he received CoSIDA’s Lifetime Achievement Award. During his tenure six Towson student-athletes were honored as NCAA Post-Graduate Scholarship recipients; they remain the only Tigers to date to be so recognized.
A past ECAC-SIDA president, he was selected as the ECAC’s Irving T. Marsh Service Award recipient, an honor that recognizes excellence in the field of sports information. He served as P.R. Director for the East Atlantic Gymnastics League (EAGL) from 2000-04.
Among his duties at Towson he was responsible for the supervision of the student staff and the media relations intern program, mentoring numerous graduates who went on to careers in media relations and journalism. For nearly 25 years he served on Towson’s Hall of Fame selection committee, providing background information on all nominees.
His penchant for detail led to the compilation of archival records and important historical references for Towson’s 23 sports. The recipient of many publications awards, his 2009 Tiger Football Media Guide was rated second in the nation in the Football Championship Subdivision.
Over his career he developed a competency for statistics keeping. While guiding Towson’s media relations office through the evolution of computerized stats, his reputation as a sports statistician grew, initially working television and radio broadcasts of NFL games. He served as the Assistant Director of Statistics for the Baltimore Ravens. He was the team’s radio statistician at the 2001 XXXV Super Bowl. Prior to his NFL position he was the official statistician for the Baltimore Stallions of the Canadian Football League.
