Pete Schlehr served as Towson’s Director of Athletic Media Relations for 36 years before retiring in 2011.
Upon graduation from Towson in 1971 he was employed by The Aegis Newspaper as its Sports Editor before accepting a position on the sports staff of The Baltimore News-American. During his years with that Hearst daily he covered amateur, high school and college sports. He was named the Sports Information Director at his alma mater in December, 1975.
A long-time member of the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA), Schlehr was the recipient of numerous publications awards. In 2012 he received CoSIDA’s Lifetime Achievement Award presented at its annual convention in St. Louis, Mo.
From 1976 to 1978, Schlehr also served as the Information Director for the Mason-Dixon Conference. He was the publicity director for the Greater Baltimore Chapter of the National Football Foundation and Hall of Fame for seven years, subsequently receiving the NFF’s Sportsmanship Award.
Schlehr never missed a Tiger football game during his 36 years as he witnessed the program’s development from NCAA Division III status to Division II affiliation to its current FCS standing. He covered 378 consecutive games, a streak that ranks as fifth longest in CoSIDA history.
In addition, Schlehr covered more than 1,100 Tiger men's basketball games, serving as the media coordinator for the NCAA South Atlantic Regionals in 1977 and 1978. From 1984 to 1991 he was the Media Coordinator for the East Coast Conference Basketball Tournament.
As the men’s lacrosse contact for three decades, Schlehr worked more than 450 games for the Tigers. In 1982 he was the media director for the World Lacrosse Games when Baltimore hosted teams from the United States, Canada, England and Australia. In 1992 Schlehr became the first college media relations official to receive the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association’s prestigious Doyle Smith Media Award.
He served as the official scorer for five NCAA Division I men's lacrosse championship games. In 2003 and 2004, he was the media coordinator for the NCAA Men’s National Lacrosse Championships in M&T Bank Stadium, home of the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens. It was the first time this NCAA Championship had been taken off the college campus and held in a professional sports venue. He was instrumental in introducing computerized statistics for this event during those two championships.
In 2011 he was the recipient of the Towson University Alumni Association’s Athletic Volunteer Service Award. He was also honored with the Ed Molen Service to Tiger Football Award that same year. In 2015 he was inducted into Towson’s Athletics Hall of Fame.
