Bob Cornell is in his 33rd year as Colgate's Director of Athletic Communications. He is responsible for all publicity and public relation matters concerning the Raider athletic department. The Athletic Communications office handles the compilation and distribution of all information on 25 intercollegiate sports, encompassing both men's and women's athletics.
He is the primary contact for football, men's basketball, and softball. He has worked 376 consecutive football games which is the fifth longest active streak in the nation among sports information directors.
Prior to being named Sports Information Director at Colgate in May of 1976, Cornell held positions as Assistant Sports Information Director at Princeton University and Sports Information Director at the University of New Haven.
In July of 2001, Cornell was inducted into the College Sports Information Directors Association Hall of Fame. On September 19, 2003 he was inducted into the SUNY-Cobleskill Athletic Hall of Fame and on Dec. 4, 2003 he received the Scoop Hudgins Outstanding Sports Information Director Award from the All-American Football Foundation. In June of 2006, he was the recipient of a Maroon Citation given to him by the Colgate Alumni Corporation for his record of service to the university.
During his career in the sports information field, he has served as a press liaison for numerous NCAA and ECAC championships and regional events, including Media Coordinator of the NCAA Division I Golf Championships in 1977.
He served on the press liaison staff for the U.S. Olympic Committee at the 1984 Olympic Summer Games in Los Angeles and the 1988 Olympic Winter Games in Calgary. In addition, he was on the press liaison staff at four Olympic Festivals (1981, '82, '83, '87).
He has served on the Site Selection, Post-Graduate Scholarship, and Ethics Committees of the College Sports Information Directors of America. Cornell is a past president of the Eastern College Athletic Conference Sports Information Directors Association, and the 1992 recipient of the Irving T. Marsh Service Bureau Award, presented annually to the sports information director who has contributed the most to the work of the Bureau during the year and throughout his or her career.
A native of Rochester, New York, Cornell received his B.A. in Business Administration from the University of New Haven and an AAS in Business Administration from SUNY-Cobleskill. He holds membership in several professional organizations. Cornell resides in Hamilton with his wife Shirley and their two children, Rob and Ashley.
John Gilger
Assistant Director
1st year
HAMILTON, N.Y. (8/7/08) - John Gilger has been named assistant director of athletic communications. He will serve as the primary publicity contact for the Raiders’ field hockey, men’s ice hockey, swimming & diving, as well as women’s lacrosse program.
A native of Oil City, Pa., Gilger comes to Colgate after serving two years as sports information director at Hartwick College. During his tenure with the Hawks, he promoted a 17-sport intercollegiate athletic department, two on the NCAA Division I level and 15 that reside in the Division III ranks. In 2007, he promoted two student-athletes who gained All-American accolades as well as Jason Boltus, the recipient of the Melberger Award, one of the most prestigious awards handed out in Division III football.
Following college, Gilger began his 15-year career in sports information with a two-year internship at Southwest Texas State in San Marcos, Texas. Since that period, he spent a year at East Carolina to fulfill requirements of his master’s degree, as well as two years as an assistant at New Mexico State and East Tennessee State. In July of 1999, Gilger was named the first-ever sports information director at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, where he initiated the media relations efforts from scratch and publicized a then brand new NCAA Division I athletic department.
During his career, he has had the opportunity to work at a variety of sporting events, including the 1993 World University Games in Buffalo, N.Y., where he served as an assistant venue press chief for women’s basketball.
Gilger is a 1990 graduate of the University of Denver, where he received his bachelor’s degree in mass communications and a minor in speech communications. A few years later, he returned to school and completed a master’s degree in sports administration from St. Thomas University in Miami, Fla.
Gilger, who also holds a post baccalaureate certificate in legal studies from Sullivan University (Lexington, Ky.), resides in Hamilton with his two labs – Dudley and Barkley (named after his favorite all-time basketball player).
