The following feature was written by SRU director of athletic communication Jon Holtz in celebration of longtime Mansfield University sports information director Steve McCloskey, who announced his retirement Feb. 13, 2017.


In the spring of 2005, I was in the middle of a hard workout on the track at Mansfield University, when the school's sports information director showed up at practice to ask my head coach a question. Halfway through a set of 200-meter sprints, I could care less, but that question would go on to effectively shape the next decade of my life. He asked: "Do you have any students that can write?" The answer from my coach was that "Jon is my only English major."
 
After my workout, I was offered a student-worker job on the spot. I had no interest in taking a job and turned it down. I was taking a heavy course load and practicing for anywhere from three to five hours each day. I didn't think I could balance working, classes and trying to lead the track and field team as a captain.

Fast-forward a few weeks to a fluke ankle injury that would sideline my running for a period of time. I reconsidered the original job offer and went to ask the SID if he was still in need of help. The rest, as they say, is history.
 
Nearly 12 years later I have that person to thank for so much in my life.

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It was announced this afternoon that Steve McCloskey, director of athletic operations and sports information at Mansfield University, will be retiring soon. I could not be happier that Steve will be getting some time to spend with his incredible wife, Pam, and their children, Katey Grace and Zach. While this no doubt is an exciting and beyond well-deserved opportunity for Steve and his family, it will also mean a great loss to Mansfield University and the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference. There is no individual that bleeds red and black or cares more about Mansfield than Steve McCloskey. He is the single most important person in my career path and the reason I am at Slippery Rock doing what I do, today.
 
My father passed away in 2001 when I was a high school senior, coincidentally enough on the same day that I was at Mansfield on my recruiting visit. I fell in love with the school, the campus and the guys I met that could potentially become my teammates the next year. Before I got home from Mansfield that day, my life changed forever when my mother called me from the hospital. Perhaps by some kind of unexplained cosmic intervention or the fact that it was my father who told me I couldn't miss that recruiting visit, I felt like I needed to attend Mansfield. I had no idea at that point in time that another person could ever fill such a significant mentorship role in my life.
 
I have two men to thank for that, the first being my track and field coach, Mike Rohl, and the second being Steve McCloskey. Coach Rohl gets all the credit for allowing me to come join the team after I was effectively half the runner I was when he offered me a spot on the team. He let me rediscover my passion on my own terms, with a few soft nudges here and there, and eventually entrusted me with the captaincy of his team. I have him to thank for pulling me out of a dark place and leading me to the day I met Steve. There is plenty more to say about coach Rohl, but that story will be for a different day.
 
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My first day in the sports information office at Mansfield was an eye-opener. Even as an athlete at the university, I really had no idea how much the sports information director was tasked with. It was beyond apparent early in my time in the office that to do this job well, you have to be passionate about doing things for other people and willing to sacrifice significant portions of your time. To this day, no person I have met in this profession cares more than Steve cared. If you put a typo in a game program or even worse, spelled someone's name wrong, you could see the veins in his forehead start pulsing. You knew then, that you were in for a lecture about how it's not just a simple mistake, but how that mistake gets viewed by the student-athlete in question and even how it is perceived by their parents and family members. Other people might not believe that a simple mistake could be so detrimental. Heck, I have seen plenty of student-athletes over the years that could care less what we do. But, not Steve. He built his entire career on the philosophy that anything he could do to better the experience of the student-athlete was worth doing, and that every little detail mattered. He got that from his mentors, one of which was the late Pete Nevins, who was the longtime SID at East Stroudsburg. It's a lesson he taught me early. Way before I knew that he was grooming me for a career in this industry. But not before he knew it.
 
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One of the lasting legacies that Steve will leave behind in his retirement is how many students he launched into this profession. There are former student-workers from the Mansfield sports information office all over the country working in this field at all levels, from Division I, II and III colleges to the NFL and ESPN. That's because Steve knew how to get the best out of his students. Without an assistant for the first 23 of his 28 years at Mansfield, it was simply impossible to accomplish all the tasks required by the office without students taking on real responsibilities.
 
I used to joke in the office with Pat Ross and our other student-workers that we did all the hard work while Steve just sat back and waited to write the story. That was obviously never true (ok, maybe once or twice) and what we couldn't realize then, was that Steve was preparing us for life. Even if we weren't going to go into this field after we graduated, we were getting real life work experience and were expected to think for ourselves. His quiet leadership and allowing the students to have actual responsibilities with measurable results was monumental in shaping the lives of hundreds of students that worked in that office. I can see that clear as day now, but finishing that first year in the office, I still had no idea.
 
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Following my junior year, Steve pulled me into his office for a meeting I will never forget. He told me he saw a potential in me that he had seen in many of his best students. He told me that he believed I could make a career out of sports information, if I wanted to. He asked if I would be interested in attending a workshop that summer for sports information professionals. Still slightly skeptical if this was what I wanted to do, I agreed to go with him. This was just another one of those times that Steve knew exactly what he was doing, while I had no idea. Those five days sealed the deal for me. It didn't hurt that he introduced me to some incredibly influential people in this business during the workshop. Or that he made me stand up and speak to a full room of professionals about the emergence of social media and where I thought companies like Facebook might have a role in our field in coming years (boy was I right about that one!). Before I even started my senior year, I had an offer on the table from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, because of that workshop. I tell my current students all the time that my path is fairly uncommon, especially considering the job market now. Students don't get offered positions a full year in advance of graduating. I did, because of Steve McCloskey.
 
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The fall of 2006 would prove to be a decisive time in my career development, and likely the most important in the shift in Steve's career over the last decade. Mansfield, the birthplace of the first night football game in 1892, decided to drop its football program following the 2006 season. It was a monumental blow to the morale of the school, the athletic department and most importantly Steve. He had built lasting relationships with hundreds of football players throughout his career. Many of those players, rightfully so to a degree, were extremely angry with the university after the decision. Steve took it upon himself to spearhead the fallout of that decision. He routinely traveled across the state to meet with groups of alumni to discuss a decision he didn't have anything to do with making. Steve knew what Mansfield football meant to those people. So it was worth his time to go see them in person and listen to their stories and opinions. Throughout all of this, Steve entrusted me with running most of the daily operations of the office. I was clearly not ready for it, but he believed in me and he made the coaches and administration at Mansfield believe in me too. I didn't realize it then, but it was the single greatest compliment someone has ever given me in my professional life, that he would let me take so much responsibility from him. It was easily the most important stretch in shaping my young career.
 
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After meeting with group after group and struggling with the idea of not having football games on Saturday's at Mansfield, Steve decided to spearhead an effort to bring football back to the university. He reached out to the Collegiate Sprint Football League, a league with the same rules as NCAA football, but with a weight limit, smaller roster sizes, less recruiting costs, less games, less travel and significantly less expenses. He traveled to what was at the time the five members of the league, learning about the sport and what it took to get started. He took that knowledge and information and spearheaded the charge to bring the sport to Mansfield, a campaign that was successful and resulted in only one year without football on Saturday afternoons at Mansfield. He managed to get Mansfield into the same league as Army, Navy, Cornell, Penn and Princeton. Instead of playing road games 70 miles away at Lock Haven, the Mansfield football players would now get to play games at West Point and Annapolis. Mansfield joining the CSFL was also great for the league, as it shined a light on the path smaller schools could take to adding football. Less than a decade later, the league has added four more programs, nearly doubling in size. I struggle to think that would be possible without Steve McCloskey.
 
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Since then, Steve has been monumental in Mansfield renovating its stadium and adding lights, leading to some of the biggest campus events in the last decade. The annual "Light Up Mansfield Again" events draw some of the top crowds in the conference, including an NCAA record crowd for a field hockey game and sprint football crowds that rival some of the top heavyweight football crowds in the PSAC. Steve has delivered Mansfield to the front page of the Wall Street Journal. He has landed television contracts to have Mansfield sprint football shown on ESPN 3. He has shifted his roles, had his department moved, had his office moved and leveled to make way for new dorms and seen multiple athletic and university administrators change around him. Through all of that, Steve never lost his vision for the office, that what they did in that office mattered. Even if it only mattered to one student-athlete, it was worth it. That's going to be his lasting legacy. The impact he was able to have, even if the student-athletes didn't realize it at the time, and the way he was able to improve the student-athlete experience for thousands of athletes.
 
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Steve has been honored with just about every sports information award you can receive in this profession. Last year, he was inducted into the CoSIDA Hall of Fame. Instead of writing about how important that was to his career, he wrote a story about how it was the best Father's Day gift he could have received because he had his wife and kids with him in Texas when he was inducted. I was there too, because I wouldn't miss that for the world. It was that day, sitting at the table with a family I consider second to my own, that I realized that Steve was getting close to hanging it up. There's nothing left for him to do in his career. He has served Mansfield with absolute class and no matter what the adversity, he always put Mansfield on his back and marched ahead to try to make others love the university as much as he does. He gave so much of himself to Mansfield. To the student-athletes. To his student-workers. To me. Even while bending over backwards for so many people, Steve never lost sight of the most important thing in his life – his family. It was so easy to see on that day last summer when he was inducted into the Hall of Fame. It's finally time for Pam, Katey Grace and Zach to get all of that passion and energy. And I couldn't be happier for all of them.
 
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Steve taught me a great deal about the profession and even more about being a good leader. Many of the things we do with our staff at Slippery Rock are direct results of things learned from Steve. Things like putting serious responsibilities in the hands of student-workers. Things like giving students a chance to build a portfolio while they work towards their degree. Things like taking students to workshops and trying to help them launch their careers, whether it be in this field or a different field. Things like striving to make sure the things we do and the product we put out enhances the student-athlete experience and grows the reputation of the institution. We do these things at Slippery Rock, because I learned them from Steve McCloskey.
 
He also taught me a great deal about being a good person and remembering priorities. I'm still working on that one, and probably will be forever, but I often lean on Steve's story and his dedication to his family when I am struggling to find a balance between 75-hour work weeks and making time for myself and Andie. I still need to do better at walking that line and I'm sure it's something he will continue to guide me on.
 
I can't thank Steve enough for what he has done for me, personally and professionally. I am so grateful to call him one of my absolute best friends and one of the most important people in my life. Congratulations on one of the most outstanding careers in sports information history, Steve, and thank you for showing so many people for so long how to do things the right way. I'll keep trying to follow in your giant footsteps.