St. Louis, Mo. – There's no greater purpose in life than service to others and the Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) duly recognized Missouri S&T Sports Information Director
John Kean for his numerous contributions to the conference with his selection as the 2017-18 Dr. Thomas Kearns Service Award recipient during the 2018 Enterprise Rent-A-Car GLVC Spring Awards Reception this Tuesday (May 22) evening in St. Louis, Mo.
Kean has served as the Sports Information Director at Missouri S&T for the past 28 years while the Miners have been GLVC members since 2004. In his role on campus, Kean has oversight of the entire athletics communications effort for the school's 17 sports and has also served on various committees within the Conference and the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) organization.
The Dr. Thomas Kearns Service Award is presented to an individual or group which has contributed to the success of the GLVC as it relates to the NCAA Division II attributes of learning, balance, resourcefulness, sportsmanship, passion and service. The Award is named in honor of Dr. Thomas Kearns, who was Northern Kentucky's faculty athletic representative for 23 years and provided unparalleled service to the GLVC during those two-plus decades.
"Obviously, this is a tremendous honor that the GLVC bestowed upon me," said Kean. "Dr. Kearns was so instrumental in the development of the conference and to receive the award with his name on it is very humbling. My thanks go out to those involved in the process."
Along with CoSIDA, Kean has also been heavily involved with the Division II Sports Information Directors of America (D2SIDA), serving as an at-large board member with the Division II group and as the D2SIDA president, where he has helped organize the divisional day as part of the annual convention. Kean has also played a vital role in the updated D2SIDA strategic document. Prior to his term as president in 2014, Kean served as vice president and member of the D2SIDA board. In that role, he attended the last four NCAA Conventions as the D-II representative for a CoSIDA leadership group that meets at the convention and also serves as vice-chair on the College Division Management Advisory Committee (CDMAC) for CoSIDA.
With the GLVC, Kean has had stints on the Scheduling Committee and the programming subcommittee during the creation of the GLVC Sports Network. He has worked as the statistician at five GLVC Basketball Championship Tournaments and covered many other duties at various league championship events throughout the years.
The Florissant, Mo., native has assisted with media operations at five of the last six NCAA Basketball Elite Eight tournaments and was the internal public address announcer at the 2017 D-II Football Championship game.
In each of his roles, Kean has provided a significant amount of leadership and service to the GLVC and its membership, having been at the forefront of media relations in NCAA Division II while working diligently to focus on and celebrate the Miners' student-athletes as well as those from other Conference member schools. Throughout his tenure, Kean has immersed himself in the Conference and national business of media relations along with making a significant and positive impact on both. Kean is highly respected by his colleagues not only in the GLVC but nationally due to his strong leadership and service.
Kean has unselfishly volunteered to assist the league office in administering numerous championship events, including several which Missouri S&T hasn't been a participant, while also being instrumental on campus in assuring quality game management for both Conference and non-conference regular season games along with GLVC Championship events hosted by S&T in Rolla, Mo.
