University of Kentucky Assistant Athletics Director for Athletics Communications and Public Relations Tony Neely — whose career in college athletics spans 42 years, including more than three decades with the Wildcats — has been named to the 2025 College Sports Communicators (CSC) Hall of Fame and winner of the prestigious Arch Ward Award.
Kicking off our week of 2025 Special Awards announcements by celebrating the College Sports Communicators Hall of Fame Class of 2025!
— College Sports Communicators (@CollSportsComm) January 6, 2025
Congrats to:
⭐️ Lonza Hardy, Jr. (@BRAVESSPORTS, @SouthernUsports, @theswac, @MEACSports)
⭐️ Larry Hymel (@LionUpAthletics / @oursoutheastern)
⭐️… pic.twitter.com/Y6fE5lb4nA
The Arch Ward Award is part of the CSC Special Awards, being announced throughout the week of January 6-9. The award is presented for outstanding contributions to the winner’s institution, the field of athletic communications, and to CSC’s mission.
“Tony has been unbelievably selfless advancing the accomplishments of others in a career spanning decades,” UK Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart said. “He has spent thousands of hours promoting other peoples’ awards and accolades, so these recognitions for him are pretty cool. Congratulations to Tony and his wife Terri. The Neely’s have devoted so much time and effort in service to others. We couldn’t be more thankful for them.”The CSC Hall of Fame class will be honored at the 2025 CSC annual convention in June in Orlando. The convention is held in conjunction with NACDA and Affiliates Convention Week.
For 31 years, Neely has given distinguished service to UK where he currently serves as Assistant AD for Communications and Public Relations.
His athletic communications career began in 1978 as an undergraduate at Vanderbilt University, and Neely spent 16 years in communications at his alma mater from 1978-94. He started as a student assistant at Vanderbilt in 1978 and was hired full-time as an assistant sports information director before finishing his final semester as a student. He was promoted to associate SID in 1990 and then to sports information director just two years later. In 1994, he accepted the SID position at Kentucky.
Under Neely's direction, the UK’s communications/public relations staff has been named one of the best in the country by the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) three times.
Neely has served eight years on the CSC Professional Development and Continuing Education Committee, where he is one of the key moderators for convention sessions and webinars. Throughout his career, he has also served on CSC committees for NCAA Legislative Liaison, Postgraduate Scholarship, and Publications Award Publicity.
During his tenure, Neely earned his 25-year Award at the 2018 CSC Convention and has won numerous publications and writing awards in the CSC Fred S. Stabley Sr. Writing Contest. He also co-wrote the official University of Kentucky book commemorating the UK 1998 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament championship.
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