IOWA CITY, Iowa – University of Iowa Assistant Athletic Director of Communications Steve Roe has been elected to the College Sports of Information Directors Hall of Fame. The announcement was made Monday by CoSIDA.
Roe has worked in athletics communications for 42 years, including the past 32 at the University of Iowa. He joined the Iowa sports information staff in 1990 as an assistant and was promoted to associate director in 1997. He was named interim director of athletics communications in 2010 and assumed the department’s top position in 2011. He is only the fourth sports information director in the history of the department dating back to 1923.
Roe succeeded Eric Wilson (1923-68), George Wine (1963-93) and Phil Haddy (1993-2010). Wilson and Wine are both members of the COSIDA Hall of Fame.
Prior to Iowa, Roe oversaw the sports information operation for all athletic programs at Drake University for three years. While at Drake, he served as the media director for the nationally recognized Drake Relays. Before arriving at Drake, Roe was the SID at Northwestern State, a graduate assistant sports information director at Northeast Louisiana and an undergraduate intern at Buena Vista University.
Over the course of his 32 years at Iowa, Roe has worked with 24 athletic programs. He has spent over three decades with the Iowa football program under legendary head coaches Hayden Fry and Kirk Ferentz. Roe was the secondary football contact for 16 seasons (1994-2009) and the primary contact the past 12 years (2010-2021).
Roe helped promote five football student-athletes to individual national postseason awards and 16 football student-athletes to consensus All-America status.
Roe has been a fixture on the bowl scene since 1990, working 21 bowl games, including the 2016 Rose Bowl and multiple Orange, Citrus, Outback, Alamo, Insight and Sun bowls.
In 2007, Roe penned the book “Hawkeyes For Life,” a look inside Hawkeye nation that details how Iowa fans have supported their school’s storied and successful teams over the years.
Roe worked 19 seasons alongside Tom Davis, Steve Alford and Todd Lickliter as primary contact for Iowa men’s basketball. During that time, he worked nine NCAA Championships and was part of two Big Ten Tournament championship teams. One of Roe’s biggest achievements as the basketball SID was creating the All-Century Team. Roe organized the selection process with recognition activities taking place throughout the 2001-02 season.
Roe championed his student staff, mentoring and empowering numerous interns who went on to have successful professional careers. Roe also worked numerous NCAA events over the years, including wrestling, men’s and women’s basketball, gymnastics, softball, golf, swimming, and track and field, to name a few.
Roe has attended and been involved in over 20 CoSIDA conventions, serving as an attendee and a panelist.
Roe volunteered at the Men’s Basketball Final Four for 12 years and has contributed his time and wisdom at over 100 Big Ten/NCAA championship events for nearly four decades. In 2008, Roe earned CoSIDA’s 25-year Award.
Roe and the six members of the 2022 Hall of Fame Class will be honored at CoSIDA’s 65th annual convention June 26-29 at Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas.
Roe is an Iowa City native. He and his wife Janet have two adult children, Nike (Jeff) Fleming and James Roe, and three grandchildren, Teagan, Jack and Lydia.
