CALGARY – The University of Calgary Dinos will honour the extraordinary career of Jack Neumann with a retirement celebration in early September, the Department of Athletics announced Tuesday.

The Jack Neumann Retirement Celebration will take place Thursday, Sept. 6 in the Jack Simpson Gym. Proceeds from the event will support the Jack Neumann Sports Information Endowment, which will provide funding to the communications office for the Dinos, as well as student-athlete scholarships, in perpetuity.

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Neumann, who served as Sports Information Director for the Dinos from 1978-2007, has spent the last five years as Alumni Development Coordinator. He will retire from a 34-year career at the University of Calgary on June 30.

A native of Saskatoon, Neumann was hired in 1978 and quickly became a trailblazer in Canadian university athletics. A tireless supporter and promoter of Dinos student-athletes, Jack was also a champion of the sports information profession. He served as president of the Canadian SID association, and won several awards from the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) for his outstanding work. He remains the only Canadian to have ever served on CoSIDA's Board of Directors (1990-92), and in 2004 he became the first Canadian SID to be inducted into the organization's Hall of Fame. That same year, he organized the CoSIDA convention in Calgary – the only time it has ever been held outside the United States.

Later this summer, Jack will be presented with CoSIDA's Warren Berg Award, recognizing his longtime contributions to the profession, at the annual convention in St. Louis – his 27th trip. It's the latest in a long line of honours, which include the Order of the University of Calgary (2005), the Calgary Italian Sportsman's Club lifetime achievement award (2005), induction into the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame (2006), and the Dinos Football Distinguished Alumni Award (2008) – the only time the award has been presented to a non-player.

In his fundraising role over the last five years, Jack has helped raise more than $1 million for athletic scholarships for Dinos student-athletes.

“Jack's contributions to the University of Calgary, Dinos Athletics, the student-athletes, and the alumni are vast,” says Dr. Dennis Kadatz, athletic director from 1964-84 and honourary chair of the event. “He has helped bring national and international prominence to the university, he has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars, he has launched the careers for many student-athletes by opening doors upon their graduation, and he has helped the alumni raise hundreds of thousands more dollars on their various fundraising endeavours.”

Tickets are now on sale for $150 each or $1,200 per table of eight. For more information on the event, to purchase tickets, or to donate to the Jack Neumann Sports Information Endowment, please visit www.goDINOS.com/Jack.

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