RICHARDSON, Texas –– The University of Texas at Dallas was voted by its peers as the winner of the American Southwest Conference Sports Information Department of the Year award for the 2011-12 academic season. UTD was honored on Thursday (Aug. 2) during the annual ASC SID meeting at DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Dallas Near the Galleria.
 
Texas-Dallas’ Associate Athletic Director of Media Relations is Bruce Unrue, who has served in that capacity for the past nine years. Unrue has been assisted full time by Assistant Athletic Director of Media Relations Dave Wester since 2010. The duo received assistance from Amber Gullatte and several student workers during 2011-12.
 
“Bruce Unrue and Dave Wester are the consummate tandem,” UT Dallas Athletic Director Chris Gage said. “For many years, Bruce was a one-man operation successfully performing the multitude of sports information tasks with detail, accuracy, enthusiasm and a tireless energy. With Dave as part of our staff for two years, we have been able to expand the many services of media relations and sports information to a new medium and an increased population with the continued professionalism of the past. They are continuously exploring new avenues to promote, market and tell the UT Dallas story to the faculty, staff, student body, parents, alumni and fans of Comet athletics through print and/or electronic means with precision and creativity.”
 
Unrue became UTD’s first full-time sports information director in 2003, and now oversees management and presentation of UTD's home athletic events. In addition, he is responsible for the design and production of all departmental publications and marketing materials, as well as the management of the UTD Athletics website.
 
A native of Abilene, Texas, Unrue has been in the sports management/marketing business for almost 20 years. He began his career as a sports writer for the Abilene Reporter-News and was the SID and Assistant Director of Public Relations at McMurry University from 1981-85. After spending 10 years running his own advertising and marketing business, Unrue joined the Texas-Louisiana Professional Baseball League as an Assistant General Manager of the Abilene Prairie Dogs, and the league's Director of Communications. In addition to his work for UTD, Unrue serves as the Official Scorer for the Fort Worth Cats professional baseball club.
 
Unrue earned his bachelor’s degree in journalism and speech communications from McMurry in 1980. He has also completed several post-graduate courses on advertising/marketing, publications design and website design and management.
 
Wester oversees the gameday statistical operations and handles the majority of game-scoring duties. In addition, he provides the majority of content for the UTD website and serves as media liason.
 
Wester came to UTD after spending five years as the Director of Sports Information at Angelo State University. Prior to his stint at ASU, Wester held a similar position at Southeastern Oklahoma State University from 2000-05. A native of Oologah, Okla., Wester received his bachelor's degree in mass communications from Oklahoma City University in 1995. He also spent five years in the sports information office at the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) in Tulsa, Okla.
 
In 2011-12, Unrue, Wester and their staff handled the media duties for the ASC Volleyball Championship Tournament and first round of the ASC Baseball Championship Tournament. They provided coverage for 12 ASC tournament-qualifying teams, three ASC division title squads, one NCAA tournament team and two all-Americans. In addition, Unrue and Wester both helped score multiple games at the ASC Softball First Pitch Tournament, while Unrue created the conference tournament program cover art for softball and golf.
 
The ASC Sports Information Department of the Year award is presented by following voting by the membership’s SID’s. All departments are eligible for the honor. The 2011-12 award is the fourth in the history of the league. Texas Lutheran (Tim Clark and Patrick Zarate) took the inaugural honor in 2008-09, followed by Mary Hardin-Baylor (Jon Wallin) and Hardin-Simmons (Chad Grubbs).
 
 
ALL-TIME ASC SPORTS INFORMATION DEPARTMENT OF THE YEAR WINNERS

Academic Year          School (Staff)
2011-12                       University of Texas at Dallas (Bruce Unrue, Dave Wester)
2010-11                       Hardin-Simmons University (Chad Grubbs)
2009-10                       University of Mary Hardin-Baylor (Jon Wallin)
2008-09                       Texas Lutheran University (Tim Clark, Patrick Zarate)