'Very special': Ellwood City's Doug Tammaro grateful to receive Katha Quinn Award

Ellwood City native Doug Tammaro has been around in the college athletics landscape for almost three decades working in the media relations field with Notre Dame, Cincinnati and Arizona State. Earlier this month, his work in the field was recognized during an awards ceremony at the Final Four in Glendale, Ariz. as he was named the 2024 recipient for the Katha Quinn Award.

Even though Tammaro has been away from the Pittsburgh area while serving as Arizona State University’s Senior Athletic Director of Media Relations, the Beaver County native still is drawn back to his Western Pennsylvania roots after receiving the Katha Quinn Award.

“Growing up in Ellwood City in the time that I did in the 1980s, I grew up watching sports in the Big East Conference,” Tammaro said to the Beaver County Times. “Watching Michael Graham, Pearl Washington and the St. John’s team, to know someone like Katha Quinn who was doing public relations and doing this profession years ago in the 80s when I was just a high school kid playing basketball myself, to have my name associated with hers, is very special because of the way her story resonates in our business.”

Since 1988, the Katha Quinn Award has recognized athletic administrators and Sports Information Directors such as Tammaro for their extensive work in the field along with guiding individuals who are looking to pursue a career in the journalism profession.

The award was first given to Quinn who served as the Sports Information Director at St. John’s University to recognize the work that she did at the 1987 Pan American games while battling terminal liver cancer.

While not knowing her story previously, Tammaro first found out about Quinn’s work while serving as the 2005 media coordinator at the Final Four.

Learning her story during that time was important to him as it was the first year that Tammaro was holding “Pat’s Run” in honor of the late Pat Tillman who passed away in 2004. Hearing Quinn’s story gave the media relations director the motivation to give the same energy and enthusiasm to Pat’s Run as Quinn did throughout her work at St. John’s and the Pan American Games.

“I was put onto the media relations committee by Bill Hancock back in 2005 and I started going to the luncheon about 20 years ago and Jim O’Connell a writer for the Associated Press used to tell the story of Katha [Quinn]," Tammaro said. "I would go to this luncheon and hear this great story that O’Connell would tell and talk about how great she was. The way that he would tell the story and the one during my first luncheon in 2005 was the first year that we were doing Pat’s Run.

"Hearing that story from Jim O’Connell was important to me because if I can portray and show my energy to my friend Pat Tillman who passed away the same way that Jim did to Katha Quinn, it was the perfect way to represent your friend and admire your friend who had passed away.”

During his time in the profession, he has had the opportunity to work with former Katha Quinn award winner and fellow Western Pennsylvania native Roger Valdiserri, who won the award back in 1993.

Being recognized for the same award that Valdiserri won three decades earlier meant a lot to Tammaro, who was taken under Valdiserri’s wing when he interned for Notre Dame.

"Being associated with Valdiserri, who also won the award, means a lot to me,” Tammaro said. “I was the intern and he was the retiring Senior Associate AD and he took me under his wing and made sure that I had some free pizza lunches and dinners with him. Before he passed away a few years ago, he lived out here [in Arizona] part-time so I would get together with him for lunch a few times a year during his six months here.

"We stayed in touch and I have stayed in touch with his son over the years. He would always tell me to be like a duck staying smooth in the water while paddling like crazy underneath it. That is how I go and do my job.”

While at Arizona State, Tammaro has served as the media coordinator on a national stage at three Final Fours over the course of his career.

While serving as the media coordinator at those events Tammaro has had the opportunity to attend the awards luncheon where the Katha Quinn award is presented, but this year to receive the award in front of his friends, colleagues and extended family, it was extra special for the media relations director.

“It was such a busy weekend for me because I was the local media coordinator for the Final Four and there is so much to do there, but to be able to take a pause and thank people from where I grew up like Al Campman, my high school coach, who still means the world to me, and Sean Miller and his family, it was a very special moment," Tammaro said. "Sean and I grew up with each other from kindergarten through the ninth grade, we were neighbors and he was the one who taught us work ethic and goals. It was great to mention those two individuals among others because they were people that put me in this spot to carve out a living for three decades.

“To go to this year's luncheon and have my friend Dave Warlock of the NCAA present me as the award winner, it was really neat because my in-laws were able to go and had them in town for the Final Four and there were about 12 of them there and the Final Four Committee that I am on, I didn’t know that they were going to be there but they took a break and they were able to see the presentation.”

Along with his work on the national stage, Tammaro also has served as the school’s Sports Information Director for the Sun Devils' men’s basketball team throughout his tenure with the university.

The Katha Quinn Award was awarded to Tammaro due to the extensive work that he has done for the Sun Devils' athletics program, but the award also entails the work that the individual does helping students begin their careers in the field of media and public relations.

During his time as the school’s Sports Information Director, Tammaro has had the opportunity to help guide a multitude of student assistants who have interned in the athletic department to successful careers in the field of public and media relations over his 30-year tenure.

Having the opportunity to mentor the up-and-coming professionals in the media and public relations industry has been one of the more rewarding experiences of his career.

“Nothing makes me more proud than seeing one of our students or assistants doing well elsewhere," Tammaro said. "The field that we work in hasn’t gotten any easier. It has gotten harder. So we have a lot of alumni that are doing great work not just in athletics but just in public relations in general. A lot of our people are working in Public Relations in the city of Gilbert or Phoenix. We have a couple of them that are Junior College Athletic Directors so to see them get their careers started and know that they got their start here just like Kevin Ruple at Baldwin-Wallace gave me a start, that has been very satisfying and something that I really enjoy.”

Though Tammaro was recognized for one of the pinnacle awards as a sports information director, he believes that being honored with this award just means that there is more work that has to be done.

This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: 'Very special': Ellwood City's Doug Tammaro grateful to receive Katha Quinn Award