New Jersey City University Athletics

Thor took first place with an article written for the Nutley Journal, entitled “Radio Announcer Returns to His Roots,” a profile of former Newark Bears broadcaster Dave Popkin. He also took second place in the contest for “Auth Returns to the Olympics,” written for the Maplewood-South Orange News Record, as an account of a local U.S. Olympic Crew team member. Both newspapers are owned by Worrall Community Newspapers in Essex and Union counties.

 

Thor, a May 2000 graduate of William Paterson University with a B.A. in Communications, was hired as the Director of Sports Information at NJCU on August 28, 2000. In his current position, he is responsible for all publicity for the university’s 13-team intercollegiate athletic program. This includes all contact with the media, the publication of media guides, design and maintenance of the web site (www.njcu.edu/goknights), compilation of statistics and records, coordinating sports information with the NCAA and conference, and other duties involved with college athletics.

 

Prior to going to NJCU, Thor was a staff writer for the Bergen Record (Hackensack, NJ), covering high school and college-related sports. Before arriving at The Record, Thor spent three years as a promotions assistant for WQHT-FM 97.1 radio in New York, and a year as a television production assistant at Phoenix Communications in South Hackensack. He also spent time at WGHT-AM in Pompton Lakes, NJ as a sports reporter and news producer from October 1996 through April 1997.

 

As an undergraduate at William Paterson, Thor was the radio and television play-by-play voice of William Paterson over the second half of the 1990s, broadcasting baseball (including the 1996 Division III National Championship team), men's and women's basketball, football, men's and women's soccer, women's volleyball, softball, and field hockey. As a radio announcer, he traveled to every away football and basketball game across the Northeast for the University. Thor was the primary sports anchor for the University's daily 30-minute news broadcast to the surrounding communities in North Jersey. During this time, he had the opportunity to cover a variety of professional sports events, including the New York Mets and Yankees, New York Giants and Jets, New Jersey Devils, New Jersey Nets, and many college events.

 

Thor is also the former sports director of WPSC-FM, where among his duties, he was the executive producer and host of "The High School Sportlight," a weekly hour-long broadcast featuring profiles of the top athletes and high school athletic programs across Northern New Jersey. Thor was also the executive producer and host of a special, five-hour long live election program on the station in 1998, which featured live election updates and news from reporters scattered across the tri-state area.

 

Thor also spent five years as the lead sports writer for "The Beacon," the University's campus newspaper. Among the special projects he assumed there were the compilation of the William Paterson All-Half-Century Baseball team in May 2000. Thor headed the committee that selected the school's greatest players. Later, Thor was the executive producer and host of a television reunion program that gathered all of the former baseball greats on the same stage for one evening, and honored them on television across the area. 

 

Thor was a starting outside hitter and founder of the William Paterson men's club volleyball team which finished above .500 in it's only season of intercollegiate competition (1996-97).

 

Thor has also served as a freelance writer for many outlets and is currently working on his first book, a historical look at baseball in Northern New Jersey, which he is co-authoring.

 

Thor married his college sweetheart, Kathryn Boal of Palmyra, NJ---a special education teacher in the Paterson, NJ, Public School System---on July 9, 2000. The couple resides in Wayne, NJ.