Ira Thor
Director of Sports Information
Alma Mater/Years at NJCU: William Paterson University, `01; Ninth season
Follow on Twitter:
Phone: 3301
Cell: 973/420.8466
Email: ithor@njcu.edu
IRA THOR
DIRECTOR of SPORTS INFORMATION
9th Season
Last Updated: August 30, 2008
Ira Thor has served as the Director of Sports Information at New Jersey City University since being appointed on August 28, 2000. In that position, the multiple-award winning sports information director for the Gothic Knights is responsible for all aspects of sports media relations for the University’s 15-team athletics program.
Now in his ninth year as an SID, the 31-year-old has focused heavily on expanding the Gothic Knights’ internet presence and developing the athletics website; increasing media exposure and publicity efforts to additional news outlets on an unprecedented local, regional and national scale for print and electronic media, and conducting the extensive research necessary to develop the athletic department’s historical records.
In November 2004, he launched njcugothicknights.com. He also can be heard as the voice of the Gothic Knights on the Green and Gold Network—another of his initiatives—calling select men’s and women’s basketball, soccer and baseball contests. In 2002, he introduced Live Stats for home basketball games, becoming the first sports information office in the NJAC to offer this service. NJCU now offers live stats for nearly every home athletics event.
During his tenure at the University, NJCU student-athletes and coaches have been featured on CBS, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN Classic, FOX Sports, CSTV, MSG, WWOR and News 12 New Jersey Television, WFAN Radio, and have appeared in Sports Illustrated nine times and ESPN The Magazine, among many other regional and national outlets.
A multiple award winner in his first decade as a Sports Information Director, in 2007 he received the highest volleyball coverage award any SID in the profession can receive when the American Volleyball Coaches Association named him the Sports Information Finalist for the AVCA Grant Burger Media Award for Division I, II and III men’s and women’s volleyball, equivalent to the National SID of the Year for the sport. He also received the 2007 AVCA Grant Burger Media Award as NCAA Division III Mid-Atlantic Region SID of the Year for women’s volleyball for the second consecutive year.
Thor was awarded the AVCA Grant Burger Media Award as the NECVA Region SID of the Year for the sport of Division III men’s volleyball in 2005, 2006, and 2008. Additionally, Thor was selected as the NCAA Division III Mid-Atlantic Region AVCA Media Award Winner for women’s volleyball. It was the first time he was honored as the top women’s volleyball SID in the region. He was the only Division III sports information director in the nation honored for both men’s and women’s volleyball in 2006, and one of only two professionals in any division to receive multiple awards. He won the award for men’s volleyball for the first time in 2005.
On June 3, 2004, he was honored by NJCU with the Division of Student Affairs Vice President’s Excellence in Service Award. In September 2006, Thor was selected as the NJCU Employee of the Month.
In 2009, Thor will serve his eighth year as the Sports Information Director for the North East Collegiate Volleyball Association—the largest conference in the nation in any sport or division—where he publishes the NECVA’s weekly report and selects the league’s award winners, while also compiling statistical leaders, standings, and results for the 43-team conference. In April 2007, the league relaunched
www.necva.org under his guidance, providing the conference an elite web presence.
The 2009 baseball season will mark the sixth year Thor serves as the Division II/III weekly awards and notebook coordinator for the New Jersey Collegiate Baseball Association (NJCBA).
For the last five seasons, Thor has also acted represented the Atlantic Region as one of 25 voters nationwide to vote for the D3Hoops.com men’s basketball weekly Top 25 Poll. Beginning in 2006, he has served as one of 23 SIDs nationwide to serve as a panelist for the D3Kicks.com Division III men’s and women’s soccer national polls.
When NJCU competed as an independent in 2004-05, Thor, a member of the Association of Division III Independents Student-Athlete Recognition Committee, initiated and coordinated the organization’s Player of the Week program in seven sports and All-Independent Teams in nine, while compiling women’s volleyball and men’s basketball statistics for the group.
Since the 2006 season, Thor has served on the ECAC Division III Metro Championship Tournament Committee. In 2005 he served as a Division III representative on the ECAC Robbins scholar-Athlete Selection Committee. In 2001 and 2002, when NJCU sponsored football, Thor acted as the East Region Chair of the Don Hansen’s Football Gazette Division III team, and a voter for the Division III national team.
He is an active member of CoSIDA (College Sports Information Directors of America), ECAC-SIDA (Eastern College Athletic Conference Sports Information Directors of America), the New Jersey Sports Writers Association, the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA), Track and Field Writers of America (TAFWA) and Writers Guild of America, East, Inc. Thor has made several presentations at ECAC-SIDA regional workshops.
As an active member of CoSIDA, he is currently a member of the organization’s Olympic Liaison committee for a sixth year, and is past a member of its Publications Contest committee, coordinating the 2003 men’s and women’s division I, II, and III golf media guide contest. He is a member of ECAC-SIDA’s Hometown Handbook, Web, and Marketing Committees.
On June 30, 2002, while attending the CoSIDA Workshop in Rochester, NY, he was selected to represent the organization by throwing out the first pitch at a Buffalo Bison/Rochester Red Wings AAA baseball game. He miraculously tossed a strike.
Also at the college level, Thor was appointed as media coordinator for the 2005 NCAA National Collegiate Women’s Bowling Championship in Orlando, FL and served as the NCAA Official Scorer and Assistant Tournament Official at the 2007 Bowling Championship in Orlando and the 2008 event in Omaha, NE. He has experience in numerous championship venues, including the 2004 and 2007 East Rutherford/East Regional (Sweet 16 and Elite 8) for the Division I men’s basketball tournament, the 2004 NCAA Division I Women’s Lacrosse Championship at Princeton University and both semifinals, the 2002 NCAA Division I Men’s Lacrosse National Championship game, hosted by Rutgers University, and the 2004 Women’s Bowling championship.
From 2003-06, he was an official scorer for Saint Peter’s College football games, and has handled statistics for many Seton Hall University and SPC men’s and women’s basketball contests over the years.
Thor served as the head statistician for the New Jersey Gladiators of the Arena Football League during the 2001 and 2002 seasons, until the franchise relocated to Las Vegas, Nevada in January 2003. In that time, he was the assistant editor of the club’s media guide.
During the 2002 season, Thor was a volunteer media relations assistant for the New York Jets, helping out in the CBS Broadcast booth.
In August 2001, Thor was recognized by the Society of Professional Journalists New Jersey Chapter for outstanding sports writing for a weekly newspaper for the year 2000, being awarded both first and second place overall in the state.
Prior to NJCU, Thor was a staff writer for the Bergen Record (Hackensack, NJ), covering high school and college-related sports from January 1999 to November 2000, in addition to compiling results for the paper’s award-winning sports section. He also spent four months as a sports writer for Worrall Community Newspapers in Essex County, NJ.
Before arriving at The Record, Thor spent three years as a promotions assistant for WQHT-FM 97.1 radio (HOT 97) 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. WQHT, is owned by Emmis Communications, and in 1999, Thor was awarded the first-ever Emmis Communications Scholarship, a national award given to one full-time student working for a television or radio station owned by the corporation.
A January 2001 graduate of William Paterson University with a B.A. in Communications, Thor was heavily involved in WPU’s television, radio, and newspaper journalism programs as an undergrad, mostly as an announcer, anchor, reporter, and writer. He was the author of the “All-Half-Century” Pioneer Baseball team project, which celebrated the best players in school history. As a play-by-play broadcaster for the Pioneer Television Sports Network and WPSC-FM radio station, he called more than 100 games during his collegiate days. In May 2000, he was honored as the “Best Male Talent” in the broadcast program.
Also at WPU, he was founder and President of the WPU Men’s Club Volleyball team, which competed against many colleges in the region. He played outside hitter on the Pioneer team that finished well above .500 during his sophomore season in 1997. Thor was also a member and two-year President of the Delta Mu chapter of Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity.
A 1995 graduate of Fair Lawn High School, Thor was a reserve on the 1995 Cutter volleyball team that defeated Bridgewater-Raritan for the first-ever NJSIAA boys’ volleyball state championship—still the only North Jersey program to win the state title. He played two seasons of high school volleyball, and was a two-year reserve on the Fair Lawn boys’ soccer team. He also served as a three-year manager of the FLHS boys’ basketball team, which became his first introduction to the field of sports media relations.
When not working, Thor enjoys beach volleyball, golf, tennis, fishing, traveling, and spending time with his family.
Born January 20, 1977 in Paterson, NJ, Thor is a native of Fair Lawn. He resides in Old Bridge, NJ with his wife Kathryn, five-year-old son and one-year-old daughter.