NCLA Selects Award Recipients

Cleveland, Ohio -- The Awards Committee of the National Collegiate Licensing Association (NCLA) have selected their annual award recipients.

Those being honored include the University of Miami (Fla.) with the Synergy Award: the Collegiate Licensing Program of the Year; Judy Barnard of Oklahoma State University as the Licensing Director of the Year; and Mike Low of the University of Arizona, as an NCLA Hall of Fame inductee.

The awards will be presented at NCLA's Fourth Annual Workshop, June 14-16 at the Wyndham Anatole Hotel in Dallas, Texas. The NCLA Awards Luncheon will take place on Friday, June 14.

NCLA provides educational and networking opportunities, enhancement of acceptable operating standards and ethics, and establishment of the overall prestige and understanding of the profession of collegiate licensing.

NCLA is administered by NACDA, which is now in its 37th year. NACDA serves as the professional and educational association for more than 6,100 college athletics directors, associates, assistants and conference commissioners at more than 1,600 institutions throughout the United States, Mexico and Canada. Through its series of management seminars, clinics and workshops and publication of the bi-monthly magazine Athletics Administration, NACDA offers educational opportunities to its members. More than 1,200 athletics administrators annually attend the NACDA Convention. Additionally, NACDA operates the Sears Directors' Cup program, which honors the all-sports champion in each of the NCAA Divisions -- I, II, III -- and the NAIA, for a total of four trophies.

A brief biographical sketch of each of the award recipients follows:

NCLA Synergy Award: The Collegiate Licensing Program of the Year
University of Miami (Fla.)
The University of Miami's licensing program has rebounded from the downward spiraling of royalties it experienced in the mid-1990s. Miami revamped the program with leadership from Mel Tenen, director of auxiliary services; Patrick Nero, senior associate athletics director for external affairs; and Chris Prindiville, assistant athletics director for marketing. Housed in auxiliary services, the university opened internal lines of communication to ensure all entities of campus were involved with licensing, including athletics. As a result, the program has become a combined effort from auxiliary services and athletics. The university phased out old marks and, in 2000, established a new brand identity program with the assistance of Nike. This included a new Hispanic mark to cater to the area's Hispanic community. The athletics department has gained control of its marks and has executed multiple successful promotions - from local and regional promotions with The Sports Authority to its Wear Orange replica jersey sale with The Miami Herald and WQAM radio. This was made possible because the university has invested money in the licensing program. Miami was one of the first institutions to specify funding for primary licensing initiatives.

Prindiville, the day-to-day licensing contact, is responsible for positioning and promoting the Miami brand through integrated licensing campaigns for each sport. An NCLA Board member, Prindiville's focus is on revenue streams, including season- and single-game ticket sales and the premium seat campaign for the new men and women's basketball convocation center. He directs the integrated licensing efforts of the university and athletics.

Licensing Director of the Year
Judy Barnard, Oklahoma State University
Judy Barnard has worked at Oklahoma State University since 1972 and joined the Legal Counsel/Board of Regents staff in 1978. When collegiate licensing was initiated in the early 1980s, the Legal Counsel's office assumed responsibility for the program. In 1985, Barnard was named licensing coordinator and, in 1997, she was promoted to licensing director. In conjunction with the University of Oklahoma, Barnard put together one of the first and most successful rival programs in the country.

While Oklahoma State's licensing program is consistently one of the Collegiate Licensing Company's top 50 selling universities, Barnard's efforts extend beyond OSU as she has strong ties to collegiate licensing associations. Her affiliation with these organizations began in 1995 when she served a two-year term on the Association of Collegiate Licensing Administrators' (ACLA) Membership Committee. Since then, she was a founding Board member of NCLA in 1998 and has served as an officer. Currently, Barnard is NCLA's president. She, along with Susan Smith of Auburn University, a former ACLA president, are credited for leading the consolidation of NCLA and ACLA into the International Collegiate Licensing Association (ICLA), which will effectively form on July 1. Through Barnard's vision and leadership, the collaborative effort will encompass more than 400 licensing administrators and professionals and will provide the collegiate licensing industry with a unified voice.

NCLA Hall of Fame
Mike Low, The University of Arizona
Mike Low has served as the director of trademarks and licensing at The University of Arizona since 1984, when he initiated and developed the program. Now a senior staff member in the Arizona athletics department, he is responsible for originating and implementing policies on the internal and external use of the university's trademarks.

He is active in trademark protection through home and away game-day enforcement. This includes strong relationships with local authorities, the Coalition to Advance the Protection of Sports Logos (CAPS), customs officials and civic licensing bureaus in Arizona. Low is involved in Code of Conduct issues, serving on the Task Force and internal committees and spearheading Arizona's code policies. Additionally, he meets annually with all student groups to inform them of current licensing policies and procedures.

A university employee for more than 28 years, Low serves on numerous institutional committees and boards, including the President's Club, Student Union Advisory Board, University Committee on Corporate Relations, Eller College of Business and Public Administration Advisory Board for Socially Responsible Entrepreneurship, University Identification Committee, Honorary Member of the Bobcats Senior Honorary and Advisor to the Chain Gang Junior Class Honorary. He is also the university representative to the Workers' Rights Consortium (WRC).

Low was a founding member of the Fair Labor Association - University Advisory Council Executive Committee in 1999, and was an organizer and founding member of NCLA (1998) and the Association of Collegiate Licensing Administrators (ACLA, 1987). He currently sits on NCLA's Board and has been its Nominating Committee Chair since the association's inception. An ACLA past president (1991-92), Low and the university were awarded the NCLA Synergy Award for the Collegiate Licensing Program of the Year in 1999-2000. He was inducted into Arizona's Hall of Fame in 1995.

Low is only the third person to be inducted into the NCLA Hall of Fame.