Simmons, who recently announced plans to retire in June, is in his 37th year serving as the Director of Athletic Communications at USI after being hired as its sports information director in August of 1989.
The primary media contact for the USI men’s basketball and baseball programs during those times, Simmons helped promote and publicize four NCAA Division II national players of the year, more than 44 All-Americans, and 14 Academic All-Americans. He also helped publicize USI’s team successes, such as the USI baseball national championships in 2010 and 2014; the 1995 men’s basketball national championship; the 1994, 2004 and 2019 men’s basketball Elite Eight teams; the 1997 women’s basketball national finalist team; and the 2007, 2016 and 2018 baseball runs to the national championship series.
Simmons, who has helped guide USI’s transition to Division I, was the host site media coordinator when USI and the City of Evansville hosted the 2002, 2014, 2015, 2019, 2021 and 2022 NCAA Division II Elite Eight and the 2024 and 2009 NCAA Division II Men’s and women’s Cross Country National Championships. He also was the media liaison for CBS Sports for the national championship events.
Outside of his University duties, Simmons has assisted with media relations as a press officer at the 1994 and 1995 United State Olympic Festivals and as a sports information coordinator at the 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2000 NCAA Division II Men’s Basketball Elite Eights.
Simmons also was instrumental in the creation of the Great Lakes Valley Conference Academic All-Conference program and served as a GLVC sports information coordinator for men’s and women’s soccer and baseball during his time at USI. He also handled staffing for several GLVC Basketball Tournaments during his tenure at USI.
The Litchfield, Illinois, native came to USI after a year as the assistant sports information director at Florida International University in Miami, Florida, where he worked with Division I men’s and women’s soccer, women’s basketball, men’s and women’s tennis, volleyball and baseball. He worked as an undergraduate in the sports information office at SIU Edwardsville, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in 1988, and as an undergraduate intern at ESPN.
A member of the College Sports Communicators (formerly CoSIDA), Simmons was the chair of the CSC NCAA Legislation Liaison Committee for five years (2001-05); was an at-large representative on the College Division Management Advisory Committee (2016-18); a member of the Charity Committee (2006-07) and served two terms as a member of the inaugural D2SIDA Board of Directors (2006-12), authoring the board’s constitution. Simmons also was elected to two terms on the USI Administrative Senate (2011-14; 2021-22).
Simmons, along with the rest of the 2026 CSC special award winners, will be honored at CSC’s 69th annual convention from June 7-10 at Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada.
