Access is granted in accordance with the
Protocols for the University Archives and Records Center.
PROVENANCE
Transferred from the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics in
1957 (accession number 57:8).
ARRANGEMENT
This collection is arranged in two series: Correspondence, 1923 -
1951, and Press Releases, 1928 - 1951. The Correspondence series is
arranged alphabetically by subject, while the Press Releases are arranged
chronologically.
AGENCY HISTORY
The University of Pennsylvania's Department of Athletic Communications,
originally titled the Department of Athletic Publicity, was founded
as a subdivision of the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics on
July 1, 1924. Its main duties, which have remained basically the same
since its inception, are to act as a liaison to the media, to prepare
press releases, to distribute press credentials for athletic contests,
and to arrange interviews with athletes and coaches at the University.
Penn became only the second college to name a Sports Publicity Director
(Notre Dame was the first) when it selected Joseph T. Labrum, a 1921
graduate of the College, as the initial head of the department. Labrum
guided the department until leaving to serve as the National Football
League's publicity director on April 1, 1947.
Edward J. Hunter succeeded Labrum, but in 1950 his position was renamed
Assistant Director, News Bureau - Athletic Information. However, this
change in title did not affect Hunter's duties or the fact that his
department still operated under the Department of Intercollegiate
Athletics.
Morton Berry followed Hunter as head of the department in 1951, but
in 1953 he saw his title reverted to one outside the News Bureau,
as Director of Sports Information
The department, still a subdivision of the Department of Athletic
Communications, is today known as the Department of Athletic Communications.
The head of the department holds the title of Director of Athletic
Communications.
SCOPE AND CONTENT
The Department of Athletic Communications Records primarily contains
press releases and correspondence from the department during the period
1935-1951, with an unusually high concentration of material from the
1950-51 academic year.
The press releases are the bulk of this collection, and approximately
half of those releases are football- and basketball-related. This
series in the collection appears to be nearly-comprehensive, with
a high density of releases at all times except summer, the time when
athletic contests at the University are annually put on hiatus.
A good deal of the correspondence portion of the collection deals
with football, the largest sport at Penn at the time. The football
part of the collection includes a high concentration from the 1950
season, with programs and statistics from every game that year, as
well as media guides from each Penn opponent in 1950. In addition,
the football portion of the collection includes a good deal of correspondence
regarding press credentials and seats for the 1932-1935 Army-Navy
gridiron games held at Franklin Field.
This collection also contains a significant amount of press-related
correspondence regarding the Penn Relay Carnivals from 1938 to 1942.
However, except for correspondence regarding the mailing list of the
department's press releases from 1926 to 1932 and the Army-Navy football
correspondence, this collection is sparse in its pre-1935 content.
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