Quarry Blocks: IU Football SID Honored, Victor Oladipo nominated for Community Assist Award

"The Football Writers Association of America has selected its seventh "Super 11" group of sports information departments deemed the best in the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision for the 2015 season. The winners: Clemson (ACC), Houston (American), Kansas State (Big 12), Louisiana (Sun Belt), Indiana (Big Ten), Mississippi State (SEC), Northern Illinois (MAC), Pittsburgh (ACC), USC (Pac-12), Utah State (Mountain West) and Western Kentucky (Conference USA)."

--Tim Griffin, FWAA

Congratulations are in order for Jeff Keag and his staff for being selected as one of the Super 11 sports information departments in the FBS. This is the first time that IU has been selected by the Football Writers Association of America as a Super 11 winner. Winners were selected based on press box operations, quantity and quality of information provided, responsiveness to media inquiries, and general accessibility of players and coaches. I can attest from personal experience that IU excels in all areas, and making players and coaches so accessible over the past few years has helped play a role in the growing popularity of the program.

"Nothing about my life was easy growing up, and I see how we had to struggle here and there. But I see people who struggle even worse than we did. Having the power to be able to change those people's lives, having the power to change anybody's life, by even just simply saying 'hello,' is an amazing feeling. It's a feeling like no other, I can't really explain it. So I'm just going to continue to keep doing it because I believe that's what I'm supposed to do and that's what I want to do."

--Victor Oladipo, via Josh Robbins, Orlando Sentinel

Voting is still open for the 2015-16 NBA Community Assist Award, and former IU star Victor Oladipo is one of ten finalists. Oladipo has been inspired by his older sister Kendra ever since she became deaf in second grade. "She's my motivation, especially when things are going rough and things are tough," Oladipo said. "I might have a bad game, I might have a bad couple of games. Just being able to talk to her and see how positive she is and see what type of woman she's become, and how beautiful of a person she is, kind of gives me motivation to realize that it's only temporary and that things eventually do get better." Kendra inspired some of Oladipo's philanthropic work with the UCF Listening Center (which provides help to children dealing with hearing loss and their families) , where the Magic guard hosted a holiday party in December, donated $35,000, and set up a fund to continue to support the Center. If Oladipo wins this award $25,000 will go to his foundation, which he will use to continue to help the Orlando community. You can vote for Oladipo here.

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