Longtime KWC Sports Info Director Entering KY Sports Hall of Fame

When it comes to Division II men's basketball blue bloods, they don't come any bluer than the guys in purple right across the street from where I am now.

If you ever get a sports trivia question that reads, "Name two Kentucky cities that are home to men's basketball programs that have won eight national championships," the answers will be Lexington and Owensboro. The Kentucky Wesleyan Panthers won their first in 1966 and their most recent in 2001.

The man who got to cover three of those titles as Kentucky Wesleyan's sports information director has now received what he calls the greatest honor in a long history of them. He is Roy Pickerell, and he has been KWC's sports information director emeritus and special assistant for college relations since he retired from the full-time position in 2016. And now, he has been announced as one of the newest members of the Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame.

The longest-tenured SID in Kentucky Wesleyan College history, Pickerill is no stranger to accolades such as this. He's also a member of the College Sports Information Directors of America, the Great Lakes Valley Conference, the Kentucky Wesleyan Athletics, and the Kentucky Wesleyan Alumni Halls of Fame.

Pickerill joins an illustrious class that includes Detroit Lions quarterback and former University of Louisville QB, Teddy Bridgewater; Cats Pause founder and University of Kentucky legend Oscar Combs; and former UK and NBA guard Tony Delk, the Most Outstanding Player of the 1996 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament.

Roy Pickerell and the 2024 class will be inducted during a September ceremony at Louisville's Freedom Hall.