May 25, 2004
Jim Vruggink, the director of special projects for university relations and intercollegiate athletics at Purdue University, will be inducted into the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Hall of Fame. The event will take place on June 30 in Calgary, Alberta during the annual workshop.
CoSIDA was founded in 1957 and has over 1,800 members in the United States and Canada. According to CoSIDA "the association is designed to help the SID at all levels. It is the desire of the members to have the profession take its rightful place on the decision-making levels of college athletics. Everything done is geared to this objective."
Vruggink has been at Purdue in the athletics media relations office since 1982, serving as its director for 19 years. He also was the Sports Information Director at Northwestern for four years and an assistant SID at Michigan for four years.
He served as president of CoSIDA in 1996-97 and spent 1993 through 2000 on its board of directors. He assisted with a group that developed a new mission statement for CoSIDA, while on the board.
Vruggink has received the NIT-CoSIDA Presidential Citation in 1997 and earned the Scoop Hudgens Lifetime SID Award from the All-American Football Foundation in 2002. He is a member of the John Purdue Club and a chapter member of the National Football Foundation and Hall of Fame. While at Purdue, he coordinated Heisman Trophy campaigns for quarterback Drew Brees.
Vruggink graduated with a degree in journalism in 1970 from Central Michigan University. He and his wife reside in West Lafayette with their two daughters.