Sports Information
Russell Rice was named sports information director at U.K. in May, 1969, after serving two years as assistant to Ken Kuhn, who retired after more than two decades of service with the University. Rice came to the Wildcats from The Lexington Leader, where he was a general reporter eight years and sports editor five years. A native of Paintsville, Ky., he won letters in football, basketball and baseball at Van Lear High, served with the U. S. Marines in World War II, attended Kentucky Wesleyan College and received his bachelor's at the University of Kentucky in 1951.
He has served as manager of the NCAA Mid-East Basketball Tournament (1969), and chairman of the Basketball Hall of Fame Committee of the College Sports Information Directors Association and was recipient of the 1971 Churchmen's "Sportswriter of the Year" award.
As a newspaperman, his duties ranged from agricultural hearings in Washington to spending three
months as the traveling companion to a Kentucky gubernatorial candidate. He reported the activities of such Wildcat teams as football coach Charlie Bradshaw's "Thin Thirty" and "The Runts" of basketball coach Adolph Rupp. He is a former Kentucky area correspondent for Time - Life - Fortune magazines and was Kentucky editor of Tobacco Magazine and Religious News Service.
For the past 13 years, he has pursued a hobby of researching Kentucky basketball and football. He authored "The Wildcats: A Story of Kentucky Football," and "The Big Blue Machine: A Story of Kentucky Basketball." His latest work is the Kentucky portion of a "History of the Southeastern Conference." He edits the K-Men's Newsletter and has been named an honorary member of that organization. He also was honored by WAVE-TV for "Outstanding Contribution to Televised Sports." He was the first member of the Southeastern Conference Publicity Directors Association to be elected to a two-year term (1977-78) and recently completed his second year as president of the Blue Grass (Kentucky) chapter of the U. S. Harness Writers Association, which was organized in 1977.
He is married to the former Doris Thacker of Knott County. They have four children  Mrs. Rodney Morris of Louisville, Mrs. Mike Covington of Georgetown, Russell James and Kim of Lexington.
Randy Stacy Assistant Sports Information Director
Randy Stacy joined the sports information staff August 25, 1980, after serving as Sports Information Director at Tennessee Tech. A native of Knott County, KY, Stacy graduated from Carr Creek High School, where he was class valedictorian, and earned a bachelor's
degree in radio-television and journalism from Morehead State University, graduating with honors in 1977.
Stacy's main area of responsibility at UK will be basketball, with additional duties in other sports.
Rena Koier Assistant Sports Information Director
Rena Koier, former reporter for Harlan, Louisville and Lexington daily newspapers, recently was appointed assistant sports information director at the University of Kentucky.
Koier's primary responsibility will be Lady Kat basketball, with administrative duties in the Level III sports, which includes men's and women's non-revenue sports.
A native of Lynch, Ky., Koier graduated from Lynch High School and spent eight months as a sports reporter for the Harlan Daily Enterprise before attending the University of Kentucky and receiving a B.A. in journalism in 1976. After a year with The Courier-Journal, she was a sports reporter and columist for The Herald-Leader from 1977 until January, 1980.
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