Ira Thor, sports information director (SID) at New Jersey City University, is the recipient of the Employee Recognition Award of the month for September.

Mr. Thor is responsible for all aspects of sports media relations for the University’s 15-team athletics program.

Now in his sixth year as an SID, he has focused heavily on expanding the Gothic Knights’ internet presence; developing the athletics website; increasing media exposure, expanding publicity efforts, including the dissemination of releases to hometown newspapers of NJCU’s athletes; improving statistic and other athletic-related software; and conducting research while overhauling the athletic department’s historical records.

In November 2004, Mr. Thor launched njcugothicknights.com. He is the voice of the Gothic Knights on the Green and Gold Network on which he calls select men’s and women’s basketball and baseball contests. In 2002, he introduced Live Stats for home basketball games, becoming the first sports information office in the NJAC to offer this service.

In June 2006, Mr. Thor was awarded the American Volleyball Coaches Association’s Grant Burger Media Award as the NECVA Region SID of the Year for Division III men’s volleyball for a second consecutive year and also received the NCAA Division III Mid-Atlantic Region AVCA Grant Burger Media Award for women’s volleyball. He was the only Division III sports information director in the nation honored for both men’s and women’s volleyball in 2006, and one of only two professionals in any division to receive multiple awards.

This year, he will serve for the sixth year as the sports information director for the North East Collegiate Volleyball Association, the largest conference in the nation in any sport or division.  The 2007 baseball season will mark the fourth year in which Mr. Thor serves as the Division II/III weekly awards and notebook coordinator for the New Jersey Collegiate Baseball Association.

Since the 2006 season, he has served on the ECAC Division III Metro Championship Tournament Committee. He is an active member of College Sports Information Directors of America, ECAC-SIDA, New Jersey Sports Writers Association, the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association, United States Basketball Writers Association, Track and Field Writers of America, and Writers Guild of America, East, Inc.

Mr. Thor is an alumnus of William Paterson University from which he earned a bachelor of arts in communications, and a graduate of Fair Lawn High School.

His recreational interests include beach volleyball, golf, tennis, fishing, and travel.

Mr. Thor resides in Old Bridge with and his wife Kathryn and their three-year-old son Gavin.