Hall of Fame Inductees
A 1996 The Lincoln University of Pennsylvania graduate, Rob Knox is one of the most influential and accomplished Athletic Communications professionals in the country.
An award-winning communications professional, Knox has over 15 years of experience and expertise in several sectors of the media including sports information, newspapers and television. Knox, who currently works at Coppin State University in Baltimore, is the third vice president of the College Sports Information Directors Association of America (CoSIDA), which puts him in line to become the first African-American president since 1987 and just the second one in the 60-year history of the organization. This past summer, Knox participated in the distinguished NCAA Leadership Institute in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Knox was named the 2011 CoSIDA Rising Star Award winner. He was the president of the Black College Sports Information Directors’ Association (BC-SIDA) from 2008-2011. Knox served as a member of the NCAA Division II Women’s Soccer Atlantic Regional Advisory Committee and was the official NCAA representative at the Atlantic Regional championship match. Knox was honored by hometown city of Chester, Pa. with a citation for being a positive role model in 2011.
Knox’s individual accolades while working at Lincoln included receiving three CoSIDA Fred Stabley, Jr. Writing Contest awards and being recipient of the “Raising the Bar” award from Lincoln’s Vice President for Student Affairs (2008). Knox also had a major hand in helping Lincoln with its transition from Division III to Division II by assisting campus administrators with preparing information packets that needed to be submitted to the NCAA and CIAA.
His hard work and love for the profession resulted in the success of promoting student numerous athletes. Knox was instrumental in having one of his student-athletes, Ashley Parker, named a finalist for the prestigious 2007 NCAA Woman of the Year Award. He had another named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America® third team.
Knox's other promotional successes included having five Lincoln University student-athletes featured in Sports Illustrated. He played a key role in the Lincoln football team being featured on the ESPN television series, NFL Films Presents in 2008, the men’s basketball program being positively profiled on ESPN’s Outside the Lines and Myrick winning the 2006 Division III national Men’s Basketball Player of the Year Award in 2006.
Knox also was responsible for getting several stories placed on Lincoln athletics in national and regional publications USA Today, the New York Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, Washington Post, and on ESPN.com as well as regional television network Comcast Sportsnet.
Knox, who earned a Bachelor’s of Science degree in journalism, got his start in Athletics Communications while attending The Lincoln University as a student. During his time as a Lincoln student, Knox was the unofficial SID of Lincoln writing press releases on various athletes and events. He was the public address announcer of the Lincoln men’s and women’s basketball teams where he earned the name, “the voice of Lincoln.” He also had a weekly sports show on Lincoln’s student radio station, WLIU and was the sports editor of the Lincolnian. Knox was also a tour guide, student leader and a resident advisor.
He officially started working at The Lincoln University from 2004-2009 where he made a major impact. There was an immediate difference in the level of coverage of the athletics programs in which it was enhanced nationally and regionally.
It helped that during his time at Lincoln, Knox chronicled a men’s track and field national championship, individual national champions, three consecutive postseason appearances by the men’s basketball program, including its first trip to the NCAA Division III tournament, and the women’s basketball team winning its first Association of Division III Independents championship.
Knox also has earned a reputation for developing and mentoring students who want to work in the profession. Jordean Matthews, a student worker at Lincoln was named the ECAC-SIDA Bill Esposito Award winner thereby becoming the first African-American female to win this prestigious award.
Before arriving at Coppin State in November 2013, Knox worked for ESPN in Bristol, Connecticut as a Statistics Manager in the Statistics & Analysis department for two years. Knox was a full-time sports reporter for the Delaware County Daily Times, a daily publication outside of Philadelphia before entering the sports information field
Last summer, Knox covered the WNBA extensively as well as the USA Women’s Basketball Team’s national training camp in Annapolis, Maryland.
He is married to Trudell Knox and they are the proud parents of a 4-year old son, Robert, IV (‘RJ”).
