Fred Casotti (2006) - CU Athletic Hall of Fame - University of Colorado Athletics

Fred Casotti

Induction:
2006
Class:
1949

CU Sports Information Director (1952-68)
Associate Athletic Director (1968-87)
College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Hall of Fame (1996)
Colorado Sports Hall of Fame (2002)

Fred Casotti, inducted posthumously in 2006, graduated from CU in 1949 with a degree in journalism, and after returning to his native Iowa for three years to work as the assistant sports editor of the Council Bluffs Nonpariel, he came back to Colorado midway during the 1952 football season to take over as the Buffs’ sports publicity director. Little did he realize then it would be the beginning of an association for a half-century with CU athletics. He would work as CU’s publicity man through 1968, when football coach and athletic director Eddie Crowder named him associate athletic director. He remained in that capacity until 1985, when nearing the end of his professional career, he took the title of special assistant to athletic director Bill Marolt. He helped Marolt, only the third athletic director in CU history, set up his administration until retiring from CU in 1987. He served as historian from that point until his death at the age of 77 in 2001. He was a press aide at the 1960 Olympics in Squaw Valley, Calif., and was the manager of the U.S. Alpine team for the ’64 Olympics at Innsbruck, Austria. He also wrote three books about CU football. He was inducted into the College Sports Information Directors Hall-of-Fame in 1996 and into the state of Colorado’s Sports Hall-of-Fame in 2002. As SID, he was noted for his limericks and poems which he included is all his writings, and his sense of humor and wit were second to none.