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January 3 marked the beginning of a new work year for many people. For Nancy Justis, assistant athletic director for athletic media relations, it was the beginning of a new life—one in which for the first time in 30 years, she would concern herself with something other than UNI Athletics 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year. People close to college athletics are keenly aware of the all-consuming demands on the life of a sports information director (SID), which was Justis’ title for the bulk of her career. Day in and day out, her job was to make sure the public knew all about the fun and glory of a two-hour athletic contest. What they never saw was the massive advance work, follow-up and seat time that came with every single game. That a woman should be running the information machine behind a college sports program may not be huge news in 2006, but from the mid ’70s on, Justis was a true pioneer. In the early ’80s, the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) reported that she was one of only six women in the nation to have primary responsibilities for a college football program. 
“I always said I was in the right place at the right time,” Justis said. “Since I’d been an athlete for 10 years, I just thought it was a natural progression.” A competitive swimmer in her high school and college days, Nancy (Ross) Justis graduated from the University of Iowa with a degree in journalism in 1973. She worked briefly at a Ft. Collins, Colorado, newspaper before coming back to her home state and UNI Public Information Services in 1974. With the blessing of her boss, Don Kelly, she dabbled in sports information before going full time in athletics in 1976. She credits then-SID Jim Shaffer with showing her the ropes. “I remember Jim sitting with me at a women’s softball game, showing me how to keep the book. I didn’t know how to do it,” Justis said. She turned out to be a quick study. SIDs came and went, and each time Justis stepped in to run the show. Her ability did not escape the attention of athletic director and football coach Stan Sheriff, who saw no reason why she shouldn’t take the head job permanently. She had only one reservation. “I told Stan I didn’t know everything about football,” Justis said. “He said ‘you don’t need to know everything about football. I need to know about football.’ ” Her first game in 1979 turned out to be a big one—Panther Kelly Ellis set the national single-game rushing record with 382 yards against Western Illinois. Since then, she’s been too busy becoming the best in the business to worry about anything she didn’t already know.Justis worked every sport at UNI, men’s and women’s, during a career that paralleled the emergence of women’s athletics through Title IX legislation that gave women’s college athletics equal support through federal funding of education. Football and men’s basketball eventually became her primary responsibilities, and her passions. Justis’ experience at UNI gave her the opportunity to work on international stages, including the 1984 Olympics and the 1987 Pan American Games. She’s won numerous awards over the decades, most recently for her 2004 football media guide that was named the best in the nation at the 1-AA level. |
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She has seen the job change from one that depended on personal, face-to-face communication to one dominated by cell phones and computers. “Old-time SIDs lament e-mail,” Justis said, “We used to advance the games and promote the team and players in person. Today it’s hard to get away from the office and harder to meet people. Everyone wants everything instantaneously. People expect stats and a story on the Web site 10 minutes after the game is over.” What hasn’t changed is her love for the games, the participants and the atmosphere. Justis said, “I don’t know another career that affords you the emotional attachments. It’s impossible to let the losses slide off your back. You just hope they keep winning, that the next athlete runs for 100 yards or is named first team all-conference or all-American.” Understandably hesitant to lock-in her favorite career highlights from a 30-year accumulation, Justis said her two trips to Europe with Eldon Miller’s basketball teams are especially memorable, particularly because her family was able to participate. The men’s basketball team’s first trip to the NCAA tournament in Richmond and its upset of Missouri in that first round game is another. “This year’s football season with all the emotional ups and downs was just incredible,” Justis added. Most of all, it’s year upon year of building relationships with people that is more important than any game, season or event. He’s been the public address voice of UNI football and men’s basketball for three decades. Generations of UNI students and fans have risen in unison to his familiar cry of “Here Come the Panthers!” His personal license plates leave no doubt about what he’s going to be doing on game day. He is so much a part of the blood, sweat and tears on the field that he was made an honorary letterman in 2004. “A lot of people in the community think this is my real job,” quipped Bob Justis (’73, speech, business), “but it’s always been a volunteer thing.” His ‘real job’ is president of the recently united Chambers of Commerce of Cedar Falls and Waterloo, and Justis’ enthusiasm for Panther Athletics fits hand in glove with his professional persona. 
“So many times I’m introduced at functions as president of the Chamber and voice of the Panthers,” Justis said. “I’ve got to admit it gives me a warm fuzzy to hear that. I’m very proud of that relationship.” Speaking of relationships, being the husband of the assistant athletic director for athletic media relations has helped in scheduling family activities around his tireless UNI voluntarism, which is not limited to football and basketball games. Wherever a master of ceremonies is needed, Bob is there—whether it’s a Hall of Fame ceremony, an Athletic Club event or a welcome home for the football team. Not to put too fine a point on it, the lives of Bob and Nancy Justis are virtually inseparable from UNI Athletics. Their family room at home, dubbed the Panther Pit for its massive array of UNI memorabilia, tells as much about the story of their 29 years together as the sports seasons they have celebrated, and the players, coaches, staff and students with whom they’ve formed lasting friendships. Bob and Nancy met at UNI in the mid ‘70s when she worked in what was then UNI’s Public Information Services and he was across the hall (in Gilchrist Hall), as the assistant director of development. She was already immersed in Panther athletics; he was busy organizing alumni clubs and starting up the first UNI phone bank. In those days, Bob was traveling to fundraising events with a big model of an indoor stadium in his car, helping then-Panther athletic director and football coach Stan Sheriff and other community leaders sell the dream that became the UNI-Dome. The realization of that dream, and witnessing the public’s participation in that first year of Dome operation, turned Justis’ Purple Pride in to a full-blown passion that has never waned. “I’m an alum,” he said. “Why wouldn’t I feel that way about the university? I don’t understand alums who don’t.” For Bob, daughter Nicole’s involvement as an intern with UNI athletic media relations brings the family full circle. It has certainly made UNI Athletics more special for the man at the mike. And while Nancy is stepping down from the media relations office, Bob’s not thinking about calling it quits in the booth any time soon. “I’ll do it as long as they’ll have me—as long as I can walk up the steps in the Dome,” he said. He’s especially looking forward to the ‘newest dream,’ located directly south of the UNI-Dome. “I can’t wait to get into the McLeod Center,” he said. When Nicole Justis was a little girl she had visions of being a teacher. But when she turned 11 she experienced something that would change her life. “I went on my first road trip with Mom to Creighton. We won at the buzzer on a shot by Darian DeVries and I loved it. Our crowd went crazy,” she said. “But it was more than that. It was the whole trip. It was so much fun being around the team. For the first time I understood some of the relationships my Mom’s been able to build in her career.” 
Those relationships are the network of players, coaches, staff and colleagues that have become as much a part of the Justis household as the family itself. To her, this extended family of players, coaches and reporters was as natural as any other contingent of uncles, brothers and cousins. All she knew is that it kept her mom busy around the clock for most of the year. it also gave her and her dad a chance to form a special bond during the football and basketball seasons. “When Mom was gone, Dad and I would sit down and listen to the games on the radio. Because it was such a family affair, it seemed like we were all there together,” Nicole said, adding that many of her best memories of childhood and family involve UNI athletics. “Traveling to Europe with the basketball team is one that especially sticks in my mind. If we weren’t so involved with UNI, that’s something that never would have happened.” It was “sometime in junior high” that Nicole says it dawned on her that her Mom was something of a pioneer in her profession. The ’03 Cedar Falls High School graduate has since chosen to follow in her Mom’s career footsteps and work alongside her in UNI’s athletic media relations office. “We’re best friends and she’s my mentor at work. I look up to her in her profession, Nicole said. “She’s always worked seven days a week, and when I was a little kid that just meant I got to spend more time in the UNI-Dome, which I loved. On Sundays she’d be working and all the coaches would be around. It didn’t seem like work to me. Now I see the day-to-day stresses she’s been under. It’s hard work and it’s not all glory.” This year the junior public relations major is knee deep in the behind-the-scenes toil of athletic media relations. She is the student media contact for men’s and women’s cross-country and track, spotter for computer stats in basketball and play-by-play statistician for football, her first love. “I might go to grad school for sports administration, but whatever I do I really want to work in college athletics after graduation,” Nicole said. “Eventually, I would like to be in the NFL. I want to stay around football, either in player personnel, sports information or PR.” Wherever her career takes her, Nicole will always carry one major Justis family trait: she bleeds UNI purple. “All you would have to do to prove that is put us side by side after the Southern Illinois football game and see that we all had tears in our eyes.” |
“Nancy’s been totally committed to UNI Athletics for 30 years. Nancy, Bob and Nicole exemplify the definition of a Panther family.” —Mark Farley, UNI head football coach “Nancy Justis did a remarkable job during the 12 years we worked together. Panther athletics was not a job for her; it was an important part of her family’s life. The Panthers have no better fans than Nancy, Bob and Nicole Justis. Bob also happens to be the best P.A. announcer I ever experienced. “Here come the Panthers!” is a part of my life forever. We had great times together, and Dee and I want to say thank you.” —Eldon Miller, UNI men’s basketball head coach, 1986-1998 “When I came here in 1980, it didn’t take me very long to see that she was extraordinarily good, a real professional. She has been such a loyal person, and it’s great that the whole family’s involved. What many people don’t realize is that on Sunday when everybody else is relaxing, she’s in the office getting her stories and statistics out. But it’s been a labor of love for her.” —John “Jersey” Jermier, Former UNI associate director of athletics, special consultant to athletics director, 1980-2001 “Nancy was working at UNI when I began here in 1978. For a time we shared an office in a trailer outside the Dome. Nancy was loyal and dedicated to the coaches and to her work, and throughout her career won many CoSida Awards. She has given the university many, many hours of work to put our story forward.” —Sandra C. Williamson, associate athletic director, sr. woman admin. emeritus “Nancy Justis was the most wonderful person to me when I came to UNI. I can’t say enough good things about her and Bob. We have remained friends all of these years. Nancy is the best at what she does and a true friend. I am honored to say I know Nancy Justis.” —Kevin Willard ‘88, former Panther football standout, assistant principal, ASB-dean of activities, Chula Vista (Calif.) High School “I had outstanding instructors at UNI, but Nancy had the most profound impact on my life. She taught me the skills to operate a successful media relations and communications department, and instilled in me a sense of direction, motivation, focus, commitment and passion. Anything I have accomplished or will accomplish is built around a core of purple and gold. Nancy Justis is at the center of that core.” —Troy Dannen ‘89, executive director, Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union |
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by Denton Ketels