BEREA, Ohio – Retired Baldwin Wallace University Director of Athletic Communications and Public Relations Kevin Ruple has been honored by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) with the Lifetime Achievement Award.

The CoSIDA Lifetime Achievement Award is presented to members who have served at least 25 years in the profession and who are retiring, have retired or are leaving the profession.

Ruple, who retired from BW in June of 2020, was named the sports information director on March 1, 1983. He was promoted to Director of  Athletic Communications and Public Relations in October of 2016 and served in the capacity until his retirement.

During his time at the University, Ruple promoted thousands of student-athletes and was a key advocate of the student-athlete philosophy. He was a primary reason why BW had 122 CCoSIDA Academic All-Americans during his tenure.

Also, Ruple  mentored countless assistants, interns and student-assistants over his career - many of which currently or have worked in athletic communications, media relations or sports information in all levels of collegiate athletics and professional sports. 

In addition to the Lifetime Achievement Award, Ruple has been recognized by his colleagues and is just one of a handful of small college sports information directors in CoSIDA history to receive the organization's three national awards. He was presented the Warren Berg Award in 2004, inducted into the CoSIDA Hall of Fame in 2008 and was awarded the Lester Jordan Award in 2011.

Outside of his duties at BW, Ruple has been an active member of CoSIDA and was a member of the CoSIDA Board of Directors as a College Division representative from 1994-98. He a member of the Academic All-America committee from 1997-2017 and served as the national chair for the football and at-large programs.

In addition, Ruple served as the national coordinator for the Football Gazette Division III All-American committee for 13 years. He was the President of the Ohio Athletic Conference Public Relations Task Force and served on both the Sports Media Association of Cleveland and Ohio (SMACO) and the Cleveland Touchdown Club Charities, Inc. Board of Directors.

For anyone that knows Ruple, all of his professional achievements are secondary.  His biggest accomplishment is his son, Danny, who was an outstanding student and was a four-year letterwinner on the BW men's soccer team. Danny was a four-time All-OAC selection, four-time United Soccer Coaches Association All-Region selection, two-time OAC Forward of the Year award recipient, the OAC Freshman of the Year award winner, the 2019 CoSIDA Men's Soccer Academic All-American of the Year, a four-time Academic All-Ohio Collegiate Soccer Association (OCSA) selection, three-time Academic All-OAC selection, three-time first-team CoSIDA Academic All-American, three-time CoSIDA Academic All-District 7 first-team selection, two-time United Soccer Coaches Scholar All-America selection, Dean's List student, Jacket Scholar and a member of the Chi Alpha Sigma Honor Society.

A native of Ashtabula, Ruple earned a Bachelor of Arts in speech communications and public relations from The College of Wooster. He was a member of the baseball team for three years.