CoSIDA E-Digest April 2013 • 1

CoSIDA
DON bRIGGS
Longtime Nebraska-Kearney SID
and CoSIDA Hall of Famer Passes Away at 86
Courtesy of University of Nebraska-Kearney Athletics
KEARNEY, Neb. -- Nebraska-Kearney legend Donald
“Don” K. Briggs passed away on March 6th at Wel-life in
Kearney. He was 86.
Graveside services were held Monday, March 11th, at
11:00 a.m. at the Ft. McPherson National Cemetery near
Maxwell. Military Rites were provided at the Cemetery
by the North Platte Veterans Group and the Nebraska
National Guard Military Funeral Honors Team.
Memorials are suggested to the Don Briggs Endowed
Scholarship Fund at the U. of Nebraska Foundation.
“Mr. B”, as he was known to the UNK and Kearney
community, served as the Lopers sports information
director (SID) for an unprecedented 33 years (1958-90).
Previous to 1974, he was the schools entire public
relations department, serving as SID, alumni services,
college relations and college publications directors.
His began his UNK tenure as a journalism and English
teacher and, over the years, was an adviser to The
Antelope Newspaper, Blue & Gold Yearbook and Student
Senate.
Briggs was also greatly involved with the Phi Tau
Gamma and Alpha Tau Omega fraternities, serving as
adviser from 1957-2002. He not only earned the ATO’s
National Adviser of the Year award but also received an
ATO Lifetime Achievement award. Pledging Phi Tau in
1948, he was initiated in 1966 when the fraternity went
national.
A pioneer in the collegiate sports information field,
Briggs earned his undergraduate (‘51) and graduate
degrees (‘57) from then-Kearney State College. His
graduate degree was the first-ever awarded by KSC.
The Broken Bow High School graduate was inducted
into the NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate
Athletics) Hall of Fame in 1971, the CoSIDA (College
Sports Information Directors of America) Hall of Fame
in 1987, the UNK Athletic Hall of Fame in 1991 and the
Broken Bow Hall of Fame in 2004.
He also picked up the UNK’s Distinguished Alumni
Service Award and received the Kearney Hub Freedom
Award for volunteer service in 2004.
During his Loper career, he twice received the NAIA
Award of Merit, served as President of the NAIA Sports
Information Directors Association and was the NAIA District
11 information director for two decades.
For more than 20 years, he served as the press room
coordinator for the NAIA track and field championships
and for the NAIA national basketball tournament in Kansas
City. Not surprisingly, in 1980, Briggs received the Pearson
Award, the NAIA’s SID highest honor.
CoSIDA E-Digest April 2013 • 43
Additionally, he wrote
the history of Loper
athletics for the years
1905-2000 and wrote
the history for the
State Tuberculosis
Hospital, which is
now the West Center
of the UNK campus.
Before coming
back to the Lopers,
he was a teacher and
principal in Lyman
and served in the
Army.
Don is survived
by his brothers;
Russell and Delores
Briggs of Lexington,
Ky., Gary and Martha Briggs of Wayzata, Minn., George
and Jan Briggs of Arlington, Texas, sisters; Margaret Briggs
of Kearney, Joyce Munnell of Kearney, Leah and Clair
Burnett of Anselmo, Carol Herbin of Bellevue, and Retha
Harris and Cheryl Briggs, both of Springfield, Ill., and many
nieces and nephews.
Don was preceded in death by two brothers, Dean and
Robert, and sister, Janis Penny.
Tributes to Don briggs
Jim Rundstrom, former UNK Alumni Director
“Nobody cared more about UNK and Loper athletics
than Don Briggs. He truly bled blue. His dedication to the
university is legendary among former students, ATO and
Phi Tau Gamma fraternity members, athletes and alumni.
For more than 60 years, the university was his life.”
Al Zikmund, former UNK head football coach and
Athletics Director
“He was loyal to Kearney State College, Loper athletics
and to the City of Kearney. He was a very big supporter
of what we were doing and went beyond the call of what
was in his job description all the time. I was lucky to have
someone like Don in an administrative role; when I would
ask him about a certain situation or duty, he would say
‘That’s already been taken care of.’ He came from a large
family and really pulled himself up by his own bootstraps to
become successful.”