After serving as Central’s athletics communications director since 1979, Larry Happel will hand off that title in June to launch his retirement. He’ll continue to assist on a part-time basis.
The position was referred to as sports information director back then, and he never even applied for it. He was unexpectedly offered the job near the end of his junior year, after serving as editor of the school newspaper, the Central Ray, and interning in the college’s News Bureau, with the understanding that he could complete his degree requirements over two years while working full time, graduating in 1981 instead of with his 1980 classmates. He managed to hang on to the job long enough to unofficially surpass Iowa State University’s Harry Burrell as the longest-serving college or university sports information director in Iowa. Including his time as a student journalist, he’s spent 48 years tracking the Dutch.
He’s simultaneously handled additional roles at Central, including a couple of stints as the college’s communications director. A proud Waverly, Iowa native, he was inducted into the College Sports Information Directors of America (now College Sports Communicators) Hall of Fame in 2010 and received the organization’s Warren Berg Award for outstanding achievement in the college division sports information field in 2006. He has received more than 35 national publication and writing awards.
At Central, he helped lead the processes to create and implement the college’s current institutional and athletics graphic identities and he coined the promotional tag Forever Dutch®. He served as host SID for numerous NCAA Division III playoff events, including the NCAA Championships for men’s golf in 1980 and 1989, softball in 1992, women’s basketball in 1993 and volleyball in 2000.
During his tenure, Central has won 10 of the school’s 11 NCAA Division III team championships and all 36 of its NCAA individual championships, as well as claiming 157 of its 187 conference championships, all 73 of its CSC Academic All-America® awards, 24 of its 26 NCAA postgraduate scholarships and 487 of its 498 all-America awards. Happel has worked Central games and meets in 24 states, including three treks with the men’s basketball team to Hawaii and Spain, and he has authored more than 20,000 news releases.
Following the expansion of P.H. Kuyper Gymnasium, Central’s national champions trophy case was named in his honor in 2019. He received the college’s Presidential Service Standard Award for Energy in 2009.
He was the adviser for Central’s Habitat for Humanity campus chapter for 14 years and has served on the board for the Pella CROP Walk for world hunger for the past 20 years. He’s also active with Pella’s Second Reformed Church.