Wishing the best For two of the best In the SID business

Steve Fenk

The coronavirus pandemic has affected all of us, and in many ways.

At Oregon State, 23 positions in the athletic department were eliminated recently, including two of the five full-time members of the sports information staff.

These folks let go to help cut the department’s financial losses aren’t greenhorns. Steve Fenk had been a member of the SID staff since 1990, the head of the department since 2004. Jason Amberg, who had been on board as an assistant for 16 years, was Fenk’s first hire. 

Each worked his final day at OSU earlier this month. These guys were fixtures not just in sports information but in the Beavers’ overall athletic family.

I have a special affinity for people in their profession. My father, John, was sports information director for 30 years (1950-80) at Oregon State. Dad didn’t write the book on how to be a successful SID, but I like to think he contributed a couple of chapters.

I grew up seeing how he built relationships on both sides of the aisle — with the administrators, coaches and players he helped publicize, and with members of the media for whom he disseminated information and took care of their needs.

That quality — building relationships — remains an integral part of the job today. Fenk and Amberg were both masters at it. They understood reporters had a job to do and did what they could to facilitate that rather than make things difficult, as some in their business do.

Both are native Oregonians. Fenk grew up on a dairy farm in Tillamook. Amberg is a hometown boy from Corvallis.

Fenk, 57, initially wanted to join the Fourth Estate. He attended Mount Hood CC for two years intending to become a sportscaster.

“When I was at Mount Hood I was an intern at KEX radio and got to be around (OSU broadcasters) 

Darrell Aune and Jim Howe),” Fenk says. “I wanted to be the next Darrell Aune.”

Due to his relationship with Aune and Howe, Fenk learned about the sports information business. “I didn’t know it existed until I met those guys,” he says. “And I shifted gears in looking toward my future.”

Fenk transferred to Oregon State and served as an intern in the SID office under director Hal Cowan and assistant Mike Corwin. After graduation in 1987, Fenk served a year as an intern in the Pac-10 office in the Bay Area, also helping out with media relations with the Golden State Warriors. He spent two years as SID at Montana State before getting hired as an assistant SID at OSU in 1990. Fenk took over when Cowan retired in 2004.

For the past 16 years, Fenk deftly presided over an SID staff that grew from having one assistant to four full-time, plus several interns. He was around for some major changes in the athletic department.

“I arrived the year after Gary Payton left school, and basketball was trending down,” Fenk says. “If we could win more than two football games, it was considered a successful season. Facilities weren’t great. It was kind of rough.

“It was great to be a part of the scene when Mike Riley took over and we started tasting some success. I don’t think a lot of Oregon State fans appreciate enough what Mike did for the program. Dennis Erickson did a great job, too, and everybody seems to appreciate him. But Mike set the table for a run of bowl games and a lot of success in a very tough conference.

“We had some great quarterbacks, running backs and receivers and won some games we had no business winning — USC twice, and Cal when (the Bears) were No. 2 come to mind — and we played for the Rose Bowl a couple of times. What a special time it was for Beaver football.”

Fenk says the greatest pleasure he derived from his job at OSU was “getting to know some terrific young men and women.”

“There were some awesome student-athletes to be around,” Fenk says. “I enjoyed getting to know many of our coaches, too. I’d put Wayne Tinkle in the same category as Mike as far as being underappreciated. Wayne has been a really good ambassador for OSU, far better than any basketball coach we’ve had since Jimmy Anderson. Wayne is such a such a good guy, on and off the floor. 

“But he’s not alone. I could go on and on about our coaches. It really is a great group of people. And I enjoyed working under (ADs) Bob De Carolis and Scott Barnes. I feel really blessed.”

The most difficult part of the job, Fenk says, has been dealing with tragedy — the deaths of several student-athletes through the years, including basketball player Earnest Killum from a massive stroke in 1992. There have been a couple of suicides.

“The most challenging time was when Earnest died,” Fenk says. “We had flown down to play at USC and Earnest was a street legend in LA — and a great human being, too. The LA Times was coming out with a front-page story on him, and I had to call and tell them not to run the story, that Earnest had slipped into a coma that day.

“You get to know these young people, and suddenly they’re gone. You’re just left with an empty feeling.”

Fenk says he also enjoyed his relationship with the reporters — most of them, anyway — whom he dealt with.

“Maybe I’m a dinosaur that way,” he says, laughing, “but that was always a real positive for me.”

Fenk was an excellent conduit between the coaches and players and the media, doing what he could to drum up publicity for his school. When coaches were difficult, he did what he could to make interviews happen.

“I always thought at Oregon State you have to be little more open to media than some other schools seem to be,” he says. “As a smaller school that didn’t have a great recent history for winning, I thought we needed it. I also felt that Oregon State people are different than most — maybe more welcoming, more inviting. I tried to reflect that in how I handled my job.”

The proliferation of social media changed the sports information business dramatically.

“It’s good that athletes have the chance to have a voice and to brand themselves,” Fenk says. “But there are so many people out there who hide behind their hashtags. They can offer opinions and take shots without checking facts or having any credibility at all. 

“I also felt that there were times when I could tell (reporters) things off the record and trust that it wouldn’t get printed. I don’t know if you can do that anymore. It’s just a different world.”

Fenk fell five months short of working 30 years at the school. He was able to pay the difference to get him to 30 years and qualify for a fully vested PERs benefits package.

“I lucked out,” he says. “I was kicking around how many more years I wanted to go, anyway. The job is so time-consuming. I can’t complain. It worked out well for me.”

Fenk is spending his extra free time doing projects at home in Corvallis and visiting his parents, who still live in Tillamook. Steve and his girlfriend, Tina Larson, are likely to move to the Oregon Coast — “somewhere between Newport and Tillamook,” Fenk says — where he can more ardently pursue his love for deep-sea fishing.

“I grew up on the Tillamook Bay,” he says. “It’s in my blood.”

Jason Amberg

Amberg is in a different situation than Fenk. At 45, Jason is too young to think about retirement. He and wife Aret have two daughters, aged 13 and 11.

Like Fenk, Amberg’s job was put on hold when COVID-19 basically put a halt to civilization as we know it.

“When we all went home in March, nobody expected to be sitting at home for so long,” Amberg says. “I believed we weren’t going to have to cut positions. That’s what we were being told. I knew there was a chance I’d lose my job, but other than Steve, I was the most senior person on our staff.”

After graduation from Crescent Valley High in 1993, Amberg served six years in the Navy, stationed three years in San Diego and three years in Japan. Upon his return to the States, he spent two years at Linn-Benton CC before finishing at Washington State.

For awhile, Amberg thought he’d like to become a sportswriter. He was sports editor of the Linn-Benton school newspaper.

“I wanted to pursue something I really loved,” Amberg says. “After I got my two-year degree, I was looking for a journalism school. No way I was going to Oregon. I went to Washington State and got involved in the sport management program.”

During his first weeks at Wazzu, Cougar SID Rod Commons was a guest speaker in one of his classes.

Says Amberg: “He talked about sports information, and I thought, ‘That’s exactly what I want. I get to write; I get to be part of a team.’ After that class, I went right to (the SID) office and applied to be a student assistant.”

After graduation from WSU in 2004, Amberg spent five months as an intern in the SID office at Portland State. Then Oregon State beckoned. “I got lucky to get hired so quickly,” Amberg says.

Over 16 years, Amberg worked primarily in the sports of gymnastics (16 years) and football (10), and also spent time working with volleyball and crew. He is thankful for the opportunities the job gave him.

“There were a lot of good things,” he says. “The people I worked with — especially the student-athletes and coaches I got to work with. I traveled with gymnastics and football.

“It was fun being part of that atmosphere, being part of the team you’re working with. It’s like being a fan — you live and die with the team — but you’re on the inside. You celebrate with them when you win and feel bad when you lose. I enjoyed being part of that rather than being in the unbiased position of a reporter.”

Amberg says he is still in contact with many of the athletes he worked with.

“You have a different relationship with each of them,” he says. “You get to know some of them better than others. We had a gymnast who wanted to be a broadcaster; I was able to set up a tour with the Pac-12 network in San Francisco and started her on the path to a career. That was a neat experience for me, to help her get to where she wants to be. You get that chance to help them take the next step in life.”

The job, like that of a sports reporter, has its drawbacks.

“You miss a lot of stuff with your family,” Amberg says. “In football, you go hard from Aug. 1 to hopefully Christmas or New Year’s. Then gymnastics rolls around about the first of January. You’re gone so many weekends. You miss birthdays and sleepovers and so many important occasions with your family.”

The Ambergs make their home in Albany. Jason would prefer not to move.

“The family is established here,” he says. “Nobody is hiring in college athletics right now, anyway. I’m looking, but even if there were an SID position out there, it would be hard to convince my family that moving somewhere is what we should do.”

A career change is probable, “and to be honest, I don’t know what that will be,” Amberg says. “I’m looking for a position in communications or in management. It’s not a great time to be seeking employment.”

Working for a public university means no severance package. Notified of his layoff on June 3, Amberg was given 16 weeks notice — one week for every year he had served on the SID staff. His final day at work was Oct. 2.

Able men’s basketball SID Shawn Schoeffler will now head up a three-person staff that includes holdovers Trevor Cramer and Hank Hager. Fenk and Amberg will be missed, and not just because the work load for those remaining increases.

These guys were part of the OSU athletics blood line. So, too, was another victim of the Covid-19 cuts — Scott Spiegelberg, director of varsity and alumni engagement. 

A member of the athletic department in various positions through the years, Spieg spent the last four years engaging former Beaver athletes and organizing Hall of Fame activities and team reunions. The former OSU quarterback was also a “career connector” for current athletes with former Beavers who could help set them on a path toward a business career. 

Those who worked with him understand what a terrific job Spieg connecting with people on all these endeavors. Again, it was all about relationships — and there was nobody better tying it all together.

Oregon State will miss having someone in that position, but the loss of Spiegelberg — like that of Fenk and Amberg — runs deeper. You don’t replace people of that quality. You move on, but it’s never quite the same.

Readers: what are your thoughts on the OSU athletic department layoffs? Share your comments below.

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