Mickey Curtis served as Westfield State’s sports information director, and later as associate athletic director from 1987 to 2014.  For 27 years, he tirelessly promoted Westfield State University and its student athletes, garnering acres of newsprint coverage, and numerous awards for its student-athletes.

At Westfield State he promoted the Owls 21-sport varsity athletics program, maintained statistics, data, photographs, record books, and wrote game stories and features about successful student-athletes and teams.  As a member of the Collegiate Sports Information Directors of America, Curtis promoted the careers of three nationally recognized Academic All-Americans, a Honda National Track and Field Athlete of the Year and countless all-conference, all-region and All-American athletes. He also pomoted 14 Westfield State student-athletes who were named as the MASCAC Scholar-Athlete of the year. 

Curtis helped build the school’s inaugural athletic website, pioneered the web streaming video broadcast of athletic events, and worked with a number of students who broadcast games on WSKB, the campus radio station. 

Additionally, he managed scheduling of intercollegiate athletics for the Owls’ teams, and for 10 years oversaw NCAA Compliance and Eligibility for Westfield State.  He served as an event manager at numerous college and high school championships hosted by Westfield State, including the NCAA Division III field hockey national championships in 2004, NCAA Division I field hockey (UMass Amherst), New England track and field championships, and MIAA high school state and regional championships.

He has been a member of the Westfield State Athletic Hall of Fame board of directors since its inception in 1994, and he worked passionately to research candidates and organized the many aspects of the induction ceremony.

Curtis served several years as an advisor and sports editor for the Westfield State school newspaper and worked closely with the yearbook staff.  He also served as an internship advisor and mentor to scores of Westfield State students, and helped launch the careers for a number of students who have worked, or continue to work at NCAA institutions or in the media field.

Well regarded among his peers in the sports information field, at various times, Curtis handled additional duties as publicity director for the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference, the Pilgrim Lacrosse League and the New England Football Conference. During his lengthy stint with the football conference, he was the New England representative to the CoSIDA/Hewlett-Packard Division III All-America football team for eight years. Locally, he was a media relations assistant for Basketball Hall of Fame induction events and NBA and college basketball games played in Springfield.

A native of Punxsutawney, Pa., where he was a youth baseball and basketball standout, Curtis graduated from Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) with a bachelor’s of arts degree in history and a journalism minor.  He worked for seven years as sports editor of his hometown daily newspaper, the Punxsutawney Spirit and during weekends he covered Steelers, Penn State and Pitt football games. Observing the press box management at these games piqued his interest in the sports information/public relations field.

Following his newspaper stint, he served for two years as sports information assistant at Edinboro (Pa.) University where he was a media relations contact for the school’s NCAA Division I wrestling program, which featured United States Olympic gold medalist and world champion superheavyweight freestyle wrestler Bruce Baumgartner as an assistant coach. He also worked with the Fighting Scots men’s cross country team that won the NCAA Division II national title in 1986 and was national runner-up in 1985. In addition, he worked as part-time sports editor at the Edinboro Independent, a weekly newspaper.

He earned a master’s degree in educational administration from Westfield State in 1996.

Now retired and residing in Clermont, Fla, with his wife Mary Ellen Kaeding, Curtis continues to stay active with athletics and has volunteered at a variety of events, including: serving as official scorer for the Winter Garden Squeeze of the Florida Collegiate Summer League; the National Training Center in Clermont which hosts athletes of all ages, including serving as a popular training site for United States and international Olympic track and field athletes; Florida Special Olympics; PFX Athletics which hosts the annual college softball Spring Games for hundreds of Universities (where the Westfield State softball team has spent its spring break since 2008); Sommer Sports, a nationally recognized triathlon/race event management company based in Clermont, and other events and road races at the Disney Theme Parks and Disney Wide World of Sports Complex. Curtis also enjoys recreational activities with his granddaughter at the Central Florida Dreamplex, a health and fitness facility providing opportunities for those with special needs.