BLOOMINGTON, Ill. - Illinois Wesleyan University athletics takes time to reflect and remember Ed Alsene, a Titan athletics legend, who passed away on July 17, 2016. Alsene, who earned national Hall of Fame honors as the director of publicity and sports information, tirelessly promoted IWU and the Titan student-athletes from 1965 to 1988.

One of Alsene's greatest accomplishments was establishing  a foothold for IWU in the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-America program. Thanks to the foundation developed and emphasis dedicated to the program by Alsene, Illinois Wesleyan now ranks inside the top-25 nationally across NCAA Division I, II, and III. Additionally, IWU's 136 all-time Academic All-America selections ranks in the top-10 in Division III. 

From 1979 to 1989 Alsene served as men's district coordinator for the CoSIDA Academic All-America Committee, supervising the nominating and voting process for four states and two Canadian provinces. In 1998 Alsene won the organization's Lester Jordan Award for his contributions to the Academic All-America program.

In 1986, Alsene was  elected to the Hall of Fame of the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA), at the time becoming only the second person from a small, private school to be so honored.

Alsene is a member of the Illinois Basketball Association Hall of Fame (1982) and the Springfield, Ill., Sports Hall of Fame (1996). Alsene received the Iowa Bowling Proprietors Association's first Harold Teachout Award in 1958 for service to bowling by someone outside the industry, and won third place in Bowling Magazine's writing contest in 1959.

In November 2015, the Sports Information Director office at Illinois Wesleyan was named in honor of Alsene, thanks to a generous anonymous donation by an IWU alumnus. Go here for the complete story on that dedication.

Alsene's Illinois Wesleyan men's basketball brochures twice were rated second in their category in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics and his publications finished as high as third in CoSIDA national competitions.

Alsene began his journalism career in 1942 when he was employed by the Bloomington Pantagraph, working on the sports and state department staffs. In 1954 he moved to the Des Moines Register as a sports copy editor and, in 1959, became the sports editor of the Illinois State Journal in Springfield.

He is a graduate of Normal Community High School, served in the Navy during World War II, and is a 1950 graduate of Illinois State University with a degree in English.