Former Penn State Associate Sports Information Director Mary Jo Haverbeck became the first woman to receive the Arch Ward Award Wednesday from the College Sports Information Directors Association of America.

Haverbeck, who took an early retirement this December, received the honor at the annual CoSIDA Convention in St. Louis.

The Arch Ward Award was first presented in 1958, and is given to the CoSIDA member who has made an outstanding contribution in collegiate sports information and enhanced the profession.

The Wilmington, Del., native began her prestigious sports information career at Delaware on a volunteer basis in the late 1960's, introducing the then-three sport Blue Hen women's program to the media while working full-time in the university's public information office.

Haverbeck came to Penn State in 1974 by then-Sports Information Director John Morris for coverage of the university's then-nine sport women's athletic program. Through the years, she has worked with hundreds of members of the media throughout the nation in the promotion of Penn State's women's teams, while working with several men's sports, including working at both of the Nittany Lions' national championship football games in the 1980's.