The Rice community gathered for the Laureates Awards Celebration on Thursday, May 2, 2024. The Laureates Awards Program was created by the Association of Rice Alumni in 1937 to recognize highly distinguished individuals for extraordinary achievements and contributions to their professions, local communities and Rice University. The Meritorious Service Award recognizes significant and sustained voluntary contributions towards the advancement of the university.
Meritorious Service Award
James “Jimmy” Disch
James “Jimmy” Disch, associate professor emeritus in the department of sport management, has dedicated his life to Rice as a prize-winning teacher, coach, college master, college associate and member of countless advisory committees. One nominator described Disch as having “enriched all aspects of the Rice community through his dedication, service and love for the institution and its members.”
After earning his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in physical education from the University of Houston and his P.E.D. from Indiana University, Disch joined Rice’s faculty in 1973. He served as the men’s club volleyball coach and sponsor, coached the intercollegiate women’s basketball and volleyball teams, and served as department chair for kinesiology from 1995 to 2001. In the classroom, Disch delivered complex theory with a folksy personality, inspiring many students to follow their passion. His research focused on prediction in sport, and he founded the sport analytic concentration curriculum, one of the first of its type in the country. He also helped place a number of students in sport analytics positions with professional teams. Among his many professional accomplishments, he received the National Measurement and Evaluation Council Honor Award and was named a Sports Ethics Fellow by the Positive Coaching Alliance and the Institute for International Sport. He also received the David K. Brace Award, the highest honor bestowed by the Texas Association of Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance and received a CoFES Prize in Computational Statistics at the 9th Eubank Conference.
A dedicated faculty member and mentor, Disch served as the magister of Sid Rich College from 1986- 1991 as it transitioned to co-ed occupancy and was named outstanding faculty associate at Sid twice. In 2021, the Jimmy Disch Sport Analytics Award was founded to carry on his legacy.
As one nominator summarized, “Rice is family to Jimmy, and his devotion and commitment to the Rice community is strong.”
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