Lewiston, Minn., native Tom West director of Vikings public relations staff that wins Pete Rozelle Award
The Minnesota Vikings’ public relations staff has won the Pete Rozelle Award from the Professional Football Writers of America for excellence in dealing with the media.
The Vikings’ PR staff is the 29th Rozelle Award winner and earned the award for the first time in club history. Minnesota is the 15th different NFL organization to receive the honor since it was first awarded in 1990.
The Rozelle Award is named for the NFL commissioner from 1960-89, who started his career in sports as a publicist.
On that public relations crew is a local man, of sorts, the Vikings director of public relations, Tom West.
The Lewiston, Minn., native grew up managing 60 head of cattle on his parent’s dairy farm.
After graduating from Lewiston, he played football at Minnesota-Waseca, before transferring to St. Cloud. After that, he got his masters degree from Minnesota State-Mankato, where the Vikings held camp until this season.
From there, he was hired as a Vikings intern in 1995. It wasn’t until 1998, however — after stints at William and Mary and Florida — that the Vikings had him back for a full-time job and he hasn’t looked back since.
The rest of the 2017 Vikings PR staff, overseen by executive vice president of public affairs Lester Bagley, includes:
Executive Director of Public Relations Bob Hagan
Director of Public Relations Tom West
Executive Director of Communications Jeff Anderson
Public Relations Manager Jon Ekstrom
Football Communications Manager Sam Newton
Public Relations Interns Carly Bonk, Danielle Burns and Walt Scher
