Alan Hoskins

For more than 30 years, Alan Hoskins was a fixture at KCKCC. He built a reputation for his work with KCKCC athletics, but also his work with the campus community.

“It was a great job,” said Hoskins, former sports information director at KCKCC. “I had been in newspaper all my life, and it was headed in a different direction. The opportunity to come out to the college was just a great thing for me. I loved every minute of it.”

The Zearing, Iowa native’s career began at the University of Iowa where he studied journalism. It was at the university where he had the opportunity to be an editor for the first Rose Bowl edition of the award-winning Daily Iowan student newspaper. After graduation, he worked for Muscatine (Iowa) Journal where he was a copy editor, reporter and a photographer. And later the Ottumwa (Iowa) Courier as an assistant sports editor, sports editor and managing editor. He was recognized as Iowa Sportswriter of the Year in 1969.

After almost 20 years in Iowa, Hoskins came to the Kansas City Kansan in 1976. He also spent time traveling with the Kansas City Chiefs, was also an official scorer for the Kansas City Royals and kept statistics for the Kansas City Kings. He published three books including “Wolf Creek’s First 25 Years” and “Warpaths: The Illustrated History of the Kansas City Chiefs.” Among some of the famous names he has interviewed over his long career are Wilt Chamberlain, Joe Louis, Mickey Mantle, Walter Payton, Bill Russell, Magic Johnson and Jerry West.

But when he came to KCKCC in 1983, it was not for athletics. He initially worked for the college as public information supervisor. Hoskins chose to add athletics to his responsibilities. Following his retirement in 2013, he returned to the college as sports information director, a role he continued to perform on a part-time basis until 2021.

And while Hoskins is most recognized for his role in the athletics community, he is also well-known for the travel opportunities he helped to organize during his time at KCKCC. This desire to travel started after meeting Dr. Henry Louis, dean of social science, when he was writing press releases about these trips. Hoskins first trip was a trip to Turkey in 1999. Since then, he has made 31 trips overseas to countries including Egypt, South Africa, India, China and Japan.

“I would be remiss if I did not recommend travel abroad,” Hoskins said. “Not only do you gain a greater appreciation for the U.S., but you’ll find other countries are far more advanced than most think.”

Looking back, Hoskins said it is the people that made KCKCC so special.

“There was an association with the coaches particularly and also some of the athletes,” he said. “It was so family-oriented, and people got to know each other and did things together. I felt it was really important to me to be involved.”