Lawrence Fan, the largest champion and unofficial historian of San Jose State athletics, died on Feb. 21. He was 67.
The varsity introduced Wednesday that Fan had died. No trigger was given.
Fan, a San Francisco native, joined the SJSU sports activities data division in 1980. This fall he labored his 501st straight soccer sport with the Spartans, however had a component in serving to promote and rejoice nearly each sport on campus throughout his Corridor of Fame profession.
“He’s the Lou Gehrig of sports activities data administrators,” SJSU soccer coach Brent Brennan stated throughout a KPIX phase on Fan this fall.
A member of CoSIDA since 1978, Fan made organizational historical past as the primary Chinese language American enshrined within the CoSIDA Corridor of Fame in 2012.
Fan first joined the Spartans because the sports activities data director for males’s athletics. When the lads’s and ladies’s athletics departments merged in 1987, he assumed the duties of SID for your entire program.
He has served the Bay Space media in lots of capacities together with arranging interviews for all Spartan athletes in addition to the spokesman for San Jose State Athletics.
Simply final week, Fan attended a memorial service for former NFL reporter Invoice Soliday, who preceded Fan at San Jose State. Upon seeing a former pupil journalist on the college, Fan recalled the 1980 Spartans’ street upset of top-10 Baylor soccer workforce — and rattled off the highest gamers on that Bears workforce, from Mike Singletary to Alfred Anderson, 42 years after the win. 
Media from across the nation over time loved his well-known Fan cake, a staple within the press room throughout basketball season. His workplace was a treasure trove of SJSU historical past, and there was no SJSU sporting element too small that escaped Fan’s discover – or was not relayed to space reporters.
“He was one in all a form. I don’t know there'll ever be one other one like him. Beside all of the accolades that everyone goes to present, he was simply such a beautiful particular person and pal. And he was old-school,” A’s radio announcer Ken Korach stated. Korach lined San Jose State basketball and soccer from 1985-92.
“He was simply so devoted and completely thorough on all the pieces,” Korach continued. “And there wasn’t something he wouldn’t do for anybody. He was fingers on. He didn’t delegate loads. He was nonetheless doing a lot of the stuff.”
Fan coordinated the Heisman Trophy marketing campaign for former Spartan quarterback Mike Perez through the 1987 season. Fan additionally coordinated all publicity for the three ladies’s golf NCAA Championships (1987, 1989, 1992). He dealt with all of the publicity for the 1996 males’s basketball workforce that received the Large West Event and performed top-seeded Kentucky within the first spherical of the 1996 NCAA Males’s Basketball Event.
Fan was the media coordinator for the 1991 NCAA Males’s Golf Championships and labored the 1999 and 2000 Ladies’s Soccer Faculty Cup. He served because the media coordinator for the 1997 NCAA Males’s Basketball West Regional on the San Jose Area and assisted with many different males’s basketball West Regionals, serving as press room monitor and plenty of different positions.
“He lived there the entire weekend. He by no means left,” former Mercury Information columnist Mark Purdy stated. “They kicked him out after they needed to lock the increase, so he went out within the parking zone and slept in his automotive and the subsequent morning, got here again in.”
Among the many awards Fan acquired throughout his profession was the Arch Ward Award, which fits to a CoSIDA member who has made an impressive contribution to the sphere of faculty sports activities data, and who by his or her actions has introduced dignity and status to the career.
In 2013, Fan was honored with the Trailblazer Award by CoSIDA, introduced yearly to a person who's a pioneer within the career and who has mentored and helped enhance the extent of ethnic and gender range inside CoSIDA.
“Lawrence was a Corridor of Famer in life and work,” athletic director Jeff Konya stated in San Jose State’s launch. “The whole SJSU group is shocked from this information and we ship the Fan household, all of our present and former student-athletes, workers and coaches, in addition to his prolonged media household our condolences.” 
Previous to accepting the San Jose State sports activities data director’s place, Fan was the sports activities data director at Frostburg State Faculty in 1977 and at La Salle Faculty from 1978 to 1980. He additionally was a volunteer within the Western Illinois College sports activities data workplace in 1978 whereas finishing his grasp’s diploma in athletic administration.
Apart from his San Jose State Athletics obligations, he served on the board of administrators for the San Jose Sports activities Authority and the Nationwide Soccer Basis’s Northern California chapter.
Jerry McDonald and Michael Nowels contributed to this report.
Thanks Lawrence Fan for the love you confirmed me, @SJSU. Nobody beloved San Jose State greater than Mr. Fan. He'll eternally be missed and @SJSUAthletics won't ever be the identical with out you. Felt in my coronary heart one thing was improper when he wasn’t on the @SJSUAthletics sport at this time. Love you
— Marc J. Spears (@MarcJSpears) February 23, 2022