Linfield University Athletics

In 2025, the Linfield sports communications office experienced a transition of leadership, with Chase Fisk taking the role of sports information director for the Linfield University athletics department. Fisk comes to Linfield after spending the past two seasons at fellow Northwest Conference Institution, Pacific Lutheran University, serving as the Assistant Director of Athletic Communications. Guiding the communications outreach of Linfield's 23 varsity athletic programs, Kelly Bird spent 36 years as the university's sports information director. His areas of oversight include the Linfield Athletics website, sports publications, video display board, video webcasting and the Linfield Athletics Hall of Fame. Bird is embracing a new position in 2025 within the department as the university's athletics marketing and events coordinator. 

As the sports information director, Fisk takes over day-to-day leadership of the sports communications office. Bird will continue to serve as the communications point of contact for Linfield football, softball, and track & field programs, and continues to be the athletic department's point of contact for procurement and fulfillment of community sponsorships. Fisk oversees the communications responsibilities of the remaining 19 Wildcat sports.  The two will collaborate with broadcast coordinator Joe Stuart to complete an experienced and imaginative communications team. 

Since joining the staff in 1989, Bird covered a remarkable spectrum of accomplishments by Linfield student-athletes, teams and coaches. He coordinated media coverage of Linfield's 2004 NCAA Division III national championship football team, 2007 and 2011 national championship softball teams, Gagliardi and Melberger award-winning quarterback Brett Elliott, and the college's NCAA-record 67-year streak of consecutive winning football seasons. Coverage of Linfield athletics has appeared in Sports Illustrated, USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, New York Times and Chicago Tribune, on cable networks ESPN, CSTV and FoxSports, and on Web sites CBS Sportsline and D3football.com.

Over the past 20 years, he has promoted 27 CoSIDA Academic All-Americans, including volleyball player Lindsay Harksen, who was the Division III Academic All-America Team Member of the Year in 2005, and softball standout Kaili Saathoff, who garnered the Division III Academic All-America Team Member of the Year in 2024.

Bird was honored as Linfield's Administrator of the Year for the McMinnville campus in 2007 and received the Jack Sareault Award, honoring the Northwest Conference's top athletics communications professional, following the 2007-08, 2014-15, and 2020-21 academic years.

He produced 22 nationally award-winning sports brochures, including five publications that were judged "Best in the Nation" by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).

Bird served with the National Association of Collegiate Marketing Administrators (NACMA) and was a co-recipient of 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013 and 2014 "Best of NACMA" awards for video display board presentation.

He has mentored dozens of sports information student assistants, many of whom advanced to entry-level jobs in the fields of journalism, sports communications, graphic design and website design.

Bird also spent 14 years at The Oregonian newspaper in Portland as a sports-statistics editor and worked as an announcer for five years at KUIK radio in Hillsboro. He is a graduate of Portland Community College.

Born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, Bird has lived in the United States since the age of 9. He and his wife, Jolene, live in McMinnville and have two grown daughters. Karlee is a recent graduate of Corban University and Jillian is a senior visual arts major at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle.

An award-winning sports communications professional in his two years at PLU, Fisk earned six College Sports Communicators Creative & Digital Design citations, including consecutive titles in recognition of the top Signing Day Package for Division III. During his time in Tacoma, Fisk covered four Northwest Conference championship teams which also competed in the NCAA Division III Tournaments.
 
A native of Tumwater, Washington, Fisk returned to the Pacific Northwest after spending three years developing his sports communications tool kit at Division II University of Wisconsin-Parkside where he served as a graduate assistant for External Relations and Marketing and was the primary media contact for the Rangers men's golf team and nationally-ranked wresting teams.
 
A three-year golf letter winner at UWP, Fisk graduated in 2022 with a bachelor's degree in Sports Management, earning Academic All-Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference honors and All America Scholar recognition from the Golf Coaches Association of America. He went on to complete a master's degree in Sports Management two years later.
 
Prior to attending UW-Parkside, Fisk competed on the men's golf team at Bellevue College, where he earned the Northwest Athletic Conference's Sportsman of the Year in 2020.
 
He and his wife, Marissa, reside in McMinnville with their dog, Sadie, and cat, Loki.