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Paul Erickson Named Tom Butler Award Recipient

MADISON, Wis--Paul Erickson has been named the 2025 recipient of the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) Tom Butler Award.
 
The Tom Butler Award has been presented annually since 1998 to a representative of the print or electronic media for outstanding coverage of WIAC athletics (former WIAC sports information directors may also be considered). The league’s sports information directors select the winner. The award is dedicated to Tom Butler, who served the conference faithfully as its sports information director from 1967-96.
 
Erickson served as UW-Platteville’s sports information director from 1996-2011, and university’s director of communications and the public information officer from 2011-23. In the fall of 2023, Erickson stepped into the interim athletics director role, navigating and uniting the department through an extremely difficult time.
 
From the development of records books across multiple programs, to designing of media guides and programs, to the creation of the original athletics department website, and keeping of statistics at games, he built a legacy as one of the best in the business. Erickson served as sports information director during the great technological advancement in communications. When he first started in athletics, he would have to call-in box scores to six different media outlets. By the time he stepped away from the role, fans could watch the live stats in real-time on the internet.
 
Erickson covered two national championship basketball teams, as well as football, men’s soccer and women’s volleyball NCAA Tournament appearances, conference championships and the Chicago Bears Training Camp in Platteville.
 
He chaired many university-wide committees and serves as a human encyclopedia for all things Pioneers as the historian on the Hall of Fame committee. In 2012, he chaired the committee that created the Pioneer and athletics pickaxe. In 2025, Erickson was inducted into the WIAC Hall of Fame.
 
Erickson earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from UW-Eau Claire.
 
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