BUIES CREEK – Stan Cole '87 has been named a 2026 Campbell University Distinguished Alumni. The Distinguished Alumni Award recognizes Campbell alumni who have distinguished themselves through their personal and professional accomplishments and their support of Campbell University.
 
Cole earned the award alongside Dr. Stephanie C. Holmes ('94) and W. Brooks Matthews ('76, M.Ed. '80). The trio will receive the University's highest alumni honor Friday, Oct. 16, in the Oscar N. Harris Student Union ballroom. The evening will begin with a reception at 5 p.m., followed by dinner and the award ceremony at 6 p.m. Tickets are $30 per person.
 
Registration for the 2026 Distinguished Alumni Awards Dinner and other Homecoming events can be found here.
 
For nearly four decades, Stan Cole has helped document, preserve and share the history of Campbell Athletics.
 
A 1987 Campbell graduate with a bachelor's degree in mass communication, Cole currently serves as senior director of community and alumni engagement for Campbell Athletics. He is the head writer and editor for GoCamels.com, leads the Campbell Athletics Hall of Fame committee and hosts the "Tales from the Creek" podcast. He also is involved with the Fighting Camel Club in various capacities.
 
Cole led Campbell Athletics' communications efforts from 1989 to 2022. He was promoted to associate athletics director in 2007 and oversaw publicity for Campbell's 21 NCAA Division I sports. During his 34 years in athletics communications, he worked with every Campbell varsity program and served in media relations roles at several NCAA championship events.
 
His career has spanned a period of significant change in sports communications, from typewriters, printed media guides and mailed releases to websites, social media, live streaming and multimedia storytelling. Through those changes, Cole has remained one of Campbell Athletics' most trusted storytellers and a mentor to generations of students and communications professionals.
 
Cole's connection to Campbell began when he enrolled in the fall of 1983. An English communications major advised by Dorothy Whitley, he spent four years working for the student newspaper, The Campbell Times. He also worked in the Campbell Athletics sports information office and traveled with the men's basketball team for three seasons as a statistician. Those experiences helped him find a community at Campbell and introduced him to the profession that would become his career.
 
Over the past three years, seven of Cole's feature stories have received district or national recognition from College Sports Communicators. His feature on Campbell Athletics Hall of Famer Woodrow Upchurch tied for top national honors in the historical feature category of the 2025-26 Fred Stabley Sr. Writing Contest. His profile of Destiny Bailey-Perkins was named the nation's best entry in the social justice and diversity category in 2024-25.
 
Cole received the organization's 25-year award in 2014. He has also served as an adjunct professor in Campbell's Department of Communication Studies and previously served as president and secretary of the North Carolina Collegiate Sports Information Association.
 
Campbell is also where Cole met Claudia Croom in the fall of 1986. They married in 1988 and have two grown children, Catherine and Oliver.