The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Hall of Honor
- Induction:
- 2016
Inducted: 2016
Entering his 25th year as a member of the Longhorns Athletics staff, Bianco's tenure in sports information/media relations is the second longest of anyone in that role historically at Texas. His career at UT began in 1992 as assistant SID handling men's track & field and swimming & diving, and serving as media coordinator for the Texas Relays, but by the mid-1990s he assumed a significant role with Longhorn football. In 1998, he was promoted to media relations director, overseeing all men's sports. Four years later, Bianco was promoted to assistant athletics director during a time when UT had an unprecedented run, winning national titles in football (2005) and baseball (2002, 2005), while advancing to the Final Four in men's basketball (2003). In 2011, his responsibilities expanded as UT, in partnership with ESPN, launched the Longhorn Network. A year later, he was promoted to associate AD and helped build UT's first in-house video production team within the media relations department. During his time heading up his department, Bianco's staff has promoted numerous All-Americans, national award winners and championship teams. Personally, he managed the demands for Heisman Trophy winner and College Football Hall of Famer Ricky Williams, Heisman Trophy runner-ups/National Players of the Year Vince Young and Colt McCoy, as well as 15 members of the UT Hall of Honor, while working closely with head coaches John Mackovic, Mack Brown and Charlie Strong. Bianco also promoted three recipients of the Maxwell Award, three Walter Camp Football Foundation National Players of the Year and two Nagurski Trophy (national defensive player of the year) winners, as well as more than a dozen other national individual award recipients. Additionally, he spent time serving as a public relations consultant for the major motion picture My All American, the true story of Longhorn legend Freddie Steinmark that was released in theaters nationwide in the fall of 2015. A native of upstate New York, Bianco lettered in track & field and graduated from Baldwin-Wallace University (Berea, Ohio) in 1988. He came to Texas after two years at the University of Cincinnati and a year at Fresno State and the University of Arkansas. Bianco and his wife, Sonya, also a Baldwin-Wallace track & field letterman, have two daughters, Haley and Sabrina.
