Dante Hibbert, ACU’s director of intramurals and club sports, has received the university’s Unsung Servant Award, an honor voted on by students and given to a staff member who serves the campus quietly.

The award was announced at the faculty and staff pre-session gathering on Aug. 19, where it was presented alongside the Outstanding Staff Award and the John C. Stevens Award. President Phil Schubert read the citation.

Hibbert said he had no idea he’d won and had spent the morning joking with colleagues that the university was about to unveil a rebrand featuring his face.

“I was about to take my phone out of my pocket, and I heard ‘intramurals,'” he said. “I put it back, and I look up and everybody’s eyes were on me.”

He said the citation, which quoted students, was what got to him.

“I love all the staff members here, and I love everybody I work with, but I care about students,” Hibbert said. “So to hear him talk that good about me, quoting students, man, it melted me.”

Hibbert came to ACU as a football player and was named a team captain as a junior. He stayed on as a coach under head coach Keith Patterson before stepping down and moving to campus recreation, where he has led intramurals and club sports since 2024. He succeeded Matthew Ferreira, now executive director of the Student Recreation and Wellness Center.

Under Hibbert, club sports have been rebuilt after most were suspended during the pandemic. ACU now fields teams in soccer, volleyball, basketball, golf, bass fishing, swimming, powerlifting, pickleball, roundnet and esports. More than 1,100 students play intramurals across more than a dozen sports, and Hibbert employs 67 students, a number that grows nearly every week.

Zed Carter, a senior from The Colony and one of Hibbert’s longest-tenured referees, said Hibbert doesn’t let mistakes slide.

“He loves to call me out when I do something wrong to make sure I don’t make the same mistake,” Carter said, “since people are looking up to me as an ideal ref.”

Carter took the job looking for steady work on campus. He said what he didn’t expect was the access it gave him to students outside his usual circles.

“It’s a good avenue to be able to hang out with everyone and even get familiar with the new students that I wouldn’t really see in any other environment,” Carter said.

Asked what he would have written in a nomination, Carter pointed to the parts of the job that happen out of view.

“His willingness to work relentlessly behind the scenes, not needing a pat on the back,” Carter said. “All he needs is the job to get done.”

He also launched the university’s first Intramural All-Star Game in spring 2025, modeled on the NBA’s version, with staff selecting the season’s top 20 basketball players from across social clubs and organizations.

Hibbert said his focus now is on reaching students who arrive without a built-in community.

“My goal is to make sure that kid from North Dakota feels like he’s a Texan,” he said. “Because if not, they won’t stay all four years.”

The Unsung Servant Award dates to 1995, when the Students’ Association began presenting it annually to a staff member who went out of the way to help students. It is now announced at the university’s opening-year gathering.

Hibbert said he keeps an open-door policy and encouraged students to come by Room 142 in the SRWC.