ORLANDO, Fla. – A lifetime of service to Texas A&M’s Department of Athletics was recognized when the Aggies’ longtime athletic media relations director Alan Cannon was inducted into the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Hall of Fame on Monday. Cannon was honored at the organization’s annual convention in conjunction with the National Association of College Directors of Athletics (NACDA) convention week.
“I’m very honored and humbled to be recognized by my peers in CoSIDA,” said Cannon, who is a native of Dallas, Texas. “I feel it is more of a reflection on the outstanding staffs I have had the honor to work with. Also the success of Texas A&M and the enjoyment of working with our coaches, staffs and student-athletes are major factors. I was very pleased to have quite a few members of our current and former staff in attendance.”
“Alan is a honored figure here at Texas A&M, as well as by his peers across the country,” Texas A&M Director of Athletics Eric Hyman said. “He’s an expert on everything associated with Texas A&M, whether it’s from 30 days ago or 30 years ago. Everything Alan does is with Texas A&M’s best interests first-and-foremost in his mind.”
In his 35 years of service to Texas A&M, he has helped the “Sports News” office transition from weekly media mail-outs to FAX machines to the world wide web, as well as from typewriters to computers. He has overseen the all-star campaigns for hundreds of student-athletes in a variety of sports, including the successful Heisman Trophy campaign for Johnny Manziel in 2012. He has also worked with the winningest baseball coach in Texas A&M history (Mark Johnson), the winningest basketball coach in Southwest Conference history (Shelby Metcalf) and the winningest football coach in school history and College Football Hall of Fame member R.C. Slocum.
Cannon was named the Aggies’ sports information director in 1989 by John David Crow, was promoted to assistant AD for media relations in 1999 by Wally Groff, and associate AD in 2003 by Bill Byrne. Currently, Cannon is responsible for all 20 men’s and women’s varsity sports, while focusing on football.
A 1984 graduate of Texas A&M with a degree in marketing, Cannon began his career in sports information as a high school intern at SMU under the tutelage of CoSIDA Hall of Famer Bob Condron, who later served as the media director for the U.S. Olympic Committee.
Cannon was a walkon baseball player at Texas A&M in 1981 under head coach Tom Chandler, but asked then Aggie SID Spec Gammon if he could file pictures and clip articles. After one season on the diamond, Chandler wanted Cannon as his student baseball SID and Chandler’s final season was Cannon’s first as a student assistant in 1984. Cannon was hired as an assistant SID in 1985 and served in that capacity for five years before being named SID.
The 52-year-old has served as the host of several conference and NCAA championships and has assisted with the media operations at more than 20 college football bowl games.
He is a past president of the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association and was the 1999 winner of the prestigious Wilbur Snypp Award presented by the organization. He is a member of CoSIDA and the Football Writers Association of America. He was honored by the All-American Football Foundation with the Scoop Hudgens Lifetime Sports Information Director Award in 1999. Cannon was selected by his peers to serve in the officer rotation of CoSIDA, and he served as the organization’s president in 2002-03.
Cannon was inducted into the CoSIDA Hall of Fame along with Wayne Block (current SID at Mesa College and former SID at Christopher Newport), Samuel Jefferson (former CoSIDA board member and retired SID at Jackson State), Nick Joos (CoSIDA past president and current Executive Associate Athletics Director for External Affairs at Baylor) and Bill Wagner (current SID at DePauw). Jefferson was selected to the Hall of Fame by the Veterans Selection Committee. The other four were selected by a vote of over 80 CoSIDA Hall of Famers.
Story courtesy of Texas A&M Athletics