Eric McDowell has been named the director of sports
information at Union College. McDowell began his duties March 7. He
replaces George Cuttita, who was hired as Union’s first-ever full-time SID
in July 1980.
Cuttita left Union on March 11 to join his wife, Donna, who accepted a job
with the Walt Disney World Cruise Line last November. Cuttita, who was
scheduled to leave Union on December 26, stayed on to complete his SID
career with Dick Sakala, the former Union College director of athletics.
Sakala, who retired in 2000, returned to assist the college while a search
for a new Director of Athletics took place.
McDowell comes to Union from the State University of New York, College at
Brockport. He is this year’s Irving T. Marsh Award College Division
honoree from ECAC-SIDA (Eastern College Athletic Conference Sports
Information Directors Association), and will receive the award at the
annual workshop on Cape Cod in June.
McDowell is an active member of
CoSIDA and ECAC-SIDA and has hosted numerous panels and table topics for
both organizations. He will reprise his “Press Conference Workshop” panel
at ECAC-SIDA’s workshop this summer after hosting that panel at CoSIDA’s
workshop in Calgary last year.
McDowell, as his alter ego “Wink McDowell,”
has hosted game show format panels designed to educate the membership with
a (very small) touch of humor. Other SIDs provided character roles in the
productions of “The SID is Right” at the CoSIDA St. Louis workshop in
2000. The “CoSIDA Family Feud” in Cleveland in 2003, featured four teams
and a national survey of pertinent Sports Information questions that
featured over 100 responses from SIDs nationwide.
McDowell serves as a member of the CoSIDA programming committee, and
hosted the ECAC-SIDA workshop in Lowell, MA in 2002. This summer, McDowell
will present a bid to host the 2007 ECAC-SIDA workshop in Niagara Falls,
NY. He has worked numerous ECAC and NCAA post-season events in a variety
of sports, including eight NCAA Div. I men’s basketball “March Madness”
events nationally.
McDowell has served as an SID for UMass Lowell, Cornell, Cal Poly and the
University of New Hampshire, and started his career in the profession as
an undergraduate at the University of New Haven. He was the Media
Relations Director for the Golden State Warriors during the season when
Latrell Sprewell choked Coach P.J. Carlesimo, and also worked for the
American Hockey League’s Lowell Lock Monsters.
“It will be wonderful to work with many friends who are my new SID
colleagues in the Liberty League, including Kevin Beattie (RPI), Ken
Debolt (Hobart/William Smith), Bill Jones (Skidmore), and Wally Johnson
(St. Lawrence),” said McDowell. “As a native of New England, I am pleased
to be closer to home for my family and friends during the holidays and
summer months.
“George leaves a legacy not only at Union, but in our profession
nationally,” stated McDowell. “I am honored to take over a department that
he cared for so deeply.”
Cuttita has been involved with 42 NCAA teams, countless All-American,
All-League, All-State and All-Region student-athletes, and numerous ECAC
teams during his career. He will pursue a teaching career in Florida.
“My priorities have always been the student-athletes, the coaches, the
department and the college,” Cuttita said.
“I’m hopeful that others feel
that I accomplished those goals to the very best of my ability. I leave
Union having made so many wonderful friends who have given me a great many
memories. It is the people who make Union College such a special place and
I am proud to have been a part of Union’s tremendous history over the past
25 years.”