Former CoSIDA President Alan Cannon earns 25-Year Award
by Fred Nuesch, former Texas A&M-Kingsville SID and CoSIDA Secretary/Digest Editor (retired)
KINGSVILLE, Tex. – Texas A&M University Associate Athletic Director for Media Relations Alan Cannon will receive the College Sports Information Director’s of America 25-year Award on Tuesday, July 6, in San Francisco, Calif.
Cannon will accept the honor at a luncheon ceremony during CoSIDA’s annual convention at the San Francisco Marriott Marquis. The CoSIDA 25-Year Award is presented to sports information directors who have completed 25 years in the profession.
Cannon is completing his 30th year of service with the Texas A&M University athletic department and his 21st as the school’s sports information director. He was the school’s SID from March 1989 to April 1999 when he was promoted to assistant athletic director for media relations. In September 2003, he was promoted again to associate athletic director for media relations.
He is responsible for Texas A&M’s 20 men’s and women’s intercollegiate sports while focusing on football.
Cannon, a 1984 marketing graduate of Texas A&M, began his career in sports information as a Dallas Skyline High School intern at Southern Methodist under the tutelage of Bob Condron and Maxey Parrish.
Condron is the director of media services for the U.S. Olympic Committee and Parrish is a professor at Baylor after spending many years as the Baylor SID.
Cannon was a walk-on baseball player at Texas A&M in 1981 and asked Aggie SID Spec Gammon if he could file pictures and clip articles. After one season on the diamond, Aggie baseball coach Tom Chandler asked Cannon to become his student baseball SID.
Cannon was hired as a Texas A&M assistant SID in 1985 and served in that capacity with every sport while being the main contact for baseball and basketball until he was named the sports information director in March of 1989.
During his career, Cannon has served as SID for several of the winningest coaches in Texas A&M history, including R.C. Slocum in football, Shelby Metcalf in men’s basketball, and Mark Johnson in baseball.
Cannon has served as the host of several conference and NCAA championships and has worked at 18 bowl games.
He is a past president of the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association and was the 1999 recipient of the Wilbur Snypp Award presented by the organization.
Cannon is a past president (2002-03) of the College Sports Information Directors of America and has attended 19 CoSIDA workshops. In addition to CoSIDA, he is a member of the Texas Sports Writers Association and the Football Writers Association of America.
The Scoop Hudgens Lifetime Sports Information Directors Award was presented to Cannon in 1999 by the All-American Football Foundation.
Cannon has had many outstanding assistants on his staff with the core group of Collin Killian, Brad Marquardt and Debbie Darrah working with him since 1990. (Killian recently resigned after serving 23 years as an assistant sports information director.)
Cannon is married to the former Kay Miller of Bryan, Tex. She is a kindergarten teacher at College Hills Elementary School in College Station. The couple has two daughters, Katie (15) and Macie (10).