CoSIDA is interested in collecting information on all the current "all in the family" members currently serving in athletic communications. Married couples, brothers, sisters, father and mother and children combos, sister-brother - we'll feature them in an upcoming issue of our new magazine, CoSIDA 360, which makes it debut in February. Send your info to
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Add the Cohens - Mark and David - to the list of father-son duos in athletic media relations history. They both serve in athletic communications as one of the few current family duos in athletic communications. Mark Cohen serves as TCU's Director of Athletic Media Relations, while his son David is a media relations assistant at University of Louisiana at Monroe (ULM) after serving as a TCU athletic media relations intern during his undergraduate years.
By Jay Hinton, TCU Athletics Media Relations
FORT WORTH, Texas- From a very young age, David Cohen dropped signals that could possibly head down a career path in athletics media relations.
“When he was in kindergarten, he had a fascination with media guides,” said David’s father, Mark Cohen, assistant athletics director of media relations at TCU. “In Little League, he started doing media guides. The kids on the team were kids he knew from school, and he would also do an opponent section and have players to watch, and one would be one of his friends on the other team.”
Sarah Cohen, David’s mother added: “He would have a little square for their photos with each player’s favorite food or favorite movie and some trivia about each player and their names and positions. We still have some of them.”
Along with media guides, David would hand-write game stories on fictional baseball contests, often asking his father AP style questions. He also made lists of stadiums he and his father visited together, and paid close attention while his father kept stats during his tenure at Wofford.
During his formidable years, David was all things Wofford. It was commonplace to see him on the end of the bench at men’s basketball games, and he was a staple in the Terrier dugout as the team’s batboy for five seasons.
“My childhood was great because I was always around college athletes,” said David, the oldest of three Cohen sons. “You get to know the players so well. That’s something I want my kids to do — grow up in an environment where they’re surrounded by college athletes and college athletics. I looked up to them, and I learned about sports and life as well. Sports are about life.”
It was also during that time when David and Mark got to spend quality time together on roadies in the Southern Conference.
“We’d make quick trips to Davidson, The Citadel or Georgia Southern,” David said. “We had a lot of car rides and talked about the teams and the games.”
“It was special,” Mark said. “We spent a lot of time on the road. Most of it was when I was at Wofford. At times, we would ride the bus, but we often drove separately. My entourage in the car was the radio guys, David and a couple of his friends, and a couple of other people. There were some special needs folks around Wofford, and I would take them to games as well.”
The family moved to Fort Worth when David was 12, and he immediately attached himself to the Frogs.
The Cohen Family: Adam, Mark, David, Steven and Sarah
“I remember in junior high school we were talking about how in a few years he would need to be thinking about college, and just because we’re here doesn’t mean he’d have to go to college at TCU. He could keep his options open,” Sarah said. “He did look at a few other colleges, but the night he got his acceptance to TCU he knew where he was going.”
While earning his bachelor’s degree in strategic communication with a minor in history, David was an intern in TCU’s Athletics Media Relations office for four years. He was also an intern for the Carolina Panthers and Texas Rangers. In addition, he volunteered for the 2014 NCAA Men’s Basketball Final Four and 2013 NCAA Men’s Basketball South Regional.
He landed his first gig in the college athletics when he was hired as a year-long intern at the University of Louisiana at Monroe where he is the primary contact for women’s basketball and tennis, and secondary contact for football and baseball. He and Mark are now one of the very few father-son duos ever in the arena of college athletics media relations.
“I think being around media relations has helped David. He has seen how different schools operate through his dad’s positions at Wofford and TCU,” said Alex Edwards, assistant athletics director/media relations at ULM. “Just seeing how different schools and different people cover sports have assisted him with ideas that he’s come up with during his time at ULM.”
David’s parents couldn’t be more proud seeing him follow in his father’s footsteps.
“It’s really cool, and the best thing is he’s enjoying it above anything else,” Mark said. “It was something he chose to do. He’s a lot more diverse than I am. With me, it’s pretty much sports. He was a history minor, and he has a strong interest in history and a strong interest in politics.”
“Naturally, first and foremost, I am immensely proud that he's gainfully employed in something that he loves,” Sarah said. “What parent wouldn't be thrilled about that?”
David returned to Fort Worth is his official capacity last December when the Horned Frogs played host to the Warhawks in women’s basketball.
“My family’s history is here, and I was a graduate here last May,” David said of his return. “It really just hit home.”
He’ll return to Fort Worth in April when the Warhawks take on the Frogs in baseball.
In the meantime, he’ll continue to carve out his own niche in the business.
“In any profession it can be easy to just be labeled as someone’s son or daughter and that be the stigma attached to your name and sometimes that’s hard to shake,” Edwards said. “David works hard as he wants to do this as a career and he is working hard to land a full-time position when his time as ULM draws to a close.
“Everyone does things differently, and David has done a good job of doing things the David Cohen way instead of the Mark Cohen’s son way.”