College Sports Information Directors of America

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• 2021 Special Awards Announcements and Features
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• Past 25-Year Award Recipients

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Mike Cihon – Bowling Green State University, Assistant Director for Strategic Communications

CoSIDA 25-Year Award

by Will Roleson, CoSIDA Associate Executive Director

If you’ve met Mike Cihon even once, you’ve likely witnessed his self-deprecating humor.

He would tell you he’s not worthy of recognition with some sarcastic comment at his expense. His own Facebook page describes him as ‘Everyone’s third-favorite SID.’ And, he would be the last one to ever toot his own horn.

So we’ll do that for him by saluting Mike as a recipient of a CoSIDA 25-year Award for 2021.

With the exception of an internship at Michigan State University, Mike has spent his entire career in the Mid-American Conference, including the last 25 years at his alma mater, Bowling Green State University.  

He currently serves as Assistant Director for Strategic Communications and is the primary contact for the Falcons’ men’s and women’s soccer, women’s basketball and softball programs.

A native of North Canton, Ohio, Cihon received his bachelor’s degree in communications from BGSU in 1990, and earned a master’s degree in sport administration from Kent State University in 1993. 
 

What has kept you at BGSU for 25 years?
My wife Stephanie and I both went to BGSU, and upon graduation, I was a graduate assistant at Kent State for two years and an intern at Michigan State for one. I then took an intern position at the Mid-American Conference office. The office was located in Toledo at the time. My wife got a job, and we made the executive decision that, if at all possible, we would try to avoid moving every few years. After two years with the MAC, I was hired by BGSU (and we didn’t have to move!). A few years later, our daughter Emily was born, and a few years after that, we built a house.
 
I know it might sound like a cliché, but I really like the family atmosphere at BG. I love being around the student-athletes and coaches, traveling with the teams, etc. I love it at BGSU, and my wife and I love it in Northwest Ohio.
 
What are some of your favorite memories in the profession?
I’ve been the primary contact for several teams that have enjoyed great success. Our women’s basketball team had an incredible run under Curt Miller, including a Sweet Sixteen appearance in 2007, and there were some incredible memories from that run.
 
But some of my favorite memories have been watching a coach build a program, or seeing a team achieve success more quickly than expected. Our softball team was the lowest-seeded team to make the conference tournament in 2004 and then lost the first tournament game. But with the starting pitcher out due to injury, the team reeled off five-straight victories to win the tournament. And, just this year, our women’s basketball team had an amazing turnaround after being picked to finish 11th of 12 teams in our league. I root for all our teams and greatly enjoy any and all success they achieve, but there’s just something special about a team achieving success when few people thought they would.
 
Who have been some of the biggest influences on your career?
Chris Sherk was the SID at BGSU when I was an undergrad, and could not have been more patient with a clueless student who had to have been annoying on many levels. Steve Barr took over for Chris, and was still the director when I came back to BG six years after graduating. I worked under John Wagner as a graduate assistant at Kent State, then worked for his wife, Sue, at the MAC office. In between I spent the year at Michigan State under an all-star group that included Ken Hoffman, John Farina, Lori Schulze and Rob Kaminski.
 
In addition to Chris and Steve, I’ve worked under J.D. Campbell and now Jason Knavel at BGSU. Each of the directors at BG have had widely varying styles, but each of those styles have proven to be effective, and they’ve all been incredible people to work with.
 
What prompted you to go into sports information?
Not surprisingly, I was a fan of many sports as a kid. I played soccer through high school, but enjoyed watching pretty much every sport, and always had an interest in statistics as well. When I was an undergrad at BGSU I remember being at an ice hockey game and seeing a guy who lived in my dorm wandering up to the press box, and then sitting up there and doing something (I wasn’t sure what) during the game. The next time I saw him back at the dorm, I asked him about it, and he told me he was a volunteer with the sports information office. That led me to contact Chris Sherk and start volunteering, and the rest is some sort of history, I guess.
 
What do you think your future holds in athletics communications?
Hopefully my future involves watching a lot of BGSU wins and championships, and always being there when the postgame meal – or pregame meal, or really any meal – is delivered. I’ve always enjoyed writing, and would love to find the time to do some additional feature stories on our athletes and teams, but I am also slowly but surely trying to embrace some of the different ways to ‘tell our story.’ Most of the people I work with are roughly half my age, and it’s a lot of fun sharing our different ideas and wacky perspectives on athletics as well as life.
 
What else should we know about you?
My first CoSIDA Workshop [now called CoSIDA Convention] was in Atlanta in 1993. I remember thinking how cool it was to be among so many legends, and I was very pleased to find out how friendly everyone was, and how everyone was willing to take a few minutes to talk to a young, clueless individual who was hoping to break into the field.
 
I also remember attending the luncheon where the 25-Year Award recipients were recognized, and I never thought that I might someday be among that group. I’m a very cynical, sarcastic person by nature (it’s part of my charm!), but I can honestly say that it’s humbling and awe-inspiring to work in the same field as so many amazing people. I look forward to the day when we’re all able to get together in person again.