College Sports Information Directors of America

Union College

Eric McDowell was inducted into the CoSIDA Hall of Fame during the 2009 convention in San Antonio, Texas, at the Marriott Rivercenter. McDowell was the recipient of CoSIDA's 25-Year Award in 2008 and Warren Berg Award in 2016.

He served as CoSIDA president in 2014-15 and as a college division board of directors member from 2005-06 to 2007-08.

McDowell later served as chair of the CoSIDA U committee and ran the first CoSIDA U Camp in Annapolis, Maryland, prior to the 2018 CoSIDA Convention.

He began his career as the SID at the University of New Haven in 1980. He was named the SID as a junior in college and remained as the head of the office once he graduated.

In 1986, he made the transition from SID to Assistant SID at the University of New Hampshire. While at UNH, he served as the assistant from 1986 to 1991. In 1991, he was promoted to Director of Sports Communications and Internal Marketing. During his years at New Hampshire, he also served from 1988 through 1991 as the Information Officer of the Yankee Conference, a Division I-AA football league.

McDowell, a native of Dennis, Mass., on Cape Cod, served as the SID at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo for five years, and then became the Director of Media Relations for the NBA's Golden State Warriors. Working in the fourth-largest media market for the NBA, McDowell had a game-night staff of 24 individuals and was responsible for the production of the Warriors’ media guide and the monthly publication, Warrior Magazine. His attention was redirected while there as he was the point person during the Latrell Sprewell crisis.

McDowell returned to the East Coast and later worked for the Lowell Lock Monsters of the American Hockey League, and served at SUNY Brockport for four years. McDowell was a media supervisor for the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games in Atlanta and volunteered at numerous NCAA Championship events for a variety of sports and divisions.

Active in both ECAC-SIDA (Eastern College Athletic Conference Sports Information Directors' Association) and CoSIDA, McDowell hosted the 2002 ECAC-SIDA workshop in Lowell, Mass., and received the 2005 ECAC-SIDA Irving T. Marsh Service Bureau Award.

During his presidential term, he worked with the NCAA to secure placement for a permanent display of the CoSIDA Hall of Fame at the NCAA Hall of Champions in Indianapolis. He also served on a committee to develop a new position for CoSIDA, the first full-time Executive Director.

This page was last updated Sept. 25, 2018.