When Alan Cannon was first hired on as a student worker in Spec Gammon’s sports information office, it was a financially losing proposition from the get go. That was 1981, and Cannon was unpaid and paying his own laundry bill that had grown fatter just from cleaning fluid stains from that old ditto master copy machine.

Twenty-one years later, he’s turning a personal profit but every dime is earned 10-fold, dealing out the news about 21 men’s and women’s sports at A&M – doing it with an even hand and steadfast aides.

Fortune 500 companies should have such a turnover rate. There’s Associate Media Relations Director Colin Killian with 15 years boasting maroon and most of that unwaveringly painting a happy face on the Aggie basketball program. Assistant Brad Marquardt started as a student assistant the same time, and Steve Miller’s been around for 11 football seasons.

Marquardt handles track & field and cross country, while Miller takes on tennis and women’s basketball. Assistant Debbie Darah was a refugee from the Southwest Conference office and has been spreading the news for A&M women’s athletics, mainly volleyball and softball, since 1990.

Baseball and soccer guru Chuck Glenewinkel and Chris Harrell are full-timers and together with a bevy of talented student assistants, they proudly wave the banner of the generally under-paid and under-appreciated.

Most student-athletes just want their name in the paper and aren’t terribly concerned or even curious how it got there. It’s the job of the sports news office to do everything short of writing the sports director’s script or the writer’s column. It’s their job to walk that fine line between drumbeaters for their school and unbiased reporters of the facts.

Running an honest shop like Cannon’s requires equal treatment of the good, bad and ugly, and the media is as likely to read a release of a youngster making the team as getting kicked off the team.

A&M sports information directors like Alan Cannon (back, right), Brad Marquardt (background) and Steve Miller (foreground) shuffle R.C. Slocum to several media interviews after every game.

"Sometimes, we’re caught in the middle," Cannon said. "The journalists don’t consider sports information as media, and sometimes the athletes and staff do. I look at myself as a consultant. If coach Slocum has a question of should we or shouldn’t we, he’ll listen to my advice and then make the decision."

Aside from the athletic director, no one employee is as aware of the comings and goings, the wins and losses, the stats and facts of every sport from football to archery as is the sports news employee. The offensive coordinator probably doesn’t know the name of the equestrian coach but the SID knows them both.

It’s in that arena the A&M sports news office generally rises above the rest in the business. For example, a sports writer is on deadline and he or she is stuck for a fact in the middle of a sentence. All the writer needs is the number of points the school’s basketball team gave up in Southwest

Conference play in the 1992 regular season. It’s in the media guide that the sports news office published and hand delivered but the writer doesn’t have time to find where he put it.

If the story was about the say, the Texas Longhorns basketball team, the writer would call UT sports news office in Austin and get a recorded greeting, followed by an endless menu of buttons to be punched to be forwarded to yet another recorded menu of options. Texas is not the only school guilty of such impersonal and sloppy service.

Cannon’s office is different, always has been and hopefully always will be.

The main number of the sports news office is rarely if ever answered by a machine. Normally the person who answers the phone has the answers, knows where to get it or immediately puts the writer on the line with someone who does. While each full-time SID is mainly in charge of two or three sports, every SID or student assistant is trained to know a little something about every other sport. Journalists never hear: "I can’t help you and the person who can is out of the office."

That doesn’t fly in A.C.’s book.

"When you talk about my staff, you’re talking about people of character and integrity," Cannon said. A.C. has called his staff the best in college athletics and that’s not just horn tooting, he really believes it.

"Every one of my assistants could be the head sports information director at any school in the country. They all have that ability and the tools. But they have a passion for athletics and a passion for Texas A&M. There have been inquiries from other schools looking at our people, but they’ve elected to stay."

The A&M sports news office helps coordinate television broadcasts and provides much of the on-air talent – like ESPN College Gameday analysts Kirk Herbstreit and Lee Corso – with timely information about the Aggies.

In more than two decades, Cannon’s seen his business both flourish and suffer at the hands of high tech. Like the rest of America, SIDs and media don’t talk anymore, they e-mail. They don’t send releases out, they put them on their website. It’s quick, it’s financially efficient and it’s cold.

"We have, to a degree, lost the personal touch, for sure," Cannon lamented. "But one of the reasons that I’m still in the business is because of my relationship with the media, the athletes and the coaches and staff."

Cannon said there’s still satisfaction in doing the basic sports information work that has never changed.

"Pitching someone a story idea that maybe no one has picked up on yet, and then seeing that story in print or on the TV or radio – that’s still what I do and that won’t change."

Event planning, such as is involved with press box and game-day media operations is a large focus of any sports news office, and the A&M folks put on a clambake better than most. Preparation for a football game such as the Notre Dame game, which brought the ABC cameras, is an example of a week filled to the gills with planning and coordination.

"On the Sunday before that game, when you have a coach like R.C. Slocum, you have the opportunity to go to church with your family," Cannon said. "That’s important to him and important to the staff."

By afternoon, Cannon, Marquardt and Miller will be at the office updating statistics and records from the game before, with the main goal being to produce a 20-page news release. It’s complete with notes on every high profile player, records, near records, depth charts, coaching notes and records, who started every game so far, who’s still hurt, who’s newly hurt, who’s okay now.

There’s standing features like Aggies in the NFL, alphabetical and numerical rosters. And every statistic imaginable – did you know that Wyoming scored 10 of their 20 points on plays snapped inside A&M’s 20-yard line – it’s in the release. The release is e-mailed out to all media and put on the Aggie website.

There’s a Sunday practice that has to be manned by sports news in case there’s media that plans to do interviews afterwards.

On Monday, the media has already made their requests for interviews they want to conduct at Tuesday’s main press conference, and Cannon’s crew gets that word out to the players who are requested. On Monday, video packages are overnighted to the TV crews and announcers, complete with newspaper clippings, a media guide and a copy of the release that was done Sunday.

Also Monday, Cannon’s office is responsible for coordinating Slocum’s participation in the Big 12 teleconference which media throughout the country can patch into.

The Sports news office is also gathering new releases and other materials from the opposing school and the Big 12 office and handing it out to coaches. That material is copied and made available Tuesday morning at the main weekly press conference that starts at 11 am at Cain Hall.

"I think Coach Slocum is one of the best at working with the media. I think he’s at his best when he’s relaxed and talking to the writers, but he also takes the time to do one-on-one interviews with television and radio," Cannon said. "This is two hours set aside each week for the media to do

their work, and Coach Slocum respects that and focuses on it for that time."

Player interviews are arranged around class schedule on Tuesday. Certain players like quarterback Mark Farris, linebacker Brian Gamble and defensive back Jay Brooks are permanent fixtures every Tuesday.

Wednesday is a day to look ahead to the game 10 days out, requesting credentials if it’s a road game or mailing out credentials if it’s a home game.

The TV crew normally arrives on Thursday afternoon, and there’s a walk-through of the stadium, making sure all are clear on camera and truck locations. The talent is afforded a glimpse of practice that day and taken out to dinner that night.

"We want to make sure they know all they need to know about A&M," Cannon said. "They get a chance to soak it all in."

Friday is the day to set up the press box, deal out game programs and coordinate the TV announcers and other media visiting Friday’s team walk through. Friday night generally is a calm before the storm where Cannon’s office can go home, be with the family and rest up.

Game day starts four to five hours before kick-off, putting out any last-minute fires and making sure everything is in place and everyone’s on the same page. Cannon will check with Slocum for any last minute personnel changes.

After kickoff, Cannon’s team is charged with full responsibility of the eighth and ninth levels of the press box, the eighth level where cameras roll and radio broadcasts originate, the ninth level where the writers write. During the game, media is given quarter-by-quarter stats, and the press box public address calls out runners, throwers, tacklers, down, distance, records set and any other newsworthy note.

After the game, players and Slocum meet the press in a large classroom-type setup in the northwest corner of the stadium.

"We stay in the press box until the last writer is finished, turn out the light and go home," Cannon said.

Saturday night, following a day game, is generally free for family time – just time enough to get ready for Sunday to come around again.

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