CoSIDA E-Digest April 2013 • 1

y Fred Nuesch
Texas A&M-Kingsville
CoSIDA Special Awards Committee
Bill Powers, like many of the
long-term sports information directors,
is happy he chose the profession as
a career in 1987 while dividing his
time between athletic publicity and
sportscasting.
“I’ve been very proud to be a
sports information professional,”
Powers said. “We have a special place
in intercollegiate athletics as the story
teller and historian.”
Powers will be presented a
25-Year Award at the 2013 CoSIDA
Convention in Orlando, Fla. during an
awards luncheon on June 15.
Powers has been on the athletic
staffs at East Texas State (now Texas
A&M-Commerce), S.F. Austin State
and Midwestern State.
He currently serves as assistant
athletic director for external operations
at Midwestern and has been at the
Texas school since 2005.
Powers began his career as
assistant sports information director
and KETR (campus station) sports
director at East Texas State in 1987.
In 1990, he became the SID and
held the position until he moved to
S.F. Austin in 1995 as the director of
sports information and marketing. He
returned to Texas A&M-Commerce
as SID in 1998 and was there until
he accepted his current position at
Midwestern.
Powers is a founding officer of the
NCAA Division II Sports Information
Directors Association and served
as the national coordinator of the
Daktronics Inc. Division II All-America
football team.
Powers has edited 11 CoSIDA
Publication Award winning publication
and has had a Best in the Nation
brochure.
Continuing is work as a
sportscaster at his schools, he was
named the Lone Star Conference
Broadcaster of the Year in 1988 and
25-YEAR AWARD
bill Powers, Midwestern State
2010.
Powers has received 15
Associated Press Broadcasters
Association Awards in Texas and
Arkansas, including four Best
Sportscasts and two Best Sports Play-
By-Play citations.
As a member of CoSIDA, he
has served as the Division II-SIDA
secretary-treasurer, as sergeant-atarms
for the association’s business
meetings and has served on
numerous committees.
“The most enjoyable aspect of
our profession is the interaction with
people,” Powers said. “Studentathletes,
coaches, media members
and our fellow SIDs, it’s our interaction
with them that make this a great
profession.”
Powers said he is grateful to count
some pros as friends, colleagues and
mentors. “Men like Jerry Schaeffer of
Arkansas State, who put the sports
information bug in me during college;
Fred Nuesch at Texas A&I, Garner
Roberts of Abilene Christian and Bo
Carter of the Southwest Conference
and Big 12, who took me under their
wings and helped teach me the
ropes, and Bill Little of Texas and
CoSIDA E-Digest April 2013 • 69
Alan Cannon of Texas A&M who each
taught me by example.”
He cited Charlie Fiss of the Cotton
Bowl as one of his true heroes in
the business. “Fiss is much more
than a friend. He taught me how to
run a press box operation, and later
placed his trust in me to run the stats
operation of the greatest of the college
bowls.”
Powers was on the media
relations staff for the AT&T Cotton
Bowl from 1987-2009, and was the
official statistician and statistics
coordinator for the bowl in 1998-2009.
He has served as the official
statistician and statistics coordinator of
the Heart of Dallas (Ticket City) bowl
since 2011.
As for serving as a sports
information director and sportscaster
at the same time, he says the two jobs
have gone hand-in-hand. “I always
liked to portray myself as the SID on
the air even before I officially joined
the profession.”
Powers said he has always been
amazed at what his colleagues can
do. “I am proud to have been an SID
in the Lone Star Conference and
Division II. We have some outstanding
professionals in our league and
division, accomplishing great results
with less manpower and money than
our brethren at Division I.”
Charles Carr, the director of
athletics at Midwestern State, calls
Powers “one of the most passionate
and enthusiastic radio voices in
college athletes”.
“Midwestern has the luxury of a
great radio voice and an even better
person. There is none better in our
business of the college student-athletic
than the man who tells the story of
the Midwestern State Mustangs---Bill
Powers.”