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Cooks of College Station had much to do w/ A&M's move to SEC

Started by jbcarol, October 21, 2016, 08:51:10 am

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jbcarol

https://twitter.com/jason_cook/status/789116751153954816

QuoteCOLLEGE STATION - Leann Weidenbach needed help faxing postgame notes in the Georgia Dome press box that December 1994 night following the Southeastern Conference Championship Game.

The attractive SEC assistant media relations director and recent Texas A&M graduate had already caught the eye of Jason Cook, raised near Beaumont and a student worker at the time for an SEC school. So Cook was more than happy to help his fellow Texan Weidenbach, a Plainview native, transmit the notes to ESPN.

Seventeen years and two beautiful children later, the Aggies are headed to the SEC in part because of Jason's handiwork with a fax machine - and eventually Jason and Leann Cook's mutual love for the SEC and A&M.

"Jason and Leann provided valuable insight into the history and culture of the SEC," said A&M president R. Bowen Loftin, catalyst of the league shift. "And their personal relationships with key SEC staff led to more effective communication."

Jason, A&M's vice president for marketing and communications, served as the school's spokesman throughout its dramatic shift from the Big 12 to the SEC, which wrapped with the official announcement on Sept. 26. The Aggies are primed to join the SEC in July 2012.

And now, with a nod to the late Paul Harvey, the rest of the story: Jason had cut his teeth in the SEC in the sports information department at Mississippi State, and his wife was a one-time assistant commissioner for SEC championships. Valuable insight, indeed.
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