Staff Directory
- Title:
- Associate Director for Strategic Communications (W Basketball, M/W Soccer, Softball)
- Email:
- Phone:
- 419-372-0474
Mike Cihon enters his 29th year in the athletic communications office in 2024-25. After serving as an assistant director in the office for most of his first two-plus decades, he was named associate director in the summer of 2021.
Cihon aids in the public-relations efforts for BGSU's 18-sport department of athletics, and among other duties is the primary contact for the Falcons' men's and women's soccer, women's basketball and softball programs. All four of those teams participated in national postseason play in the 2021-22 academic year (although he is well aware he had virtually nothing to do with the success of those teams), and the women's basketball team tied the school record with 31 victories in '22-23.
Cihon returned to BGSU in the fall of 1996, after two years as the assistant director of communications at the Mid-American Conference office in Toledo. While there, he also served a two-month stint as interim director of communications.
At BGSU, Cihon has worked with the women's basketball program for 27 of his first 28 years, including the 2006-07 season when the program advanced to the 'Sweet 16' of the NCAA Championships. He spent the 2007-08 academic year as the interim director of athletic communications, and served as the men's basketball contact that season, before returning to women's basketball duties in '08-09.
Cihon also spent his first 10 seasons working with the softball Falcons, including the 2004 campaign when that program won the MAC Tournament title, and added softball back to his list of sports in time for the 2015 season. He has been the women's soccer program's SID contact from 1996 (when the sport was added at BG) until 2014, and again from 2018 to the present, overseeing media and publicity efforts for all six of that program's title-winning seasons. He served as the tennis team's SID for nearly all of his first two decades at BGSU, and took over day-to-day SID duties for the men's soccer Falcons prior to the 2008 season.
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. He spent two years as a graduate assistant in the KSU sports information office, and also was an intern at Michigan State University, where he was the primary contact for legendary coach (and BGSU Hall-of-Famer) Ron Mason's Spartan hockey program during the 1993-94 academic year.
Cihon, a graduate of Hoover High School in North Canton, was arguably the most mediocre midfielder in the history of that school's soccer program.
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