While most Mississippi State students were watching the NCAA Final Four at their dorms or apartments, John Gwin went to Indianapolis to see the games first-hand.
For business, not pleasure.
For the second-straight year, Gwin, a senior communication major, worked for CBS Sports, helping bring its annual basketball tournament’s conclusion to a national audience.
“John is a tireless worker who has done a terrific job of balancing quality work in and out of the classroom,” said MSU sports communication professor Robert Zullo.
Gwin served several roles for the network but mainly assisted in statistical research.
“I did a bunch of statistical research on the four teams that were there,” Gwin said. “I took that research and just set up the actual (graphics) design. During the games, I kept up with the specialty stats, so if anything odd came up over the course of the game-breaking records or point streaks or anything-I would get it ready, and they’d put it on the air.”
Gwin also helped set up CBS’s nine office trailers and six television trucks … on a school night.
“I knew I was going to do this at the beginning of the semester,” Gwin said. “When I first registered for my classes, I told my teachers then that I’d have to miss these two weeks. Some of the classes let me get stuff done ahead of time. Some of them, I’m having to make it up now. But for the most part, I just let them know ahead of time.”
During his stay in Indianapolis, Gwin did, however, find some time to see the town.
“Indianapolis was a great town,” Gwin said. “Downtown was really compact, so you didn’t have to drive anywhere you wanted to go. It was a good town. I liked it.”
Gwin started working for CBS as a runner at a Memphis, Tenn., golf tournament. He also worked college football before getting into NCAA basketball. Last year, he traveled with the network to each SEC Game of the Week.
“Most of what I did was stats research,” Gwin said. “That’s what I want to try to do when I graduate in May.”
After graduation, Gwin aspires to get a full-time job with CBS.
“There are two jobs,” Gwin said. “You can be a researcher, or you can be a broadcast associate, which is what I’m going to try to do. You travel the shows, put the graphics in the show, build the graphics and decide what point in the show you put those in.”