WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) – Jefferson Community College was founded on November 7, 1961, and for the past 61 years, the JCC Athletics program has had some teams and athletes make their marks on the national level.
But through those 61 years, there was never official records or rosters preserved for each sport until now.
”When I took over as the athletic director in 2000, I started to look back and thought it would be a great idea since we really didn’t have a true sports information director, we kind of went back through all the Cannoneer, the Jeffersonians, the yearbooks and compiled all the rosters that we could from 1962 to present,” said JCC Athletic Director Jeff Wiley.
And to do that, Wiley enlisted the help of a man that was around Cannoneer athletics for 37 and a half years: Thomas Myers.
Myers says it took him a year to compile information on all the Cannoneer athletic programs from the beginning to 2012 and adds that he didn’t look at it as a job but a labor of love.
”It’s hard when you have worked at a place for 37 and a half years to just drop it. I was heavily involved in the athletic department with mainly men’s basketball, but also a little bit of the women’s basketball keeping stats, announcing the games, and I just wanted to give something back to the college. Jeff had asked me to do it and I didn’t hesitate,” said Myers.
Both Myers and Wiley say it’s something that’s long overdue and will help benefit Cannoneer athletics in a number of ways.
”In the end I think it’s a great tool for Jeff to have now with the athletic department and I’m very happy and I had a lot of fun doing it,” said Myers.
”So that’s kind of our archive, and I think it’s very important to have an overall archive in our athletic department. It will help with fundraising, it will help with recruiting,” said Wiley.
With a few exceptions, the history of JCC athletics is now complete, with former teams and athletes taking their rightful places in Cannoneer history.
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