Jo Jo Freeman begins his fourth year at Cumberland University, serving as the athletic department’s Sports Information Director. He was also the Interim Director of Communications for the University from November 2009-April 2010.
During his tenure, the department has added an athletics-only website, GoCumberlandAthletics.com, and added the use of live video for home events to go along with live stats and live audio for specified sports. All home basketball, volleyball, baseball and softball games currently have live video and live stats and all games broadcast on the radio in football, basketball and baseball have live audio for fans through the internet.
The athletic website also has updated bios and statistics for the 400-plus current student-athletes at CU. The Sports Information Department staff, which consists of a graduate assistant, one part-time employee and two work-study students, continues to add historic information as found through research and sorting through old documents, including rosters, schedules and results and awards.
Before coming to Cumberland, Freeman spent seven-plus seasons in the Middle Tennessee State University Media Relations office, working primarily with women’s basketball, baseball, men’s tennis and men’s and women’s track/cross country. He also was the primary contact for women's soccer, women’s tennis, softball and men’s basketball at one point or another during the seven years.
Freeman has produced multiple media guides for all of the above sports, including the 2006 baseball media guide that was judged Best in the District by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). He was also honored by the Tennessee Sports Writers Association with the Best Press Release for 2005-06 in the college division, a three-part series on the renovation and construction of a new baseball stadium at Middle Tennessee.
Freeman led All-American campaigns in women’s basketball for Chrissy Givens and Amber Holt, both of whom were selected in the WNBA Draft.
Previous to his time at Middle Tennessee, Freeman served as an intern at Texas Tech during the 2000-01 academic year. While in Lubbock, he worked primarily with women's soccer, men’s and women’s track/cross country, and softball. Freeman helped pitcher Amanda Renfro earn All-America honors for the 2001 season and had a large hand in the 2000 galleryfurniture.com Bowl Media Guide.
The Gulfport, Miss., native graduated from Mississippi State in 1999 with a bachelor’s in Communications with emphases in Journalism and Public Relations. While at MSU, Freeman worked two years as a student assistant in the Media Relations office, serving as the primary softball contact for the 1999 season.
He also worked the 1997 NCAA Baseball Regional in Starkville and served as the official scorer for Bulldog baseball during the 1998 season. Freeman was also a member of the MSU Media Relations staff for the 1999 Cotton Bowl Classic and worked a pair of SEC Baseball Tournaments.
Freeman is married to the former Ginger Corley of Watertown, Tenn., and lives in Murfreesboro. He has a 16-year-old daughter, Erin, who resides in Chattanooga, and Ginger and Jo Jo have triplets – Micah, Patrick and Kathleen – born October 16, 2007.
Freeman is a member of the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA), the US Basketball Writers Association (USBWA), Tennessee Sportswriters Association (TSWA) and National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA).
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