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Richardson, Texas --- Abilene, Texas, media personality Al Pickett has been selected as the recipient of the 2004 Outstanding Media Service Award presented by the American Southwest Conference and its member sports information directors.

Al Pickett has been selected as the recipient of the 2004 Outstanding Media Service Award. The award honors a member of the sports media whose coverage of intercollegiate athletics has been significant to a member institution, the conference and NCAA Division III athletics.

A proponent of NCAA Division III, American Southwest Conference and Abilene-area collegiate athletics, Pickett will be formally recognized by the conference and Hardin-Simmons University at the Cowboys’ football game vs. Texas Lutheran on Saturday (Nov. 13).

The ASC Outstanding Media Service Award honors a member of the sports media whose coverage of intercollegiate athletics has been significant to a member institution, the conference and NCAA Division III athletics.

In his second season as a member of the Hardin-Simmons football radio broadcasting team, Pickett is a veteran among Big Country sports media. In addition to handling play-by-play duties for Cowboys’ football, Pickett hosts a daily sports talk show and does color commentary for Abilene High School football.

Pickett is a frequent contributor to Dave Campbell’s Texas Football Magazine, covering the American Southwest Conference in the annual season preview issue. He provides freelance sports coverage for newspapers across the state of Texas. As former sports editor of the Abilene Reporter News, Pickett covered conference member schools Hardin-Simmons, McMurry and Howard Payne, and provided general coverage of the American Southwest Conference throughout the year.

A native of Council Grove, Kan., and a graduate of Kansas State University, Pickett began his career as a sportscaster and play-by-play announcer at radio stations in Kansas and Arkansas. He entered the newspaper business as a sports editor in Searcy, Ark., before relocating in Abilene.

Pickett is the second individual selected for the ASC Outstanding Media Award. Charlie Chitwood of Chitwood Sports Media was presented the inaugural conference award in 2003.