Brazos Community Honors "Red" Cashion '53

The Brazos Community Foundation is honoring former student and Distinguished Alumnus M.L. "Red" Cashion '53 at its May 8 Tribute Luncheon.

Cashion is widely known for his famous "First Dowwwwwnnnnn" calls while a NFL referee from 1976 to 1997 and is still well regarded in sports. The celebrated Aggie was inducted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame in Waco in 1999, and is one of five NFL referees named as "Legend" by Referee, the official magazine of the National Association of Sports Officials. Cashion is also a past president of the Professional Football Referees Association, a life board member of the Brazos Valley Sports Foundation, a life member of the Southwest Officials Association and holds many other leadership roles.

Cashion grew up in College Station; his father ran the YMCA on campus. Information released by the Brazos Community Foundation said Cashion used to rent his red wagon to college students "so they could pull their luggage to their college dorms."

He later attended Texas A&M and earned his BBA, concentration in business and minor in personnel management, in 1953. He started officiating high school football games in 1952 during his senior year at A&M.

After serving in the U.S. Army, Cashion moved his family back to College Station. Always active in the community, Cashion was named "Citizen of the Year" in 1994 by the Bryan/College Station Chamber of Commerce. He was named a Distinguished Alumnus in 2003 by The Association of Former Students, and was presented with the Outstanding Alumni Award by the Mays Business School in 2006.

Cashion was the Muster speaker at the 1990 Texas A&M campus Muster ceremony.

Committed to his school, and committed to the community, a portion of the funds raised from the Tribute Luncheon will be used to establish a Field-of-Interest Endowment Fund in Cashion's name.