[NU Sports] The view from Madison

Fri Nov 27 11:10:46 CST 2009

I have been "cogitating" on this one for a few days so please excuse the delay in the response..

Some time, back in the old days of NU, the only media outlet interested was the Tribune and its
blowtorch radio station, WGN. If you remember back in the 70's, WGN had exclusive broadcast
rights as WGN, not this new CBS sponsored sports network. (It takes Dave almost a minute to
outline everything - the sports marketing, etc.)

I think the close ties to the Trib - they usually feed stories to them first - and the P*ssing
Off of Telander in the mid 90's (whatever that was) created a more adversarial relationship
between the Sun Times and NU Athletics. When Barnett started recruiting kids who were considered
"marginal" for NU Academics, Telander went off and eventually refused to have his degree from NU
mentioned (just like the Mushberger).

There is probably a valid gripe about football and basketball coverage in that everyone else has
to go to the open practices and see who is riding bikes - Dave and whoever is his color guy get
an afternoon to talk to everyone, find out who is hurt, what is in the game plan, you know, the
stuff that the Big 10 announcers don't get because they arrive Friday.  

I've done pregame workups as the color man, you don't have to go to practices since the coach
will usually tell you what they plan to do. I'm sure the newspaper guy in Commerce, Texas
resented that one-on-one contact every week before the game.

I think NU may also seem to play favorites based on the media's coverage of the team. Along with
the rest of Chicago, the "play nice with us or we'll shut you out"  philosophy may be sneaking
into the publicity arm at NU, and in response, the Sun Times, which prides itself as a blue
collar south side newspaper (down where all the ND street corner Alums live), feels it should
"stick it" to those pampered rich guys up north.

Hey, it sells newspapers. The Alums just need to keep bombarding the letters to the editors and
we'll eventually get our side out also. When a good argument breaks out on the message boards,
traffic soars. It's the same in the newspaper biz.

Meanwhile, the Sun Times comes off as whiney negative media source when they talk about our
Wildcats as circulation continues to plummet.

Hey Sun Times - see you in Florida!

rsl

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Roy S. Lamberton - Senior Associate & Unix Guru.

Computer Applications & Support Associates

-------------------- Also ----------------------

Commissioner Delaware American Legion Baseball

Retired Senior Chief Cryptologic Technician [R]

Northwestern University - Speech 1974 - 

Chi Phi: Pi 1974, KD 1968

Publisher Emeritus: Purple Reign (Fox Sports)

==========  Go Cats -  Beat 'em All  ===========

So...

     How's that "hope" and "Change"

     Working for ya?

Don't re-elect nobody, not even yo mama!

================================================

From: cherron604 at aol.com [mailto:cherron604 at aol.com] 
Sent: Monday, November 23, 2009 2:41 PM
To: rstetson at capps-assoc.com; nwu-sports at tssi.com
Subject: Re: [NU Sports] The view from Madison

I wonder, sometimes, whether the praise some opponents give us (about being 'smart') isn't a
protective mechanism for them (i.e. NU beat us because they're 'smart', not because they're more
talented or better prepared).

On a different front, Jim O'Donnell's sniping before and after the game has shown, I think, that
he cannot cover the beat and remain objective.  Whoever the dispute is with - the University,
the Athletic Department or the team, the Sun-Times needs to do something (like let Herb Gould
work on his tan while JO sits and simmers in Chicago).

Saturday:

" The Badgers (8-2, 5-2) forage into Evanston meaning business. The Wildcats prance toward a
Grade-C bowl clinging to their annual mitigations about ''character guys'' and ''building a
foundation.''

Sunday:

"The 32,150 who showed up at Ryan Field on Saturday -- the majority of whom wore Wisconsin red
-- enabled the Wildcats to complete their seven-game home schedule with an announced average
attendance of just more than 24,000 per game. That translates to approximately 52 percent
capacity at Ryan Field. Maybe they will bring friends to the Northwestern bowl game."

Monday:

"Though Fitzgerald and athletic director Jim Phillips now must convince more prestigious bowl
committees that Northwestern ''travels well,'' the staff could have done the school a huge favor
Saturday if it had promptly released information to all significant media bolstering their case.

Instead, Fitzgerald delivered a snappy diatribe, and prospective bowls were left looking at a
school and a program that barely averaged 50 percent capacity -- approximately 24,000 per game
-- for seven home games this season.

Perhaps Phillips and Fitzgerald will correct the departmental oversight with a de facto bowl
economic-impact summary at the coach's noon news conference today."

Though the third one almost sounds like staff-bashing rather than Cat-bashing...It would be nice
to know his exact motives.

Chuck Herron   Tech '85

-----Original Message-----
From: Roy Lamberton <rstetson at capps-assoc.com>
To: cherron604 at aol.com; nwu-sports at tssi.com
Sent: Mon, Nov 23, 2009 12:49 pm
Subject: RE: [NU Sports] The view from Madison

Well, shame on their defensive guys for not changing the signals regularly. 
Maybe they can't
count on their players being smart enough to learn new signals each week?

I would think the coverages would have the same names, but turning them on and 
off would require
a signal change - of course maybe the Cats also watched enough film to know 
which coverage Wiscy
was in or changing to when they did it.

Anyway, I get tired of players whining about another coach appearing to read 
their minds. They
were giving away their coverages, our guys were well schooled in what those 
coverages were, and
we took advantage of that. They had video of our defense, and should have been 
able to read them
also, but they didn't.

rsl 

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Roy S. Lamberton - Senior Associate & Unix Guru.
Computer Applications & Support Associates
-------------------- Also ----------------------
Commissioner Delaware American Legion Baseball
Retired Senior Chief Cryptologic Technician [R]
Northwestern University - Speech 1974 - 
Chi Phi: Pi 1974, KD 1968
Publisher Emeritus: Purple Reign (Fox Sports)
==========  Go Cats -  Beat 'em All  ===========
So...
     How's that "hope" and "Change"
     Working for ya?

Don't re-elect nobody, not even yo mama!
================================================

-----Original Message-----
From: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com [mailto:nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com
<mailto:nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com?> ] On Behalf 
Of
cherron604 at aol.com
Sent: Monday, November 23, 2009 12:25 PM
To: nwu-sports at tssi.com
Subject: [NU Sports] The view from Madison

http://host.madison.com/sports/college/football/article_5750772e-d719-11de-93d9-001cc4c002e0.htm
l

The Hank/Inside info angle is very interesting, equally interesting is the 
complete respect they
have for the intelligence of our guys - they go out of their way to emphasize 
it.

Chuck Herron   Tech '85
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