College Grid Magazines Have Come a Long Way
June 05, 2018 02:28 PM | Football, Blog
Mountaineer football has come a long way since 1989. That was the first year I can ever recall WVU having a player popular enough to get on the cover of a preseason football magazine.
Heisman Trophy candidate Major Harris, decked out in the no-frills, traditional Mountaineer look - blue helmet, gold Flying WV, blue jersey, gold Flying WV on the shoulder and gold numeral (wouldn't that make a great throwback look at a home game this year?) - was on the Eastern cover of Street & Smith College Football pointing toward us while looking off in another direction.
The caption: Major Harris Mountaineers' All-America.
Underneath was "The Pluck of the Irish," "New Top Prep Teams" (likely written by Wheeling's Doug Huff), "Leaving Early" and "Heisman Candidates."
I bring this up because this year West Virginia quarterback Will Grier is on all four major preseason magazines: Street & Smith, Lindy's Sports, Athlon Sports and Phil Steele, which comes out next week.
Geno Smith was on a bunch of them in 2012, but I'm not sure he was on the cover of all four, although I could be mistaken.
At any rate, there is enough stuff in these four magazines on Mr. Grier and the Mountaineers to keep you occupied for the entire summer, right up to the start of preseason camp in August.
Back in the day, when I first began really following West Virginia football as an 11-year-old in 1979, all you got on the Mountaineers was a small blurb stuffed near the end of the Eastern Independents section well past Penn State, Pitt and Syracuse.
The Orange got much more attention than they deserved because Syracuse Herald-Journal executive sports editor Arnie Burdick wrote the Eastern preview each year for Street & Smith.
The only color in the magazine was on the front and back covers, the front of this particular one occupied by Georgia quarterback Jeff Pyburn.
Yes, THE Jeff Pyburn.
On the back was a slick ad featuring Kool Super Lights cigarettes with "a light menthol blend (giving) low 'tar' smokers the smooth taste they want."
It's "never harsh tasting," the add continued.
Down at the bottom was a comparison of cigarette brands with my dad's favorite, 19 mg.-tar Salem 100s, which he sucked down incessantly in the front seat of our Plymouth Volare during those long summer excursions to Cedar Point, King's Island or other popular family vacation destinations.
I've often wondered how many of those Salems I smoked with dad while sitting in the backseat of the Volare during the five-hour trip to King's Island?
But I digress.
Back in the day, when you read the "most informative" and "most complete" college football magazine you got … a national preview.
USC was predicted to win the national championship that year, followed by Alabama, Purdue, Michigan and Texas. Take out Purdue and you can use those four other teams in any year, in any order you like, and publish your own college football magazine and be an authority just like Street & Smith.
When not reading the team blurbs, which were mostly written by the school's sports information directors, the most fascinating stuff, in hindsight, were the gambling advertisements.
Just seven pages into the '79 Street & Smith Official College Football Yearbook was a full-page ad featuring Danny Sheridan's college and pro football newsletter service. For $300, which is nearly $1,000 in today's dollars, you could get the entire college season of Sheridan newsletters to help you with the weekly neighborhood parlay card.
The pro newsletter was $25 more and for both it cost $450, a hefty $1,400 in 2018.
What I didn't realize until reading this ad a little more closely is that while Jimmy The Greek only analyzed games on CBS (his contract prohibited him from giving point spreads and predicting games), Sheridan was actually predicting winners on ABC's Good Morning America each Friday.
That was the morning show with David Hartman on it, in case you forgot.
Fifteen pages later was the second full-page gambling ad: Dr. Sullivan, Winners Sports Service.
"Many services make wild claims. That's easy," the ad stated. "But we can show you our undisputed, consistent record of beating the spread 69 percent the past 11 years. If we had the space we'd show you every year, not just the last four years shown."
Dr. Sullivan was interviewed by Larry Merchant on NBC-TV, and he once spoke at the Las Vegas Sports Handicapping Seminar on computer handicapping, further solidifying his credentials.
If that's not convincing enough, Dr. Donald Sullivan also possessed a Ph.D. in psychology, which is essential for predicting college and professional football games, I suppose.
Five pages later it's Mike Warren's turn to tout his thoroughbred and sports handicapping report. It only cost $125 for a service Warren claimed would make you "2,000 … $5,000 … $10,000 …"
"Winning at football is a piece of cake," he declared. "I'll show you how to knock down the Las Vegas spread week after week and make just about as much money as you want."
Warren did not possess a Ph.D. in psychology, that I'm aware of.
There are more: Margin Sports Publications out of Rome, New York; The Winning Edge from Bronxville, New York; Sportsfax from Woodland Hills, California; Volition Company from Dallas; Kyle Rote's Sportsform, which the advertisement claims was copyrighted in Washington and banned in Las Vegas, and Network Sports Reports out of Jericho, New York.
All of these ads, by the way, were in the first 52 pages of the magazine!
The gambling ad of gambling ads was Alleghenies Analysis Sports Service, which prominently featured a picture of a seductive lady in a bikini sprawled out above the order form for a service that cost an attention-getting $500.
Of course, by subscribing to Alleghenies Analysis Sports Service and winning big on the weekend the seductive lady depicted in the advertisement might one day end up being your date, I presume.
Dan Snyder, sitting in the back of a chauffeur-driven car on the telephone in front of the Fairfax Hotel with a lady in a fur coat standing outside impatiently looking at her watch, comes in a close second to Alleghenies Analysis Sports Service, which made its home in stately State College, Pennsylvania, of all places.
Even Johnny U. got in on the action, the Baltimore Colts great joining forces with Bobby Boyd and Bill Finley to form "Sports Prediction and Line Service."
But it wasn't all gambling in the '79 Street & Smith College Football Yearbook.
On page 144 was an advertisement for Universal Body Building's free booklet with a diagram of a skinny man transforming into a muscle-bound Adonis … "Skinny? Muscles will appear … almost like magic" … And a fat man slimming down into a muscle-bound hunk … "Fat? Fat will disappear - replaced by muscles!"
And near the back of the magazine was a small advertisement for Topps Sports Cards sets. You could order a complete set of 1976 Topps Baseball Cards for just $19, or $69.70 in today's dollars.
Your baseball card investment in 1979 would be worth about $400 on Ebay today.
Just past the Topps Baseball Cards was "youthful sports reporter" John Blanchette's analysis of the Big Sky Conference. "Youthful John" looked like a card-carrying member of the Kiss Army, which is probably why he got to write the Big Sky preview in the first place.
The last I saw "Youthful John" is still at it 39 years later, writing sports columns out in the Pacific Northwest in Spokane, Washington.
His four-page Big Sky synopsis took us right into the four-page schedule grid before we ended our college football experience with a nice, refreshing pack of Kool Super Lights.
Gambling, weight lifting and cigarettes … that was college football back in the day when I was an 11-year-old!
Thankfully, college football magazines these days offer so much more information, which is why fans today are the most-informed, most-knowledgeable ever.
Come to think of it, not only have the Mountaineers come a long way, but so have these magazines!
Heisman Trophy candidate Major Harris, decked out in the no-frills, traditional Mountaineer look - blue helmet, gold Flying WV, blue jersey, gold Flying WV on the shoulder and gold numeral (wouldn't that make a great throwback look at a home game this year?) - was on the Eastern cover of Street & Smith College Football pointing toward us while looking off in another direction.
The caption: Major Harris Mountaineers' All-America.Underneath was "The Pluck of the Irish," "New Top Prep Teams" (likely written by Wheeling's Doug Huff), "Leaving Early" and "Heisman Candidates."
I bring this up because this year West Virginia quarterback Will Grier is on all four major preseason magazines: Street & Smith, Lindy's Sports, Athlon Sports and Phil Steele, which comes out next week.
Geno Smith was on a bunch of them in 2012, but I'm not sure he was on the cover of all four, although I could be mistaken.
At any rate, there is enough stuff in these four magazines on Mr. Grier and the Mountaineers to keep you occupied for the entire summer, right up to the start of preseason camp in August.
Back in the day, when I first began really following West Virginia football as an 11-year-old in 1979, all you got on the Mountaineers was a small blurb stuffed near the end of the Eastern Independents section well past Penn State, Pitt and Syracuse.
The Orange got much more attention than they deserved because Syracuse Herald-Journal executive sports editor Arnie Burdick wrote the Eastern preview each year for Street & Smith.
The only color in the magazine was on the front and back covers, the front of this particular one occupied by Georgia quarterback Jeff Pyburn.
Yes, THE Jeff Pyburn.
On the back was a slick ad featuring Kool Super Lights cigarettes with "a light menthol blend (giving) low 'tar' smokers the smooth taste they want."
It's "never harsh tasting," the add continued.
Down at the bottom was a comparison of cigarette brands with my dad's favorite, 19 mg.-tar Salem 100s, which he sucked down incessantly in the front seat of our Plymouth Volare during those long summer excursions to Cedar Point, King's Island or other popular family vacation destinations.
I've often wondered how many of those Salems I smoked with dad while sitting in the backseat of the Volare during the five-hour trip to King's Island?
But I digress.
Back in the day, when you read the "most informative" and "most complete" college football magazine you got … a national preview.
USC was predicted to win the national championship that year, followed by Alabama, Purdue, Michigan and Texas. Take out Purdue and you can use those four other teams in any year, in any order you like, and publish your own college football magazine and be an authority just like Street & Smith.When not reading the team blurbs, which were mostly written by the school's sports information directors, the most fascinating stuff, in hindsight, were the gambling advertisements.
Just seven pages into the '79 Street & Smith Official College Football Yearbook was a full-page ad featuring Danny Sheridan's college and pro football newsletter service. For $300, which is nearly $1,000 in today's dollars, you could get the entire college season of Sheridan newsletters to help you with the weekly neighborhood parlay card.
The pro newsletter was $25 more and for both it cost $450, a hefty $1,400 in 2018.
What I didn't realize until reading this ad a little more closely is that while Jimmy The Greek only analyzed games on CBS (his contract prohibited him from giving point spreads and predicting games), Sheridan was actually predicting winners on ABC's Good Morning America each Friday.
That was the morning show with David Hartman on it, in case you forgot.
Fifteen pages later was the second full-page gambling ad: Dr. Sullivan, Winners Sports Service.
"Many services make wild claims. That's easy," the ad stated. "But we can show you our undisputed, consistent record of beating the spread 69 percent the past 11 years. If we had the space we'd show you every year, not just the last four years shown."
Dr. Sullivan was interviewed by Larry Merchant on NBC-TV, and he once spoke at the Las Vegas Sports Handicapping Seminar on computer handicapping, further solidifying his credentials.
If that's not convincing enough, Dr. Donald Sullivan also possessed a Ph.D. in psychology, which is essential for predicting college and professional football games, I suppose.
Five pages later it's Mike Warren's turn to tout his thoroughbred and sports handicapping report. It only cost $125 for a service Warren claimed would make you "2,000 … $5,000 … $10,000 …"
"Winning at football is a piece of cake," he declared. "I'll show you how to knock down the Las Vegas spread week after week and make just about as much money as you want."
Warren did not possess a Ph.D. in psychology, that I'm aware of.
There are more: Margin Sports Publications out of Rome, New York; The Winning Edge from Bronxville, New York; Sportsfax from Woodland Hills, California; Volition Company from Dallas; Kyle Rote's Sportsform, which the advertisement claims was copyrighted in Washington and banned in Las Vegas, and Network Sports Reports out of Jericho, New York.
All of these ads, by the way, were in the first 52 pages of the magazine!
The gambling ad of gambling ads was Alleghenies Analysis Sports Service, which prominently featured a picture of a seductive lady in a bikini sprawled out above the order form for a service that cost an attention-getting $500.
Of course, by subscribing to Alleghenies Analysis Sports Service and winning big on the weekend the seductive lady depicted in the advertisement might one day end up being your date, I presume.
Dan Snyder, sitting in the back of a chauffeur-driven car on the telephone in front of the Fairfax Hotel with a lady in a fur coat standing outside impatiently looking at her watch, comes in a close second to Alleghenies Analysis Sports Service, which made its home in stately State College, Pennsylvania, of all places.
Even Johnny U. got in on the action, the Baltimore Colts great joining forces with Bobby Boyd and Bill Finley to form "Sports Prediction and Line Service."
But it wasn't all gambling in the '79 Street & Smith College Football Yearbook.
On page 144 was an advertisement for Universal Body Building's free booklet with a diagram of a skinny man transforming into a muscle-bound Adonis … "Skinny? Muscles will appear … almost like magic" … And a fat man slimming down into a muscle-bound hunk … "Fat? Fat will disappear - replaced by muscles!"
And near the back of the magazine was a small advertisement for Topps Sports Cards sets. You could order a complete set of 1976 Topps Baseball Cards for just $19, or $69.70 in today's dollars.
Your baseball card investment in 1979 would be worth about $400 on Ebay today.
Just past the Topps Baseball Cards was "youthful sports reporter" John Blanchette's analysis of the Big Sky Conference. "Youthful John" looked like a card-carrying member of the Kiss Army, which is probably why he got to write the Big Sky preview in the first place.The last I saw "Youthful John" is still at it 39 years later, writing sports columns out in the Pacific Northwest in Spokane, Washington.
His four-page Big Sky synopsis took us right into the four-page schedule grid before we ended our college football experience with a nice, refreshing pack of Kool Super Lights.
Gambling, weight lifting and cigarettes … that was college football back in the day when I was an 11-year-old!
Thankfully, college football magazines these days offer so much more information, which is why fans today are the most-informed, most-knowledgeable ever.
Come to think of it, not only have the Mountaineers come a long way, but so have these magazines!
Players Mentioned
QB
/ FootballRoss Hodge & Honor Huff | Stanford Postgame
Friday, April 03
Geimere Latimer | April 2
Friday, April 03
Coach Deke Adams | April 2
Friday, April 03
Coach Rich Rodriguez | April 2
Friday, April 03
