Episode 27: Sports Media, Information, and Broadcasting Through the Years: Part 1.

Welcome back to GenX Classic Sports, the podcast where we rewind the game clock and relive the golden era of sports through the eyes of Generation X. In this episode we’re diving into a topic that every GenX sports fan can appreciate — how the way we get our sports news and info has transformed since the 1970s.

Remember waiting for the morning paper just to see the box scores? Or huddling around the TV for a glimpse of highlights on the 11 o'clock news? Whether it was college football, pro basketball, baseball, or the Friday night fights — the way we followed our favorite teams and athletes was slower, more personal, and often filtered through a handful of trusted voices.

But now? With 24/7 coverage, social media, podcasts, athlete branding, and real-time stats at our fingertips, it's a completely different ballgame.

Joining us on this episode are Jacob Pumphrey, Assistant Athletics Director for Communications at Stephen F. Austin University in Texas, and his dad who we’ve talked to before, Wayne Pumphrey, a pioneer in the internet-based high school sports broadcasting world in Arkansas. Both of these guys have seen sports media, information, and broadcasting change tremendously due to technology.

In this episode, we’ll take a look back at the analog days — and trace the evolution to today’s digital, on-demand sports world. We’ll talk about how technology has changed not just the way we consume sports, but the way we connect with them.

(We are PROUD of our partnership with a great company: Aunt Susie’s Granola. https://auntsusiesgranola.com/ . If you love granola, then you’re going to love Aunt Susie’s Granola.  The owner has offered our listeners a great deal: from now until July 31st, listeners of our little podcast can use the code GENXCLASSICSPORTS for a 20% discount, one per customer thru July 31st.)

Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more nostalgia-packed content covering GenX retro sports, and the athletes who defined a generation. 

Production Credits:

Intro and outro music: Mason Enis

Narrator: Haylee Wolf

Copyright @ PineStreetProductions 2025. Any illegal reproduction of this content will result in immediate legal action.

Transcript

Welcome sports fans to Gen X Classic Sports, where we bring the nostalgia of our sportsfilled youth into the present

day. Grab your favorite retro jersey, crack open a cold one, and let's stroll down memory lane together. Welcome back

to Gen X Classic Sports. This is your host. I'm Sean, and I've got a couple of guys with me. One of them, if you've

listened before, you've heard him a couple of times. And then we've got another guy on here. We got my man Jacob

Pumprey with me, who just happens to be Wayne's son. Jacob was a two sport athlete at my alma mater and he played

football. He was on the football team for five seasons, the baseball team for four seasons and then he jumped from

being an athlete into covering athletes more or less because he got into the sports information department there um

while still in grad school and he worked in sports information at his alma mater

from 2015 to 2024. Last year he took a post in the frigid

northern part of our country up in North Dakota for a year. I saw him on television sitting at the table up there

at a basketball tournament late in the season. And Jacob, if you don't mind, tell us what you are up to now because

you've had a big change in your life the last few uh weeks. Yes, sir. Uh first off, appreciate you having me on. Uh

always looking together with you guys and and and talk anything in the world of sports uh when it comes down to it.

But yeah, I'm actually in week four here at at Steven F. Austin in Nacadoshia, Texas. U first day was was the first

part of June, I think around June 9th. And um like you said, I was in North Dakota for about 10 months. And um my

wife my wife Brooke and I really enjoyed our time up there. It was was a little cold, a little bit colder than it than

it is in South Arkansas or central Texas, but uh we really enjoyed our time. And you know, sometimes life

presents you opportunities that you you want to pursue. And you know, thankfully for for me, you know, we you know, I was

was able to take a visit down here during the interview process and was like, man, I this this is, you know, if

anybody that wants to, you know, further their career, this is an opportunity right here just based on the people and

the and the administrative and the leadership and um it worked out. I wanted them and and and they wanted me.

So, uh here we are. But uh yeah, a lot of a lot of things going on. I'm sorry.

Did you say your title, your new title, Jacob? uh assistant AD for communications. It's Stephen F. Boston.

That's fantastic, man. And congratulations on that. And as a refresher for the people joining us that

may not remember, Wayne is I like to call him an unpaid historian because he

uh he does a lot of sports history where we're from and he knows a lot about South Arkansas and North Louisiana high

school sports especially, but he's just a sports historian in general. And so these are the kind of conversations he

and I have whether a microphone is on or not. And Wayne, Wayne, probably because of Jacob. Is it fair to say because

Jacob was playing was going to be an athlete in in the school system or was an athlete is partly why the DSN hap the

Dragon Sports Network happened in the first place? Wayne, is that fair to say? That would be fair to say because uh the

first person after I told my wife, look, this is what school wants to do. The

very first phone call I made in regards to the DSM was to Jacob. And I remember

to this day he was walking across campus because he's asked him, "What you doing?" He said, "Well, I'm heading across campus to go eat." And I said,

"Hey, you want to do the game with me tonight?" And he thought it was radio. And when I told him, he was kind of

like, "What?" Which it turned into. It did turn into radio. It It did. Uh, and

you know, looking back on it, uh, it's something I'll never forget doing. I mean, that was 12 years of just it was

it was kind of heartburn and headache for a while, but in the end, it was all good. It was all fun and I really

enjoyed it. Yeah. And for once again for refresher information, uh Wayne, Jacob,

uh Wayne's wife, Jacob's mom, Missy, and a lot of other people u kind of put this

group effort in to start broadcasting over the internet and the very very

early days of that being even possible. And so where we're from, they were the only show in town. I think we take for

granted now that every school of every size just about does that. But these guys figured it out a really long time

ago. All the trials and tribulations that it took to go to some of the places that they went. Uh press boxes that you

couldn't even actually sit in and they're standing out there on the bleachers with the crowd when I show up. And I've shared the booth with both of

them. And that's always a treat and fun. and they've had over I believe over a million people have watched their videos

of some kind or another based on what the the Call it the Dragon Sports Network has done and so there's more

information about that on Wayne's podcast which is around episode two I believe. So if you want to go listen to

all that you can. that the reason they're here is because obviously Jacob has played sports at the collegiate

level and now he's in the media and information side of it and the administration side of it and Wayne and

I are sports fans and historians and we work on projects uh when we can about

all this kind of stuff. So, one of the things that keeps coming up on the podcast, guys, doesn't matter who I talk

to, we end and Jacob, I'm gonna make you an honorary Gen Xer for this discussion.

So, don't worry. I've I've gr I'm grandfathered you in, so you're good.

Um, and so, Jacob, you know that your dad and I, we grew up and what we very

often refer to as the three channel days. And I don't think you can impress enough

on young kids. I've got a 19-year-old son about to be and and he doesn't know

that world. you, Jacob, you're you're older than him, so you can kind of see back a little and then you know what's

going on now. But Wayne and I grew up in the three channel days and that was

quite a challenge to watch sports and to consume sports in whatever way you

chose. Wayne and I have spent a lot of time talking about the magazines that we grew up reading, Sports Illustrated,

Sports, Sporting News. Those were the big ones, plus the newspapers and journalism. But compare that to now with

YouTube and stuff. We're living in light years ahead of where Wayne and I were being able to consume information, be a

fan, watch the events and so forth. So, Jacob, where did you kind of land at the

at the age that you started caring about sports being being a future high school

athlete and collegiate athlete? Where did you kind of land on? What age did you start noticing? I mean, it'd be hard

not to notice in your dad's house. I know that. Yeah. And your grand knowing your granddaddy and your uncles and all

that. Um it'd be hard not to be into sports, but what about what age were you and what stuff was around you that kind

of informed you if you don't mind sharing that with us? Yeah. No, that's that's a great question. When you think

about it, you know, you talk about the three channel days and uh I've definitely heard the stories and and even for a while there it kind of man,

you only had three channels, you know, like you could you only watched whatever they put on for you to watch. you you

couldn't just necessarily flip through it and find any game uh really at any time. Um you know, kind of kind of

piggybacking off that. Obviously, we we had a couple more couple more channels by the time I started following, but I

do remember, you know, early 2000s, you know, dad's at work, cotton bowls on. I'm the one that's got to put the VHS

and the VCR together because if I don't record it, he doesn't see it. he'll read about it in the Democratic Gazette the

next day or or you know Eloretta News Times or whatever the case may be, but he won't he won't be able to watch it

because you know it's I think it was 2002 or something like that. So, um but

I would say probably the early 2000s I think when I really started latching on. Obviously, like you said, you grow up in

a household like mine. I mean, you're you're you're you're around it all the time. and uh wouldn't trade that for

nothing. But I think probably the early 2000s um kind of really when I started to you know like hey I I really like

sports you know you start kind of developing your own likes and dislikes with sports whether it's teams players

things like that. So, um, yeah, and and just thinking back then from the from

when I started to what it is now, I mean, my goodness, it's I mean, it's crazy. Crazy to see how it's just blown

up like it has. Yeah. The news cycle being what it was then, Wayne and I have, and I'm not trying to repeat

everything we've ever said, but just to set the stage, you know, we we remember going to bed not knowing how games ended, even big games, because if it

wasn't on your channel, uh, you had to wait till the next morning. Can you I mean I don't think people can fathom

that now, right? And um so um Wayne, let me ask you this. As a father, did you

catch yourself intentionally inundating him with I know I know the Razerbacks

are big in y'all's house because of where we are located. I know there was a different path taken on some

professional stuff, some fandom later. We'll get into that because I'm very curious about that. But Wayne, was it a

was it truly something you and your brothers and your dad and and whoever just uh just sort of overpowered him

with it or did he just come along for the ride? How do you think that went? Well, I I would say he came along for

the ride. I didn't, you know, I wouldn't force it on them. Now, I did buy more of those miniature basketballs. And when

you were asking the question you were asking, I got to thinking about those miniature basketballs. I got him a Bulls

one because of Michael Jordan and he he won't remember but I would kind of be babysitting him while Melissa doing

something and we would watch the Bulls on WGN. Yep. And of course I'm sitting there and he don't understand what I'm

saying. I'm going, "Hey man, that's Michael Jordan. It's one of the greatest basketball players of all time. Probably is the greatest." You know, so yeah, I

kind of, you know, kind of got him with that. But a lot of things him and I would do is I would go back to my radio

days. I love listening to Paul Ills when he did the Razerback games. Yeah, he was great. And I would sometimes even if

they were on TV, I would be out in the backyard, we would grill, throw the football around. He's four, five, six

years old. And I would tell him, you know, this is Paul IS and let him hear

that. And later on on the DSN, we would tribute, we just we started

doing it as just for me and him doing it for the fun of it. But it was kind of our tip of the hat to the great ones. We

listened to Keith Jackson on ABC TV, Paul's, uh Bud Campbell who did

Razerback games before that and uh you know others. Yeah. And I think saying

all that he, you know, later on me and him would kind of talk about a little bit. Jacob and I would talk about it and

he he kind of got a taste of you got to paint that picture, you know,

when you're doing a game like Ben Scully doing a Dodgers game. And I kind of hit him more, you know,

most kids the dad's going to set him down front team. We're going to watch the game, not me. No, let's go outside. I want you to listen to it on radio cuz

that's how I used to do it, right? You know, he brings up a good point because when I, you know, you asked me kind of

when it all started kind of clicking for me from a standpoint of like it's something that I want to be a part of or

I want to listen to or I want to, you know, do those early 2000s. I mean, when you start thinking or, you know, maybe

even maybe even kind of into the late 90s, early 2000s, you you start thinking about Cedric Cobbs and Madre Hill and

some of the big runs they had. I mean, dad, correct me if I'm wrong, um, Arkansas, I think Arkansas was on the

road at South Carolina. Uh I can't remember the year 01 02 somewhere in

there. They block a field goal to win it. South Carolina pick a field goal. They make it as ball game. Hogs block

it. It was um it was Carlos Hall and Raymond House. And uh they said Carlos

is in the hall and Raymond's in the house. And I don't know why that sticks with me so much, but like just, you

know, moments like that growing up because like dad said, they might be on TV, but usually we're going to be in the

backyard tossing tossing the football and listening to it and and and being able to kind of develop develop your

mind to to see what they're saying because I mean, like dad said, I we're listening to one of the greatest

greatest of all time in our opinion, you know, in Paul Ills. And so, um, you didn't have to you didn't have to think

too much because he did a great job of painting it. Yeah. And the great ones do, and I know you spent a lot of time

in baseball and football behind the mic. Um, and to me, this is just my take on

playbyplay is the hardest thing to do. I I don't mind color. I I can sit there and tell you what worked and what didn't

and maybe why, but as far as painting the picture, man, I was terrible at that. I hate doing it. But the ones who

are great at it, you know, it's it's really interesting because uh

I I told somebody that, you know, one thing about TV being everywhere now with

SEC network and all that is there's pro, you know, there's not as much radio appeal to a lot of people. Now, if

you're traveling or something, of course, but um one of the things Wayne and I talked about was back in the day,

and I mean the 70s and 80s and into the 90s, if if your team wasn't in the top

10, there is they probably did not play on television that year. So, imagine Wayne being as fired up as he was about

Razerbacks. even when they're having a great top 10 season, you're going to get to watch them play one time or two at

best because it's a national broadcast probably. Later on, Jefferson Pilot and some other things got even when it was

regional though, you might get stuck with Alabama Auburn instead of whoever Arkansas or LSU, whoever's playing. So,

uh, Jacob, even when it started getting in better because cable changed everything, but even then it took

forever to really get all the teams, uh, the exposure, uh, that they have now.

Yeah, you're right. It's it's it to to think back on on that and and how you

were, again, I think I mentioned it earlier, how you were just you watched whatever they gave you. And nowadays you

can you're you're you know three taps of your thumb away from being able to watch

any one of 12 college football games on any given Saturday. Um

it's it's remarkable. It really is because it's almost it's it's kind of

funny when you think about it. It's it's created a lot more fans because of the ease of access, but it's almost like

it's made fandom a little bit lazy. It has. Yeah. I think there's truth to that because when you think about you and dad

and and growing up and you know you open up the paper to see the final you you know see the final final scores you you

you follow you know with with everything you got to just any types of information

buying a magazine just to read an article about something you know nowadays just just go to Twitter in fact

here's a good perfect example my wife and I are watching game seven of the NBA finals you know the other night and

unfortunately Hallebertton you know goes down and um you know we're like, "Oh man, he's

looks like he's in in a lot of pain." And and she was like, "Well, what happened?" I said, "I'm not sure. I think it was his Achilles." They showed

the replay and she she was up in the kitchen. She was standing away and she didn't see it. And and I just kind of

like I was like, "Oh yeah, that's exact." And she goes, "Oh, I didn't see it." And I said, "Well, go to Twitter here in about three minutes. There'll be

clips there." You know, just because that's that's just the way that's just the way it operates. I mean, you know,

like they're not going to show it again on the broadcast because they got to obviously show the live shots. But just go to Twitter in about 3 minutes.

There'll be plenty of information on it. You know, that's just the world we live in. Yeah. And that's just my mind

wouldn't even be able to fathom that in the 70s and 80s. I mean, you know, um

cable did change everything, but but like I said, it was a slow crawl to get to the point where things got more

regionalized. So you could Wayne, you probably remember um when it was

Jefferson Pilot or Raycom or somebody and you'd get that 11:00 game and it was a bad matchup you didn't want to see or

whatever and whoever you wanted to watch, they had no chance of being on TV that week. You know, those kinds of

things and pretty frustrating. And with some other guys, I've talked about how

the NFL does things still to this day where uh we were uh in the middle of

Saints and Cowboys territory and you know, you could watch the Cowboys more

than the Saints. And I'd attribute that to not location so much just to the fact that they were a better team at that

time. And I know that because right now down there, I know you're going to get more Saints games than you are Cowboys

games. um because they've had more success than they had. So, it's really and and people in North Arkansas uh

follow the Chiefs, which blows my mind. I mean, Central Arkansas is is all Cowboys or or a lot of Cowboys and a lot

of Tennessee fans, too. But, um Wayne, do you remember when uh the the Saints

were awful with Stabler or whoever, and they they wouldn't even be on TV. They'd

put the Cowboys on over them back in the 80s. I I remember uh I'm trying to think

when you said stable. I was trying to think when he came to New Orleans. I believe it was around 82. Yeah, it was

right at the end of his his career. Right at the end of his career. But you know, they started making, you know, runs. They were still in NFC West, but

they started making runs toward the playoffs. And their games actually started getting shown a little bit. But

still, when I say a little bit, I don't mean they were on every other week. I mean, you got them one week and then if

you were lucky and they became a national game of the week, which would be the usually the last game of the day,

you know, at in the afternoon slot and they would might be on then, but it

was mostly down here Cowboys. I mean, you you got to, you know, I enjoyed all

the hate I got to do, but uh it was them and sometimes the Oilers. You remember

Houston still had the Oilers. Oh, yeah. So, you would every now and then. That'd be the AFC game on a different channel.

That would be your AFC game on a different channel. Yeah. Yeah. Um, well,

you guys don't know this yet, but I've already done the interview and it'll air before this and I really encourage y'all

to listen to my episode 26 because I spent he's my my big A-list get so far

was an expert on nostalgia who's published uh books about nostalgia.

And uh believe it or not, that's not that common of a study out there in the world and but he's done actual

scientific research on nostalgia and I spent an hour with him that'll uh premiere next week and it was

fascinating. I read his book and he and I talked about much like sports, there are other things

in life that this happens to as well. But I told he he's not a huge sports guy. And I told him, I said, "Uh, Clay,

you know, kids inherit their they inherit their like of athletes and teams and things from

family sometimes, like they they do." Now, you don't have to agree with it, and you might go away from it sometimes,

but we talked about how sports can be passed down from father to son or grandfather or uncles or whatever. and

he hadn't really he he his example was like a like Star Trek like sci-fi or whatever like a dad likes it the son

ends up liking it whatever it may be and his the the example that I heard him give on a whole other podcast that I

laughed at was he's my age basically and he showed his son who's like 20 I think

he showed his son all the Arnold and Stallone movies when he was a kid it's exactly what I did to Dylan and he

talked about how you passed down even music what whatever I know music was a big thing for y'all all. And so I told

him, I said, "Sports happen the same way, man." And and I actually looked it up so I'd sound intelligent and told him

about the the Green Bay Packers uh season ticket waiting list. And there's

stuff on the internet about how families literally will their season tickets to

family and they're tied up in their trust and everything and there's a 50-year waiting list and all that. So So

Jacob, you became a Razerbacks fan uh because at least partly because of following

along with Wayne and other family. I get that. But something happened in pro football and I'm very curious about that

because thank God you didn't follow him in that and you you can hate on the Cowboys if

you want. That's fine. I'm used to that since 92 95 whatever their last one. How

did you become a Green Bay Packer fan in the house where and and and Wayne not only was a a Skins fan, which I still

don't understand, but he was a he had like an individual thing too with like Kenny Stabler was his favorite player, I

would say, back then, and he's talked about that before. How did you divert

over into Green Bay territory in a house that didn't support that at the time? Well, I mean, it it's it's his fault as

well, so Oh, is it? just, you know, he sits me down in front

of the TV and, you know, you you you watching ball and again, not not many

options and somehow, you know, you're down there in South Arkansas and Green Bay's on and you see that four running

around out there just running for his life, just slinging it, you know, making plays and it just, man, it just it just

stuck, you know, big Brett Favre guy. Um, and from there, I set myself up for

a lot of uh a lot of heartache after that. So, uh, we ended up we end up getting the point about a decade ago,

decade plus now. About 15 years ago, I guess. Hey, they've won they've won more titles since my team has, so I can't I I

will not participate in that part of the conversation. But uh but yeah, just watching Brett Favre play and it's just

one of those things you just kind of get attached to a player and then he's on that team and you start following that team and um yeah, it's hard to it's hard

to for me to think like what like it's hard for me to picture myself being a you know a diehard fan of a of another

team and it's because I get that lot like who do you follow you Cowboys and Saints you know and I'm like I'm Packer

fan and they're like oh I'm like yeah I'm a Packer fan. Well, you know, Dylan,

um, despite all the Cowboy craziness around him, he he didn't he didn't start out being a Cowboys fan. He by the time

Dylan was a a kid growing up, the the individuals were marketed so much, it

was easy for him to latch on to Payton Manning and say, "That's my guy." Yep. And poor poor Dylan. By the time he was

aware of sports and stuff, Manning had ended the Colts run and moved over to

the Broncos, which was a good run to watch. I mean, it looked like it was going to go terrible for a while and

then it looked like it was going to be great and then so it but the problem was Manning was done by the time Dylan was

playing football himself really. And so he's like, well, I guess I'll root for the Cowboys. I mean, my guy retired, you

know, that kind of thing. Sort of resigned himself. I said, "I really don't care. You can root for whoever you

want to as long as it's not Washington, Philadelphia, the Giants, or the San Francisco 49ers. Other than that, go for

it." But, um, okay. So, we've established

that, uh, Wayne's still a little bit responsible for that just because because of Brett Far. And I know, by the

way, y'all are the reason that when Dylan turned 16, I took him to the Pro Football Hall of Fame because I know

y'all had made that trip. Awesome. That was money well spent. Memories that'll never go away. Uh and I know y'all taken

Impackers games and I've taken him to Dallas and um you just don't you can't

beat those kind of memories for sure. Right. Yeah. You wouldn't I wouldn't take I mean I ain't going to speak for

dad but I wouldn't take I wouldn't take anything for him. I mean that and you get to go to you know we go to Canton

the first time and it's a four it's a four member class. It's it's Bob Brown. Um former O lineman for the Eagles. Um

Carl Eller, um defensive lineman for the Vikings. Um John Elway. Obviously mom's

big Broncos fan. Loves John Elway. Um so that was our that was one of our pulls right there as a reason to go. And and

then Barry Sanders and you know Yeah. die hard fan, but I I'll tell you right now, Barry I mean I love I love some

Barry Sanders. Um Oh, I do too. Yeah, you know, you're I don't know. It's just something about it. The

you see people up there and you you put you put athletes on a pedestal and and

you you know they you know they're almost almost godlike, you know, lower case almost godlike and for better or

worse. You're right. That's right. Better worse. And and but you but you see them up there and you see how much a a moment like that means to not just

them but their family and you realize that that that human side of it and it I don't know. It's just special to see.

And obviously we end up going back several years later and and you know got to see that was probably one of my

favorite sports memories of all time was when Brett Favre was on stage and he was

telling the story about when he his parents took him to the Superdome and he

remember seeing a big you know bearded man in the tunnel about to take the field and it was Ken Stabler with the

saying that's my guy and that's my dad's guy and so I I don't know I'll just never forget that and That's what sports

can do. It can, you know, it can bring you to you those moments and special.

Yeah. A lot of connections for y'all when y'all have gone to those. For sure. Um, so let's talk a little bit about

kind of the nuts and bolts of how sports teams are run now, whether

they're div, you know, university teams or pro teams. Sort of what you know about that and what Wayne and I know as

consumers. says, "Wayne, um, we've come a long way since I, uh, subscribed to the Dallas Cowboys newsletter as a kid,

and it came in newspaper format like the Sporting News did." And, and you didn't

get any other information on the Cowboys other than the Shreport Times or whatever. And Jacob's probably laughing

just hearing that, but Jacob, can you can you kind of, and it doesn't matter if you ramble a little, would you talk a

little bit about how you started seeing the the media and the sports information side of things, maybe even as a college

player, uh, how that started, you started seeing that and then you got kind of on the inside of that, some of

the stuff you've observed with tech. I'm I'm really curious about how technology change. That's the theme. A lot of this

is that technology changed a lot of things for sure. But anything you can think of about what you've noticed and

your journey there? Yeah, I mean I I kind of go back to my first couple of semesters um in the

sports information office at at Southern Arkansas and and obviously you know growing up growing up around sports my

whole life and and and you know seeing dad's involvement in it and it how much he loved it obviously played a big role in in what I'm doing now uh because I

just kind of I attached myself with it as well and love it. But um you know Daniel Gigos I cut was a cut my teeth

under him. Great great mentor for me in this profession. He's he's one of my best friends. He's my best man in my wedding. Um

but I remember early on like the big focus was live stats, you know, like we got to have got to have the live stats,

the live push. We got to make sure they're they're live. The fans are relying on them. We got to have them

there. It it it you know, we got to have them. Got to have the live stats. whatever we do, stats can't go down. We

got to push them, you know, and then, you know, couple semesters later, you know, video starts become the streaming

aspect of things and it's like, okay, well, you know, how do we do this? How, you know, what's what's this going to

look like? Where are we streaming to? What platform are we going to use? What's the manpower needed in order to

to to put it over here? And and now, you know, fast forward,

like it's it's second thought. Like it's not even a matter of are they going to stream the game? It's like what do you mean are they going to stream the game?

Like yeah they're going to stream the game you know and and so even in a short amount of time and I don't feel like I've been doing this that long. I've

been in it a while, but even in just the, you know, 10-year period from the

Division 2 level of, oh, they're going to be able to show the home game this Saturday to now it's anytime there's an

athlete wearing a Mr Rider jersey on a field somewhere, there's a camera on them and people from all over the world

are going to be able to watch them. And so that's kind of the thing that stuck out to me the most and how quickly like the streaming aspect of it developed,

especially at a lower level. I mean, obviously your division ones and with TV deals and stuff like that probably

weren't too um too caught off guard by much of that, but um at that level, that

was something that that kind of stood out. And then just the the social media aspect of it. I mean, I think social

media is going to be the one thing when we look back, we can look back now and it, you know, we we're not surprised,

but you know, you look back 50 years from now, social media might be the most

innovative, if that's the word you want to use, just tool almost ever. I mean, just because of the

the good and the bad that it brings and the way that it's changed the sports media landscape. I mean, you know, it's,

you know, we kind of joke sometimes. I'm a I mean, I'm a journalism guy. I was a masscom guy in college. I love to write,

you know, and actually told two of my assistants the other day, we were kind of talking about some some writing

aspects of how we want to approach the the semester and trying to be more efficient, more timely with our writing.

Um because at the end of the day, the people, the fans, they're just not

consuming that type of content as much as they would 15 years ago, 20 years ago, 40

years ago, but the written word still plays, but it's how do you play the

written word? And so that's kind of my big focus, not to get into the the day-to-day of what's going on here, but

that's kind of our focus of 30 years from now, I still need somebody to look at a recap of the Stephen F. Austin in

Houston uh 2025 season opener and be able to read and feel like, oh, I feel

like I was down there. But I'm not going to spend an hour on it. Um I'm not going

to approach it this way. I'm going to approach it in a way in which I can continue to be more efficient in getting

it out, putting it out there in a timely manner. Uh, making it easier to read. I might I'm probably not going to write it

in a long form, you know, story form of a game recap. I'm going to, you know,

have different subheadings and little bullet points and put nuggets here and there about how the game just because

that's how people consume, you know, whereas how you how you got

and I you know, not like you not to ramble, but you know how you and dad were able to consume media was what the

media gave you and now it's what do the fans want, right? No, you're right. It

was was it was you had to just take whatever they gave. Now it's we've got to give them what they want because if

not their attention is going to go elsewhere and we'll lose we'll lose the market share, we'll lose the the

impressions, the clicks, the shares, however you want to however you want to word it. So it's definitely changed

definitely flipped itself on its head, you know, in a 180 in that regard. Yeah. And um I just finished a writing class

that I was doing this summer for a college here in Arkansas. I just finished it this morning. I'm still a writing guy. Jacob all the way. And

Wayne, what did I tell you when we were talking about getting information out faster to the public about the

historical projects we're working on? What did I tell you about why I wanted to do a podcast? What did I say that

breaks my heart about that, Wayne? Do you remember that? Uh, not off the top of my head, but I know one of the things

cuz I remember this I remember the conversation because we talked about there's kids don't know who Al Bolan is.

You know, we're talking about researching and going back and it's hard finding

a lot of the stuff we need even into the 90s, Sean. You know, uh I've dealt with

some colleges and I was like, you know, I need a picture of this guy and it'd be something from the 70s and well, you

know, our information then, you know, we didn't really have a uh sports

information department. And I'm like, really? You know, I just couldn't believe it. Yeah. Um, did you hear some

parallels in what Jacob was talking about uh his challenges uh with tech? I

mean, not challenges, but the things that technology has caused to happen, I guess you could say. Were you sitting

there rolling through your mind about uh similar issues with getting a high school game broadcast in a timely manner

with barely a bar on the cellular? Uh, absolutely. Yeah, I knew I knew you

were. It went from uh the DSN's going to show the game and

everybody's excited to uh are y'all you know my phones people that have my personal number it would be blow y'all

on the air y'all on the air you know it's like my god get on the air right now guilty yeah I mean you know we got

to see the game and and the man I just it what blows my mind Sean is

when I when I was listening to Jacob I thought yep yep yep I mean you said you know you see a mule rider

jersey out on the field. People around the world could watch it. And the DSM was literally watched around the world.

I started thinking, I go, Afghanistan, Romania, New Zealand, Japan. I started

my head rolling off people that watched from those countries. I kid you not, it

was unbelievable. Czechoslovakia and the I you know you and I in the 70s

ABC TV showed the Hogs that one game and it was usually Texas and it was usually bad news

and now to you could see your high school team play every Friday night

including the playoffs if they make it. Yeah. Blows my mind. It it does. It

still blows my mind. Yeah. And but Wayne, what what I was and it's fine

that you don't remember, but what I told you, we were talking about producing these documents that people

would read. And I told you, Wayne, people don't read like that anymore. Oh, no. Jake Jacob just said it. It's It's

not an issue of what can we provide people. It's an issue of how are they demanding to consume it. And we live in

a we live in a bullet point world now. And when it comes to doing these kinds of projects, uh, so Jacob, what I told

your dad was, I said, "This has been since COVID, but probably two to three

years ago." I said, I said, "Wayne, you know, we could write everything you want to write about this the history down

there, South Arkansas, our hometown, whatever you want to call it." I said, "You could write every word of it, and

your audience is going to be so small because that's just not how people I mean, as far as people who would really

go through the whole thing." I said, "It breaks my heart to say that." What they're more interested now to me is

conversation and video clips and and memories that people verbalize on camera

and stuff like and and that's fine. That's fine. That's what people want. And I but a podcast became sort of my

way of writing all those dang articles I thought I was going to spend the rest of my life uh writing honestly when you

know at some point get started on that and do it. and uh you know your dad and I talked about how we were going to do a

docu or he's wanting to do a documentary and I I think I finally convinced him that I'm not even sure that's the way to

go anymore. I said, "Let's just, you know, just edit that thing down into some vignettes of five or 10 minutes

each with a topic per little like a short and get them out there because I

think having a unified A to Z is great, but for the brevity of the situation and

to keep people's attention, maybe we need to roll through some shorter pieces and so forth. So, I will agree with you

100% on that because if uh if the fans want social media, the fans are going to

get social media. Now that's absolutely abs. I mean that's just where that's where it's at. I mean I've I've seen and

you know you you know 20 years ago you say sports information I mean anybody

that knows what it is is going to have a they're going to know in their mind. They're going to have just something

that they picture and and now you look at it and it's so

there's just there's so many aspects of it. Um, you know, just looking at my time at Southern Arkansas, it was myself

and usually one assistant and we had we had some student workers, you know, you get you get up to North Dakota or you

get to Stephen F. Austin and you know, you've got four four of me, so four SIDs

and then you've got two video guys, you've got two marketing guys um that kind of handle some social media stuff.

Um, you've got a graphic designer and because that's just where it's at, you know, and another branding, you got a

branding person, I'm guessing. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Marketing and branding. Sometimes those are two different, you know, if you're at

Arkansas or Texas, it's probably two different jobs with about three or four people doing doing each job. And then if

you're, you know, maybe at an FCS like here, you you probably got, you know, marketing and branding probably

together, but with but still with with multiple people. And um yeah, it's again

it goes back to from even from when I started in sports information to now. I mean, multiple

times over the course of my professional career, I've had to sit down and go, "Okay, this is something that would be

classified as as OG OG sports information,

but is it time to retire?" You know, I mean,

I is there a reason why we're spending this much time on something when the when the return,

you know, I mean, you look at it as return on investment. you're investing your time to do this. How much return? And the return would be clicks, shares,

are people talking about it? Are people, you know, oh, look at this article by such and such, such and such.

They're not, you know, okay, well, then our time needs to be spent elsewhere because there's still a fan base that we need to we need to be pushing stuff to.

And lately, it's been in the form of graphics and videos, and that's just where things are at. Yeah. Yeah, I knew

things had changed when I saw the colleges, and this is not a knock on

y'all's school or anybody else's, but when I saw the the amount of effort they go through, especially basketball and

football on recruiting visits, when I started seeing them put the full uniforms on the kid and they put them in

front of the fake stadium background like they're actually standing in the end zone and and I thought, man, this is

going crazy quickly. we're getting and I mean we're veering into some NIL talk here but and and payment talk but but it

has changed that much. So it only makes sense to me if the way the game is I

guess compensated now that it only makes sense that you'd pursue every avenue possible to support that with what they

call trending as much as you can. Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, think about it like this. You know,

timeline's probably a little bit off. mid 2000s, Oregon starts coming out and

they've got 35 jersey combinations and they're talking about how many recruits are they gonna get? And they're like,

well, but you'll be surprised how many they'll get when it's between Oregon and Ohio State and Alabama when they can go

and they can put the jerseys on and the six different kind of helmets and they can look cool and they can send take the

pictures and all that. Well, now it's basically that, but just in social media. What kind of what kind of

department do they have? How many graphic designers do they have that can make graphics for me when I do big

things? How can they how can they help me push my my brand? Exactly. My brand.

How can they help me push, you know, I need highlight videos of myself when I play a big game? Like what departments

can offer that for me? Not what departments can write about a, you know, a 250word recap about a big performance.

You know, obviously there's people that will read that. I get it. But the thing is, we're not developing these

departments for an older fan base. We're trying to get we're trying to get the kids, trying to

get the student athletes. And so that's where a lot of the focus has has went. That's why a lot of what of how these

departments operate has shifted has shifted to that. Yeah. Wayne, as a um

season Gen Xer, what do you think about all that? Because you and I talk about it off camera. I mean, off the off the

record a lot, but how, you know, do you feel like some of that's passing us old geysers by or do you just say, "Well, I

just got to roll with it and do the best I can," or, how do you how do you think about that?

Because you're kind of in you're kind of in the business, too, with presenting ball games on on online. I mean, you

know, you didn't start out with graphics and stuff like that that they do now back in the back in the day. So, you've

you've obviously changed your game to reflect some of this over the years and you do coaching interviews, coaches

shows, and all the stuff that you evolved into. What do you think about how all this is pacing so quickly now?

Uh, the way the the information is growing and the needs and the demands. Well, first of all, it's definitely

passing us by. And, uh, let me let me let me throw this in real quick, Sean, and you'll appreciate this. We didn't

have graphic designs and and twi at uh Twitter and trends and all that old outlaw stadium in South Calonia back in

the day. So yeah, it's definitely passing us by. Oh man, could you imagine if you did? Oh. Hey man, it would have

been news. That's for sure. That's right. You look at what Jacob said got me thinking, but I want to back up real

quick. He was talking about, you know, instead of writing it, I'm going to do a podcast. If you remember, I told you the

story about what they was the local museum in Ela brought that guy in and he basically told him, "If you put stuff up

here for people to read, you're wasting your time." Uh, he come in from Los Angeles to give them critique on how to

present the museum. And he suggested videos and when you I remember me and

you talking about that and I got to thinking it's changed that much. But the way the games are presented now is

because of the way they're broadcast. If you'll think about it, yep, rules were

made because of the way they're being presented. And what I mean by that is how many people did you hear over the

years, you touch Tom Brady, that's going to be, you know, roughing a passer, you know, right? You hear it all the time or

another quarterback. But when you started presenting the game

uh on ESPN, more people could see it. You got a bigger audience, more women got involved.

Look how the Pro Football Hall of Fame sells material, sells their supplies now or their goods now, I should say. Excuse

me. And a lot of it's aimed at women. Yeah. Cuz women are more involved. Well,

when you're an NFL team and you're always looking for a way to make more money and you don't have Jerry

Jones as the owner, well, this is how we're going to do it. we're going to go after our our female

fan base or our younger gener, you know, the 18 to 35 year olds or whatever. And

you got rules in there to make sure star players are protected. Now people go, "Oh, no, they don't." Yeah, they they do

because old school guys like me and you, that's how it's passed us by. We were the team. I'm a Redskins fan. Yes, I

love Sunny J. Yes, I loved uh Bart Ripen, you know, few years he had. But

I'm a fan. Now it is. I'm a Tom Brady fan. I'm a

Aaron Rogers fan. I'm a uh Ben Rothenberg fan. Whoever. Yeah, that's

right. So, the game has changed because of the way it's being presented. And

Jacob talked about, you know, you write that I love the, you know, when I was able to get University Arkansas press

releases when I got on their list, man, I'd read all that. I've noticed now you

get a short thing and it's bullet point, bullet point, bullet point and then it's different categories

and they're giving you the information. So you can't turn around and put that in a paper on a report. You got to rewrite

it yourself. But they're just putting it out there. Yeah. But then you go to Instagram, you go to uh Facebook

and it's instant record just got set in the second quarter. Longest touchdown pass school

history. Boom. It's out there. Mhm. You know, we had to wait for somebody on TV to say it and then you'd read about next

day and and you know, Democrat Gazette or well, the Democrat or the Gazette, excuse me. Either one or the local

paper. All right, everybody. We're going to stop right there for this episode 27 and

we will pick back up in a couple of weeks. We're trying to keep these episodes in the 40 minute range or so on

the high end. So, we'll pick back up in a couple of weeks with the rest of this discussion. And as always, we really

appreciate you listening. And we hope if you like what we do, you'll press the like button and subscribe. And so we'll

talk to you in a couple of weeks. Thank you. Thank you for joining us on Gen X Classic Sports, where nostalgia meets

the thrill of the game. Tune in next time for more insightful discussions and memorable moments brought to you by Pine

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