And so it starts...free food cut from Mizzou pressbox

i'm pretty sure that was the same one. tequila makes peoeple do strange, strange things.

 

So I'm gathering El Paso is only fun if you drink?

 

why else would you go to El Paso?

 

Because I had to cover the Sun Bowl, obviously. I think I'm starting to see why that trip sucked so much.

 

Speaking of NHRA hospitality ... this was way before my time but a friend of mine who used to travel the series regularly has told me stories about the 1980s when there was plenty of coke hospitality to go around the Pro Stock pits — and we ain't talkin' cola either.

It finally did get to the point, though, that if you wanted to do an interview with certain people you sent word for them to come to the media center because several of the "fans" taking pictures at national events were feds and you didn't want to be photographed with the wrong person.

 

Jaguars. Not the animal.

 

Eating cafeteria food and talking to half naked men is no way to go through life.

 

I think it's safe to say that you're upset about free food being cut from a press box, you've got more issues than can be adequately addressed on this board.

 

I can back up the old SWC talk. My father was in PR with Southwestern Bell and for Arkansas and the Texas schools, it was BIG time.

My best "media food" experiences:
- First three years of covering the Minnesota Wild. Steak & Lobster, on the house, in the ice-level media mess hall. Free. I can still see Sid wolfing it all down across the room.
- Any NBA playoff game. For the $5 to eat, I've sat at tables with league owners, head coaches, Marv & Walton, other broadcasters. Great to listen in on their conversations and help answer any local restaurant/nightlife questions they may have had.
- A tiny NAIA school - where the baseball coach had been a former sportswriter - would put out these amazing spreads for its Media Day. Twice a year -- fall sports and spring sports. The coach told me, "when I did what you did, I always followed the food. Who would you like to interview?"
- Packers still have a scrumptous spread with the brats/kraut and all sorts of desserts.

All of that being said, I have never complained about a lack of free food, although I have been "surprised" by the apple and soda that was common with the Red McCombs Vikings.

 

Best spread, pro, amateur, as far as taste and variety in my opinion has been Clemson. Especially the years when The Fridge was there.

 

Now I know you're full of it.
I have covered Clemson for the last 4 years - and it's the same rubber fried/baked chicken, green beans and mac and cheese. And a cold-cut spread. EVERY WEEK.
Clemson does a lot of things right with its press relations - but the food is not one of those things.

 

Agreed.

Once inherited a guy in a new shop. I'm convinced the reason he attempted to perform journalism was for the free food. I am serious. Curiously, he didn't know what conference the school he covered was in. But he did eat the food. I was later told he would meander into the AD's suite and scarf down in there, too.