Best SID ever?

Did Nemeth used to work at Northern Illinois?

 

I have some positive SID stories and this comes from a guy who has worked with Tim Tessalone at USC and Marc Dellins at UCLA, who I consider to be at or near he top of their field. Unfortunately, I don't remember the names of all the people to whom the following stories apply.
-- Auburn SID walks into a media work room on the off day between the first and second round of a NCAA basketball tournament regional. Announces that they are going to be leaving soon for a restaurant for dinner. All are welcome. He picks up the entire tab and comes up with suitable individual receipts for everybody to turn in for their expenses.
-- Nebraska football serves a postgame meal in the press box about an hour after the game, after the yahoos, radio jerks and other hangers on have left. It's for the writers who are actually there working.
-- In the Pac-10 we were used to scrambling for our credential for football road games. One trip to Tennessee, we had our credentials in hand a week before the trip. So, sure enough, I leave mine on my desk at home. I realize it on my flight to Atlanta, so on the stopover before catching the connecting flight to Knoxville, I call the Tennessee SID office, this is late Friday afternoon, explain that I forgot my game credential and parking pass. Is there any I can stop by their offices when I get to Knoxville and get replacements?? The person I'm talking to, probably a student intern, isn't quite sure what to do, but will try to find out. I tell him I'll call back when I get to the airport in Knoxville. When I get there, I call again, get the SID and ask if I can stop by. He says, "No need for that, I'll just give it to you when we take y'all out to dinner tonight."
-- Here's my all-time SID story, from BYU. Close game, Cougars are losing, 17-15, but they're driving as time is running down. They are already in field-goal range, first down inside the 10-yard line, less than a minute to go. QB throws an interception on first down when he had several other alternatives including, taking the sack, throwing the ball away, running for it (he might have even scored). He basically blew he game. I spent way too long in the locker room of the team I covered. Didn't have time to go to the BYU locker room, so I head back up to the press box. A few minutes later, the BYU SID shouts out, "If anybody didn't get a chance to talk to our quarterback, here he is." He brought the kid up the press box. That was probably a first and last.

 

Williford looks so good (and he is) because his predecessor was so bad.

On my one trip to Baylor the former SID (Maxie Parish?) took all the visiting media out to dinner. Guess he did that regularly.

Can vouch for Tessalone. Dellins has been very helpful too but negotiatig the automation maze to get someone to answer the phone at UCLA can be very frustrating.

Always had great luck with Jeff Bechtold at Washington and Rod Commons at Wazzu, very helpful (even if the Cougars were always late getting their FB media guide out.).

 

I'll give another shout out for Streeter at EMU.. some of those old-time MAC guys were great....If not exactly really efficient at what they do (Jim is), but personable as hell and do anything they can to help...What the hell was the name of the guy at Western Mich for so long? Beaty? Beattie?..

 

Felton, Housel, Rogers = Class

 

Ahhh, John Beatty... a blast from the past. Decent guy, but could be reallyquirky... wore his watch somewhere on the northern side of his forearm between his wrist and elbow... running joke would be to ask each other what time it was and have to peel back the sleeve on yor shirt to midbicep to read the watch...
He's still around Kazoo somewhere....

 

You guys know Streeter had a heart attack a year or two ago, right? He was supposed to be out awhile, but was back very, very quickly.

 

I wonder if the rush of newspaper people taking PR jobs will help turn the tide back.

 

John Beatty.. Yes!...He was quirky and a great guy.

 

Bill Bennett, who used to be Dellins' chief lieutenant at UCLA and the guy who handled UCLA basketball, was easier to deal with than Dellins, who was usually one notch better than condescending to me when I covered his program because I wasn't working for one of the metros.

Bennett was awesome: helpful to everyone and professional to the core.

From my standpoint, Tessalone was much better to deal with. So was Dave Senko, who used to be at Washington and is now with the Champions Tour. He's one of those guys who gets it on every level.

And SoCalDude, great stories.