Best SID ever?

Reino will make this list eventually, after he's had a few years under his belt. Marky Mark is one of those who gets it.

 

I don't interface with the SEC at all, but seeing Claude Felton's name invoked so readily prompts me to want to know what it is about him that evokes such praise...

In New England, Ed Carpenter of Boston Univ (now retired) is regarded as the gold standard...several others are great, including Brown's Chris Humm, PC's Arthur Parks, and the great Jack Grinold of Northeastern...it's not just the media services they provide, but I'm always running into young folks whose careers have been given big boosts by these old dogs...

 

I dealt with a female SID at Auburn (don't remember her name) who was nothing short of outstanding.

 

Ed Carpenter was pretty cool in my dealings with him...

 

And he is the owner of an outstanding tie collection.

 

I dealt with the late Will Hancock during his days at Arkansas-Little Rock. Even helped keep stats at a couple of basketball games during Christmas break one year when their usual student workers were gone. Granted coverage of UALR is minimal even in Little Rock, but he always treated the student newspaper as well as the Democrat-Gazette folks. And this was a place where he was basically a one-man staff with a few student interns. When he left, I pretty much stopped hanging out in the athletic department.

I also spent some time at Arkansas State in the early 1990s and can't remember the guy's name, but the SID there at the time was great. He even helped the student newspaper with a scoop now and then. I remember being there when Ray Perkins came in to coach football for a year. We got wind he was leaving right around the super bowl that year. We had a pretty reliable source in the school's communications office, but the journalism professors were nervous about running the story before the announcement. We only printed twice a week and wanted in the edition coming out the day of the news conference. So the SID there confirmed the story and settled the professors. And we got to hand out papers with the story at the news conference.

 

This is a simple question, in my experience.

Most SIDs you have to deal with day to day as a beat writer suck.

Any that you don't have to deal with every day, who know you could just as easily be at State Rival U and thereby welcome the exposure, are great. That doesn't mean they aren't pricks to the locals, though.

At least one of the guys who truly suck have already been blown on this thread.

It's all a matter of perspective.

BTW, the guy who uttered the famous quote about "the only thing more boring than track is field" was the late Jones Ramsey. I've only heard great things about him, but in all fairness, he and the other legendary guys worked at a time where media scrutiny, and coach paranoia, were at a minimum. As Darrell Royal said, "You don't argue with a guy who buys his ink by the barrel." Now, sadly, it can be amended to read, "You don't argue with a guy who is a World Wide Leader."

 

Bo Carter, late of the Southwest and Big 12 conferences, never was hit with a request he couldn't deliver on.
One of the truly nicest, most cordial, and knowledgable people ever to work in the biz.

His signature "phrase" was: How can I help you.
Followed soonafter with "Thank you"

Great guy.

 

I can't count the number of times I called Bo needing something, and he probably thanked me a dozen times on everyone of those calls. He was great.

 

Kenny Klein is in a class all his own.

Glad others appreciate Ed Carpenter as well.

 

I've narrowed it down to three - Sid Vicious (Sex Pistols bass player) Sid Vicious (pro wrestler) and Sid Fernandez (portly southpaw)

 

And another example of someone who gets it. How hard is that philosophy to follow?

When I moved into flackdom, I viewed my job as making your jobs easier. If I'm successful, you're getting what you need and so is my client. Plus, when I need a favor on putting something in on behalf of my client, you're going to be more likely to accept (unless you're Tom Petty, in which case you'll tell me to blow myself ;D)

It's a win-win. And I don't understand why more flacks don't take that view. It's so simple to comprehend.