Internet Killed the Newspaper Scribe

A few blogs ago, I discussed what a nerd like myself describes as a treasure. Quickly recapping that topic, I unearthed some old scorebooks, programs, box scores, and audio tapes in cleaning out one of our radio studios.

One large manilla folder at a time, I sifted through the contents while drinking my morning coffee. Most of the paperwork and programs were from the 1990's and early 2000's, while the gold of the load were some broadcasts on cassette from the late 1970's and early 1980's.

Following this discovery, and my excitement that abounded, I relayed my find to B-PC/A Spartans baseball coach Dave Arnold. He mentioned he may have some old Abingdon Commandos broadcasts from his playing days in the 1980's, while also mentioning he had a bunch of old scrapbooks from an old neighbor.

He said I could have whatever I wanted and they dated from the 1950's into the late 1970's. On Monday night, we dove into the stash of old scrapbooks, some falling into pieces with scotch tape flying in every direction.

Unloading my stash, I took a few minutes to sort through some of the scrapbooks. The oldest dated back to 1952-53 and the "newest" coming from the 1978-1979 season. Each book had a mish-mash of newspaper articles pasted or taped, miscellaneous programs, pocket schedules, and newspaper season preview articles.

A few days later, I still have not searched through every book, yet. Some of the finds have been early state finals football programs, state finals basketball programs from the 1970's, a Parade All-American high school football section (featuring QB Mark Harmon and WR Lynn Swann), along with countless box scores, game recaps, and all-state sections.

Most of the 1950's and 1960's scrapbooks consist entirely of newspaper articles that were taped. Yellowed scotch tape appears all over the floor of my office and living room, with more reappearing as fast as I can pick it up, like picking sand out of every crevice of your body after a day at the beach.

Ultimately, I would like to scan many of the old articles and programs and post them on the website (www.ihssn.net). There are some neat items, especially the old game programs from regular season matchups and playoff games. The bulk of the contents center around the Peoria, Quad Cities, and Galesburg areas.

I have always been a newspaper person. My parents even mentioned a story from when I was seven or eight years old. I asked for a quarter or $0.50 to go to the store. Surely, I was heading down the street to buy a candy bar or a can of Pepsi. Nope, when I returned home, I was holding nothing but a newspaper.

In fact, I recall creating scrapbooks from high school sports articles at that age, and even making up scores of "what-if" games.....so my geekiness just didn't happen overnight! To this day, I would rather spend a couple dollars on the Chicago Tribune or Peoria Journal-Star, than to go online and read the articles.

The fact is, I spend most of the day....and night online. A newspaper holds the content I would like to read, but staring at a screen all day and night makes one's eyes a little bleary. Despite feeding my brain with the same subject matter I would peruse on the Internet, it's still an escape. It's a relaxing feeling, to hold a newspaper and relax in the recliner, or sit outside on the porch or deck. Computers take that away.

Prep sportswriters used to have faces and names. Their readers would indulge every day or every week into their work. Some were brash and abrasive, others were not. That's what I miss the most about prep sports coverage in newspapers today. Most of the content is just a quick game recap, box scores, etc. There's no personality behind the coverage. I'll never forget my first year of working in the media, and I was covering the St. Louis Rams training camp, when a now-retired sports writer stepped a few feet back and smoked a cigarette....on the practice field!!! He was as old-school as they came in 2005, and that type of personality is near extinct in the business.

Newspapers have forged on with the enhanced technology moving so fast, heading to the Internet. Websites give the industry that extra push that readers of the print edition just can't get....timeliness of breaking stories, and the content that just cannot be pushed in a paper (video, blogs, etc.).

As I poured through the old newspaper clippings of the 1960's and 1970's, I longed for the vintage appeal that the coverage from that era brought. Of course, putting myself back in that time, I could only imagine what I would think if I knew then (I wasn't born in that time), what we have now, and I would be astonished.

It only makes me wonder what another 25 years will bring in the sports media field!?!?!