Brian Smith has been honored again for his ETSU football series, not only statewide, but he's also receiving national recognition. Amazing what a little investigative reporting can do...

http://www.tricities.com/tri/sports/othe...red/11595/

“His work showed that ETSU’s athletic program has largely fallen into irrelevance and that ETSU squandered numerous opportunities, including the real possibility of becoming the summer home of the NFL’s Tennessee Titans,” Foster said.


But thats not what Dave Mullins says! The president and the AD need to get their heads out of their collective asses, and get something done.

Kudos to Brian!

Congratulations to Brian for outstanding work on that. I'm just suprised that none of the diatribes posted right here at the buccaneer nation message board weren't entered into the competition!
Seriously though, the more things like this keep coming up, the worse it makes Lap Dog Hodge, the Leprechaun, Fat Ron Bliss, and the rest of the never was old fart network known as sports media in the tri-cities.

The issue that just won't go away.

“Outstanding piece of restrained, focused writing on the anguish and backlash of [ETSU’s] empty void of not having a football program,” the judges concluded. “Filled with perspective, history, and every one of the quotes from the 25 people in this series of stories made the reader sense the frustration.”

And that still doesn't change the fact that he unprofessionally attacked me at Viking Hall.

You know, when I won my awards for the same thing five years ago that tipped off the interest in this subject, all I got from Lover was "You were the only one who entered," and all I got from thedoctor was "you're a liar!"

Claimw that weren't even true. Just a put down to me to serve the masters at ETSU.

Perhaps if credit was given where it was due, and proper respect was given to the guy who originally researched the topic, and went here because all the guys mentioned above were, well, who they were and the story needed to get out, an entirely different attitude takes place.

I'm not the one suffering. I just auditioned for a sports talk gig in a larger market.

The fact is- YOU ARE.

You were the only one that entered. Smith beat entries from papers in much larger markets.

Lover- that isn't true.

Hey Gold, isn't it funny that theposterformerly . . . isn't now trying to police the board by being mad about truth, or whatever his statement was?

According to the judges it is. But go ahead, enlighten us, who did you beat out? The Bucksnort Beat?

Actually, yes.

I'm convinced the Bucksnort Beat is all there is in this sorry state.

Answer the question. Tell me the name of the articles, the authors, and what papers they came from. Put that on here.

One does not know the competitors he beats in such a competition.

I can tell you that the arguement you are making is that no other newspapers in Tennessee entered. I do not believe that is true.

If that is the case, then it stands to reason this wasn't such a great award that Smith won.

I will also say this. Smith had the benefit of being in his locale, with a supporting staff, with a budget, and an assignment.

I had my own instincts, no reimbursement for my expenses, and was making calls from Pittsburgh.

I didn't have my a connection with Channel 11 to put me on TV and get me publicity.

Nor did I act like an unprofessional oaf by storming into press rooms I didn't belong in to pick fights with other members of the media that had previously tried to befriend me.

I'm sure you can look it up. Tell the board who you beat in the competition. You know who was nominated.

They don't tell you those things, and it's about five years old.

I tell you what- why don't you tell us how you know the information that I was the only one in the entire state that entered. The burden of proof is upon you since you made the accusation.

And then tell us who Smith beat this year, for the same award.

And to achieve my award from a bi-weekly on the same topic is less impressive than earning it from a daily newspaper.

Truth be told, I actually suggested to Smith he enter this thing in the competition.

So once again- I WIN- YOU LOSE!

They published who Brian Smith was up against. He beat two Knoxville News Sentinel entries and one from the Memphis paper, so yea, they do tell. You're the one who brags about your Cosmo Kramer karate trophy, so tell us who you were up against.

Dude, you're the one making the arguement. So tell me how you know.

Tell me how the same award is legit for Smith but not legit for me- especially when I win it first on the same subject.

This should be good.

WHO CARES? I won the award for best music video in Tom Headley's class. Do you see me or anyone else talking about it? I say lets move on.

I agree.

But evidently, Alumni00 and Lover want to somehow turn this into a "Me vs. Smith" thing.

So I gots to defend myself, since you won't delete the libel.

But speaking of Smith . . . .

He did come up with some articles on the delay of the building of the soccer stadium, showing ETSU incompetence.

So, what comes up in the paper last week but a front page article by the Johnson City Press- SOFTBALL STADIUM AHEAD OF SCHEDULE!

All week long there were front page articles on ETSU sports- soccer camps, softball stadiums, everything but "Hey, when are you going to quit messing with this nickel and dime stuff and give the community what they really want and need, such as new arenas, a new football stadium for both ETSU and Science Hill, a commitment to go to a better conference, etc."

Regardless, read this article from Rex Barber. It's almost comical-

http://johnsoncitypress.com/Detail.php?C...S&ID=63974

First of all, when discussing the success of the team, do they speak of-

A- National championships won?

B- Conference championships won?

C- THE WON-LOSS RECORD?

No, they tell us how great the team GPA is.

And that's great. Something to be commended and praised.

But "Magnum says the quality of the stadium reflects the quality of the team," and that's backed up with the GPA?

That's a hard stretch for Magnum to ask us to make. If winning isn't important, then perhaps varsity sports should be scrapped and we could just play intramurals at ETSU.

But read on and it's the REALLY fun part-

Give Barber credit. He knows that at least the soccer stadium took a year and a half.


"Construction on that project was not finished on schedule, but Mullins said lessons were learned during the project that taught them how to successfully finish a building project.

Mullins said the only real athletic facility built on campus, with the exception of the Warren-Greene Golf Center in 2004, was Memorial Center in the 1970s.

'So for a number of reasons that project got delayed some,' he said. 'So when you’ve not built something in 30 years, a couple of months isn’t that big of a deal.'

Barber really needs to go after Mullins more here. "A number of reasons" is not telling us anything. What are those reasons? Your competitors had it, and you don't.

It makes Barber either look uninformed or like a lap dog.

Although, if you are an ETSU fan, it speaks volumes. It is an admission from Mullins he is an incompetent and was not qualified to hold the position he was appointed to because he did not know how to build new facilities.

ETSU needs someone with experience in building new facilities to be their athletic director, not someone with experience in demanding that a tennis team be given equal weight to football, hoops, baseball, etc.

The only excuse here is that Barber isn't a sportswriter, hence he may have an excuse for not knowing the latest sports page scoop at the BHC.

Which also leads us to wonder why a sportswriter wasn't given this assignment. It is a sports story.

It also makes us wonder what the use of the video was- and wouldn't Avento- who is now a sports talk show host- be better suited to broadcast a story like this?

The video merely repeated what the article said- no extra information- and showed us uncompleted stands rather than the beautiful view of the mountains and the rustic view of the red barn that the new softball stadium will provide when a fan would watch the game.

Final point is that the article says the soccer stadium is finally complete.

It has no light standards, however.

What an overblown waste that place is! It deserves to be criticized more than Memorial Center, which evidently is where the Bucs will have to play soccer anyway if they want to schedule any night games.