Send Us Your Compliments

5-1-89

If you've gotten this far without chucking this rag in the trash you are either a dedicated reader or leading a very dull life.

But we are glad you're here because we have a request: feedback.

We want you to spend a quarter to tell us how our Sports Information Department can serve you better. Or, if it makes you feel better, just blast us for the ways we have screwed up over the past year.

Send your letters, notes, postcards, or napkin scribblings to: Sports Information Office, Concordia College, Moorhead, Minnesota, 56560 We promise we'll treasure every word and we'll show the good stuff to our boss.

Here is how we think of our job. It might help you understand why we do what we do. We would appreciate advice on whether this thinking is severely faulty.

Our weekly releases are designed to serve several different audiences.

1. The local media who cover Concordia sports on an in- depth basis like the Fargo Forum, the three local TV stations, local radio stations and a few other near-by outlets. (They call us for stats and they call the coaches when they do their stories. All of our old records are a mess so if they want something about the old days at Concordia (before 1985) they call Sonny Gulsvig.) 2. The hometown media of Concordia's athletes. We presume that they want to put in at least a little blurb now and then about their local athletes who are competing at Concordia. This represents about 200 media outlets from season to season. ( We don't know how much of this they do because we can't afford to subscribe to all those weekly papers. And our athletes are too shy to tell us when something about them got in the Alexandria Echo. But our athletes' mothers save all that stuff and they are watching what you write.)

3. The Concordia Community. Faculty, students, administration and some alumni like to keep up on what's going on in greater depth than they can get in the newspaper. (Athletes also like to see their name in print anywhere they can find it. Some are even willing to pay for being mentioned. Dropping their name in here and there is a modest source of quiet income for our office. We mention an athlete only if he or she is particularly newsworthy or if we are in serious need of funds. We can assure you that these "gifts" do not influence our journalistic judgement.)

4. The historical record. It always seems a bit pompous when you tell people you are recording something for posterity. What is going on in Concordia athletics today doesn't seem like a big deal in terms of history. But we'll look like geniuses to later generations who want to look something up from the dark ages known as the 1980's. Besides, these things also serve to humble future alumni who are going to lie to their kids about what dominating athletes they were at Concordia.

5. Schools we compete against get this publication. The rosters help them prepare their programs and the stats give them a quick and cheap scouting report. Our coaches think this is outrageous but I assure them that opposing coaches would not stoop to looking at our stats if they have not provided us with comparable data.

If you have been getting our releases and find they are merely cluttering up your desk please let us know. If we can include something that will make your job of covering Cobber sports easier please write us a note.

If you think we are geniuses and deserve more pay please send a signed affidavit.

Thanks. And have a good summer.

These pages are maintained by Jerry Pyle pyle@cord.edu. These articles are copyrighted © and may not be published or reproduced without the express permission of Jerry Pyle.

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