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No, Boilermaker fans,
there is no Jason Parker Smith or Jason Paul Smith. There are no
Jason Smiths at all, at least as it pertains to Purdue’s basketball
recruiting efforts.
On Tuesday afternoon, a few particularly
gullible Purdue fans bought into a circulating phony story about a
basketball recruit named Jason Smith. As the story went, Coach Gene
Keady intended to sign 6-foot-6 blue-chip Yorktown (Ind.) High
School star Jason Paul Smith, only to receive a signed
letter-of-intent back from 5-6 geek Jason Parker Smith following a
wacky mix-up.
The origin of the story is the newly created
satirical Internet "newspaper" HoosierGazette.com, a spoof media
outlet created five weeks ago in the mold of such national parody
sites as The Onion (theonion.com) or
SportsPickle.com.
Ordinarily, few people would have seen the
story on the 5-week-old site, which clearly tabs itself as
"Indiana’s first source for inaccurate news and commentary since
2003." But the story briefly went national when popular radio sports
talk show host Jim Rome reported it on his show this
afternoon.
Initially, it sounds as if Rome — known in his
early days for an on-air scuffle with former Purdue quarterback Jim
Everett, whom he repeatedly referred to as "Chrissy" — bought into
the story.
"My firm belief when I heard it is that he was
reporting it as true initially. I listen to Rome quite a bit at
lunchtime, and it was sounding like he was reporting it as true,"
Purdue fan Lowell Bittinger said. "I think he did fall for it
initially. He didn’t spend a huge amount of time bashing Purdue
directly, just enough to make his point, as only Rome can
do."
Later in the show, Rome is said to have backed off the
story, acknowledging it was a spoof, saying that Purdue knew nothing
of this kid and how things can be reported locally then go national
quickly.
When asked about the report by Purdue officials,
Rome’s producers suggested he knew all along the story was a farce.
When told about the situation, Coach Gene Keady laughed it
off.
While the story caused quite a stir among Purdue fans,
it made for a wild day for 29-year-old social studies teacher Josh
Whicker, who authored the story under the pen name "Ross Leslie."
Whicker is the primary writer for the site, though he uses numerous
different aliases to give the illusion of a full staff.
The
story originally appeared on HoosierGazette.com, but was submitted
to Fark.com — a clearinghouse for such humor sites — where it was
posted and drew more attention.
Whicker wrote an apologetic
e-mail to Purdue Tuesday afternoon, regretting the stir his article
might have caused. He only chose to "pick on" Purdue in this case in
the spirit of equal time. His site had just published a fictitious,
and rather scathing, question-and-answer session with Indiana
football coach Gerry DiNardo.
"The only reason I singled out
Purdue for this story was we already had one about IU on our sports
page, so I decided to use Purdue to spread it around the state,"
said Whicker, who ironically signed on to play football at Indiana
out of high school. "I got the idea about the wrong guy signing a
scholarship from my own experience in high school.
"When I
was (in school), we had a day when everyone who was receiving
scholarships — academic or athletic — was called up at an assembly
and honored. One guy who barely met NCAA requirements got a full
athletic scholarship, while several other people who had almost
straight As got $500 or $1,000.
"It is funny thinking back on
it, because I was one of the athletic guys who got the big check for
football," Whicker added.
As for Keady, he’ll continue to
seek a point guard in the spring and summer.
You can bet,
though, that his name won’t be Jason Smith.
Copyright, Boilers, Inc. 2003. All Rights Reserved.
Reproduction or use in whole or in part, without permission, of
editorial or graphical content in any manner is strictly
prohibited.
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