Home phone numbers of college football coaches used to be public.
In a photo tweeted by Terry Frei, the 1971 press guide for the Oregon Ducks listed the home phone numbers of the staff. (RELATED: David Hookstead Is The True King In The North When It Comes To College Football)
Yes, the press guide publicly listed numbers for direct contact with the coaches! You can check out the awesome photo below.
I came across this tonight in the 1971 Oregon Football Duck Dope (press guide). Just like they do now: All the coaches’ home phone numbers in the press guide. Yeah, I answered some of the wacko calls. And check out these names. (Click to see full image.) pic.twitter.com/QybIA36wVR
— Terry Frei (@TFrei) May 4, 2020
Imagine a world where Alabama coach Nick Saban’s phone number was just public for everybody to see. Imagine if Dabo Swinney’s cell number was not just floating around, but published by the school.
You’d have chaos on a level you can’t even imagine right now. People would be calling nonstop. They’d be losing their minds after any loss.
Now, most phone numbers listed by the school are to an operator who wouldn’t care to connect a random person with the head coach.
If you want to get a powerful college football coach on the line, you better have some serious connections to the program.
Anything short of that, and it’s simply not going to happen.
The year 1971 must have been a much simpler time when it came to the fans. Again, Nick Saban’s phone number floating around would be anarchy on a level we’ve never seen before.
Should we bring this idea back? As much as I’d enjoy the chaos, the answer to that is “no.” It’s a firm and hard “no.”
