BWI - when did you start as a subscriber?
- Thread starter blion72
- Start date
you are just a pup! I started when Tom Mc. was working with a guy from Pottstown named Tom Weber.who were doing recruiting reports for the newspaper in State College.They got big enough to start Catch Lion Fever. I been a member since vol.1 no. 1 edition.They did alot of behind the door recruiting for Joe and PSU.One guy that I remember was a quartback named Tom Shuman .He came in and forced a 5 start guy to transfer to Temple. Kid never got his due. check out his record, played with Cappy.I think he lost one game in the years he played. A couple MAJOR bowl mvp awards.
I subscribed to catch Lion fever. Post graduation in 1978 I was traveling to PSU to see a former girlfriend and was getting gas. I saw Catch Lion Fever while paying for gas, purchased it, and that sure changed my life for the better! At that time we only got a relatively few magazines by mail a year but then it became part of a newspaper for a while. For a period of time there was a number posted to call for recruiting information-but it was almost always busy unless you called in the middle of the night-heck my prior wife thought I was having an affair getting up in the night to call it! Then it became a 900 number which I had to limit calls to because it could be costly. Having the internet has been obviously a boon to obtaining recruiting news! Price is MUCH cheaper than a 900 number and there is so MUCH more news-each year this site gets better. Addition of TFrank and Greg Pickel (with continuation of Ryan) have been huge positive additions.
I did not get the first issue of Blue White Illustrated but I remember reading rave reviews for an undersized linebacker from NY named Shane Conlan who could run and be very aggressive-great things were predicted for him and did that prediction work out well!
I did not get the first issue of Blue White Illustrated but I remember reading rave reviews for an undersized linebacker from NY named Shane Conlan who could run and be very aggressive-great things were predicted for him and did that prediction work out well!
'80's as an undergrad. Purchased Catch Lions Fever a few times downtown from McClanahan's maybe? Then started purchasing BWI and was a long time subscriber. Was part of the plotit message board (ChaddsFord Lion), shortened to CF Lion. I'm still here.
I'm in the 80-89 range. My guess is about 1885-86 when I moved to Lewisville, TX.
good for you picking up technology so late in life.... jk
LOL, my summer job in Philly was mounting and unmounting "maggie" tapes (magnetic tapes).
Our computer room was a huge, ice cold room with some pretty big machines.
And all that power in that room probably doesn't come to half of what my phone can now do.
And this is what started me on my computer graphics journey.
Yes! I was doing very complex packaging layout and design for our company on a Mac Plus and saving to a 1.44 mb floppy disc.LOL, my summer job in Philly was mounting and unmounting "maggie" tapes (magnetic tapes).
Our computer room was a huge, ice cold room with some pretty big machines.
View attachment 204015
And all that power in that room probably doesn't come to half of what my phone can now do.
And this is what started me on my computer graphics journey.
View attachment 204016
and 9600 baud modems. Blazing.Yes! I was doing very complex packaging layout and design for our company on a Mac Plus and saving to a 1.44 mb floppy disc.
and apologies to the op for getting off topic.
I was on for a few years when I won the weekly prediction contest in 2004 (I think that's the year) and won a free year on Lion's Den. It was easy, because I knew that the was the dark year of Penn State football, so I bet against Penn State every week and swept the Pick 'Em that year.
and that gawd awful beeping sounds for logging onto the internet to see plotit. I just told my manager that I was doing research. I'm sorry OP . . .and 9600 baud modems. Blazing.
and apologies to the op for getting off topic.
@Tom McAndrew, is this real history? I never saw your earliest involvement written like this in the 25 years of hanging around these parts…
No, it's inaccurate history. @taryn appears to have confused me, or made a mistake, when he keyed in that I was working with Tom Weber. That was @BWI Phil Grosz, not me, that worked with Tom Weber.
I was the sole owner of Catch Lions Fever, which I began in the spring of 1979, that became Blue White Illustrated in 1983 until I sold the publication on July 5, 2021. I owned Blue White Illustrated for over 40 years. The only association I had with Tom Weber was with the G&W Recruiting Report, which I began on my own in 1980.
The G&W Recruiting Report was purchased or was purchased by an individual for 71 different Division 1, Division 2 and Division 3 college football programs and just over 2,500 individual subscribers during the 1980s, 1990s and until 2009 when I disbanded the G&W Recruiting Report with the inception of the Internet Recruiting Services.
My G&W Recruiting Report had a listing of over 3,000 prospects from all 50 states on a yearly basis. For the most part I assembled all of those 3,000 high school football prospects names on a yearly basis, Tom Weber took care of the G&W Recruiting Reports' subscribers and mailed the reports to the more than 2,500 individual subscribers that decided to subscribe to the G&W Recruiting Report. Those subscriptions purchased by individual subscribers cost $50 and the subscriptions purchased by colleges, that included a more detailed background report on those 3,000-plus prospects on a yearly basis, cost $135.
I gave the G&W Recruiting Report to Penn State for free from 1980 until 2009 and none of those 3,000 prospects names each and every year were ever given to me by Joe Paterno or any of his assistant coaches. That is contrary to what you might have seen posted on the BWI Rivals board at times over the past three or more decades.
Just setting the record straight.
Last edited:
sorry for the mix-up. you are correct.. but the quarterback info IS smack on. this happens at times with those born BEFORE PEARL HARBOR
Phil- I hope you and your wife are benefiting healthwise from your semi-retirement and that someday you publish the book on the history of your study of college football recruiting. I always wondered how the heck you got so much information on these 3000 high school athletes per year-must have been incredibly hard work in the pre-internet era! Also, I wondered how you compared a kid from a small town to western NY to a kid from a recruiting hot bed! Plus we hear stories of cash payments which were illegal then-curious what was and was not true. No one knows the 1979 to 2021 period of recruiting like you do! Many of us have sure enjoyed your work over the years-it helped distract us from hard jobs, family pressures etc and would love to hear from you in the "promised book" if your health allows it. But of course do first what is best for your and your wife's health!
Without googling, I believe the qb transfer you are referring to was Steve Joachim.
Get unlimited access today.