The recruiting of Grover Glick

Marvin Westwestwords

Recruiting is a very serious business. It is simply the lifeblood of college athletics.

Identifying prospects is the preliminary part. Evaluation is critical. Coaches try to develop X-ray vision to look inside young minds and hearts and determine how they will respond to instruction and challenges and what they will be three years down the road.

After that comes sales talks, why you should come to our place and enjoy more and better everything.

Because it matters so much, recruiting is a big story. An industry supports the subject. So-called experts examine hundreds, maybe thousands, of high school profiles, view endless video, ask many probing questions and go see as many games and practices as humanly possible to find the best of the best.

They award stars – five for ultimate talent, four for possible all-Americans, three for likely college starters. Stars are sacred to participants, parents and wild-eyed fans. Not many coaches admit it, but they buy the lists.

To game the system is sacrilegious – like building an ark with a hole in it.

A small student committee at Grace Christian Academy did just that for pure fun. They manufactured a hulking, 6-6, 315-pound offensive tackle out of hot air and soap bubbles.

Blake Carringer became a conversation piece in the recruiting world. He was suddenly one of the most imposing players in America. College-scholarship offers were said to be pouring in from big-name schools: Alabama, Georgia, Florida.

A newspaper (which shall remain nameless) produced a story. Another newspaper picked it up. Recruiting guides sprinkled on the stars.

College coaches started calling Grace Christian coach Rusty Bradley for catch-up information. Rusty was puzzled. The real Blake Carringer is something more than half that size but not exactly college football material.

Truth was soon found. The phony profile was deleted. The Twitter account was canceled. Recruiting services said sorry about the misinformation. Scouts turned their attention elsewhere.

The fake news reminded me of a celebrated story of this very date 45 years ago. The late Ted Riggs, a dear friend at what was then The News-Sentinel, created it and placed it across the top half of the first sports page with the firm stamp of approval from sports editor Tom Siler.

Tennessee coach Ray Mears had signed an 8-foot-tall basketball player who could actually chew gum and tie his shoes at the same time. There was no photo but the great Bill Dyer provided an illustration. Alas, there was a problem. The young man was so tall, his top half was lost at the top of the page.

The story said Ghrohueover Gilhoehck (pronounced, roughly, “Grover Glick”) was 8-0 1/8 and had played four seasons with the Addis Ababa Sheiks, perennial champions of the Ethiopian Interscholastic League.

Addis Ababa had won 115 consecutive games, including a 122-91 triumph over the Mombasa Tigers in the Ethiopia-Kenya playoffs three weeks previously.

Grover scored 114 points in that one. His coach, Arlis W. Davison, said no rebounding statistics were kept “but I would estimate, conservatively, that the boy had upwards of 75 rebounds.”

The story said Glick was a native of Ethiopia but was reared in the home of a British nobleman, Lord Seward Alberteen, an archaeologist who learned of the UT athletic-academic program through Martin Marrison, one of Mears’ closest friends when he coached at Wittenberg.

Rival coaches began absorbing criticism from athletics directors, university presidents and booster-club chairs. Where were you in this recruiting race? Do you have Mears-style contacts?

Press Maravich called to see if Riggs knew of any other Ethiopians 7-6 and above.

Riggs knew of no others, but his comprehensive reporting found that Grover Glick had been offered scholarships by Oral Roberts University, Brigham Young, Xavier of Louisiana and Baylor, all contacting him through missionaries.

The story was loaded with details. Ethiopians were said to be very excited about Glick’s signing. The news media recognized the event, and EBC (Ethiopia Broadcasting Company) was going to send its ace commentator, Jan Word, to UT to tape a play-by-play description of Grover’s debut. Harvin East, five-star sports writer for the Addis Ababa Sand-Times, was coming.

Riggs’ closing line: “So there you have it, Big Orange fans … an eight-footer for the Vols. Mark down the date of this historic signing – April Fools’ Day, 1974.

Marvin West invites reader comments or questions. His address is marvinwest75@gmail.com

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