Teleconference hijinks

I've heard 'touchin' cotton' but never the above. I have also heard it described as 'prairie doggin''.

 

I don't know if anyone ever saw the Stuttering John-Tommy Lasorda showdown where John asked Lasorda if SlimFast made him return all the money when he got fat again...

I think I was in college at the time, so it was awhile ago... Holy christ was Lasorda's reaction priceless...

 

Ron Zook is intrigued by your idea.

 

Spurrier almost always got the last laugh, but UT fans got him good on several occasions, like when someone spray-painted his telephone number on the rock and he got dozens of calls.

 

Thanks, Moddy. That was my guess, that it was "Clem" Foster.

 

Ditto. Though I guess you could ask real technical or off the wall questions to try to trip them up and it might be funny in a junior-high prank call kinda way.

This is just so crude and gross and dumb.

 

http://www.kentucky.com/279/story/294753.html

Prank callers join SEC coaches' teleconference | POSING AS REPORTERS, THEY ASK VULGAR QUESTIONS
By Jennifer Smith
JSMITH3@HERALD-LEADER.COM
Several women's basketball coaches were asked lewd questions by prank callers who infiltrated a media teleconference Tuesday afternoon.

A Southeastern Conference official said the league is working to find out who made the calls and is searching for ways to keep this from happening in the future.

The conference has a similar weekly call for men's basketball coaches scheduled for Thursday, which might be postponed until the issue is resolved, said Tammy Wilson, an associate director for media relations at the SEC.

"It's unfortunate that these prank callers got on today, asked the questions that they did and that it may actually impact the future of our teleconferences," she said of the calls, which are intended for members of the news media only and accessible through a number handed out by the SEC.

The prank callers, who were claiming to be legitimate reporters, managed to get on and ask at least six questions to more than half of the league's 12 coaches. The questions were graphic in nature and included inquiries about coaches having sexual relations with players and players' performances based on their menstrual cycles.

"It was a little surreal," said Wilson, who was moderating the call between the news media and the head coaches.

"The very first question that was asked, honestly, I thought this was some crazy media person who was trying to ask a question and didn't know quite how to ask it," she said.

Tom Collen, the Arkansas coach who was asked the first faux question, also seemed to think something similar because he responded to it as if it were a legitimate question.

Wilson said the SEC is working with Deltacom, a telecommunications company that produces the conference calls, to see whether it can trace the numbers and track down the callers.

League officials say they think they have traced the calls to six or seven numbers, with each calling in several times. Sometimes the callers made up names and news outlets; other times, they pretended to be actual media members from around the SEC.

"Half of them I got to and didn't put them through, the other half, they actually got through," Wilson explained.

Collen, Renee Ladner of Mississippi and former Kentucky and current Mississippi State coach Sharon Fanning all were asked bogus questions.

Wilson halted all outside questions by the time the teleconference got to Tennessee Coach Pat Summitt and Vanderbilt Coach Melanie Balcomb, who are last to call in.

Kentucky Coach Matthew Mitchell was on the conference call, but the bogus caller who was set to ask him a question did not ask his question quickly enough. Wilson moved on to the next caller. Mitchell was one of several coaches who were asked and did answer legitimate queries from legitimate media members.

Coaches at each SEC school were sent an e-mail message from the commissioner shortly after the conference call ended to explain what had happened.

One prank caller implied he was Brett Dawson of The Courier-Journal in Louisville. Courier-Journal sports editor Harry Bryan said he has been in contact with UK and the SEC and has assured them that Dawson was not on the conference call.

Another reporter, Chris Kieffer from the Oxford Eagle in Mississippi, actually was on the conference call and had asked legitimate questions before a prank caller posed a question in his name, Wilson said.

The SEC has little legal recourse to prosecute the callers, but the impersonated reporters might, Wilson said.

This has happened only one time that Wilson could recall. Then-Florida football coach Steve Spurrier was heckled by a morning radio show that called into the coaches' teleconference.

But even then, it was a legitimate media outlet that had access to the call-in number, which is for members of the news media only.

For the men's basketball call Thursday, there has been talk in the SEC office about either changing the number or altering the information moderators have access to so that he or she can weed out people who are not legitimate.

"We're still in talks about what can be done," Wilson said. "We obviously don't want this to affect the future of our teleconferences because we believe it's a very good tool for us and our schools."

 

Is this really worth a 15-inch story?

 

Why don't you just have reporters sign up for the weekly teleconference? Send the SEC media office an e-mail, get the number sent to you. Problem solved.

 

Because the SEC is stoopid. Ask spirited.

 

I feel sorry for Kieffer. Not because some one impersonated him, but that he was on the call in the first place.. poor guy...