This is the second of nine chapters in the history of the Dawgvent, with all its twists and turns. From a handful of football-loving computer geeks to an influential media colossus, this is the story of the worldwide leader in Georgia Bulldog reporting. Adapted from the book Sax Attacks, by Rob Suggs.
Episode Two: Heard It Through the Grapevine
Advertisem*nt
Charly Pou, who worked with the University of Georgia, was another early adopter of the computer craze. He recalls an Ohio State fan known to aficionados as Buckeye Dennis—a very nice guy, as Charly remembers him, regardless of his off-putting OSU lifestyle choice.
Dennis seems to have been one of the first in the new Internet world to cover college football recruiting, with an online site called the National Recruiting Center. It amounted to posting various recruiting rumors that he came across here and there. Buckeye Dennis had success, and inevitably, a few imitators.
That’s about the time “The Unofficial University of Georgia Recruiting Page” appeared—a labor of love from an Emory Masters and Ph.D. candidate (UGA ‘91) named Vin Moscardelli. (Many of these names, the “founding fathers” of the Vent, aren’t well known today—at least in this venue. Sadly, there are no statues in cyberspace.)
Vin was a pioneer in Dawg recruiting news online. He’s now a political science prof and Director of the Office of National Scholarships at the University of Connecticut (and still a true Dawg fan).
Vin's Vine
Vin’s page, the first draft of what became the Grapevine, was hosted on Emory University servers. And much of his early work was simply rounding up what the Atlanta sports page or various radio stations were saying, for whomever out there was listening.
But as with so many of the early recruiting sites, fresh sources began to materialize. One of these was Charly Pou, who, being in Athens, could at least offer what the Banner-Herald had to say, and what the word around Athens might be. He also called 1-900 recruiting numbers and chatted up Steve Figueroa, one-time AJC sports reporter who had good recruiting channels.
From the beginning, there were also boosters and “insiders” who were connected to the coaches.
There was also the traditional investigative technique known as “taking Rodney to lunch.” Coach Rodney Garner was The Man in Georgia recruiting, and—particularly in the early days—he didn’t really mind spilling a few beans, as long as those beans were served with an expansive lunch.
Vin ran the Georgia recruiting page for two or three years, including his own crash of the Emory server system one Signing Day—a recurring theme and hallowed tradition for Georgia recruiting. When it was time for him to move on, he handed the keys to the site to his friend Charly in Athens. This was around 1999, to the best of their memories.
It was Charly Pou who branded the site with the name we all remember, The Grapevine. He borrowed the title from the Marvin Gaye and Credence Clearwater Revival song.
Today, people tend to remember the Vent “in the days when it was the Grapevine,” conflating the two sites. But they were actually different entities that shared a passion and a lot of the same users. It could be frustrating for the operators. Quite often, when the Vent would crash or be down for maintenance, Charly would receive anxious e-mails: “What did you do with the Vent?” “When’s it coming back?” He’d explain he had nothing to do with any of that, but folks didn’t really believe him. These Internet people were all in league, right?
Users were also certain he knew where Jasper Sanks, or some other big-time recruit, was going next February. They wanted the real info. Maybe he even had some say in the matter. He’d once again explain, “I don’t know. I promise.” A likely story. He was the Grapevine, dammit!
By 2000, the recruiting industry was taking on clearer contours, and the new, specialized site runners—people like Jamie Newberg, Steve Patterson, and Scott Kennedy—were developing their own reporting. But already the “hobbyist” days of the Internet were vanishing, and the dictum that “you can’t sell stuff online, because information wants to be free” was fading. To various extents, tension lines were already forming around recruiting information and the audience it pulled.
Redclay and the Boys
Charly published the ’Vine for five years before burning out, as happens to everyone involved in the business of recruiting high school kids (reporters, coaches, families, and the kids themselves; it’s a level of frantic intensity that’s unsustainable).
At this point another Charlie entered the scene—the late Charlie Norris, known to Venters as redclayhound. A Sandersville true-red Dawg fan, Norris was a hardcore recruiting junkie from way back, the kind who still had his ancient, yellow press clippings and still pined after that kid Auburn pulled out of Warner Robins in ’67. He was loved by all who knew him up to his passing in recent months.
By now, a circle of devotees was forming, one that became the nucleus of the early Vent super-secret, lethal team of moderators. That cabal included names such as redclayhound, Groo, GaDawg, Steve Patterson, and Dawg C, who has also passed on.
Groo was a tech wizard who set up redclay’s Grapevine in a new blog format. The idea was an easy, no-frills page whose author could post on the fly. The URL was now georgiagrapevine.com.
Redclay did a terrific job with the page, his passion shining through with his fans, until he received word one day that the field of Georgia recruiting was getting a little crowded. More on that later.
The Grapevine was discontinued, having served the Georgia fans well for more than ten years. Where would recruiting junkies get their fix now?
Next: What’s a PlutoCenturion?
Episode One
