CLASSIC: Purdue signs wrong Jason Smith to basketball letter of intent

[Louis Cypher]

2003 Hoosier Gazette
Last modified: 12/13/03

By Ross Leslie

At least Purdue won’t have to worry about keeping new basketball signee Jason Smith eligible. Whether he can run the offense or not is another story.

On the first day of the early signing period for high school basketball players, Purdue used their one available scholarship to sign Yorktown High’s 5-foot-6, 128 pound Jason Smith, an honor student who has never played competitive basketball in his entire life.

Purdue had intended to sign Yorktown’s OTHER Jason Smith, a 6’6” 215 lb. point guard who averaged 26 points and 11 assists per game last season. This Jason was named to Blue Chip Magazine’s Top 50 players in the nation.

It seems the mix up occurred in the counselor’s office Wednesday morning when the latter Jason’s scholarship papers arrived via FedEx. Counselor Edith Woodrow mistakenly thought the documents were applications that needed to be signed and returned by the non-athletic Jason to apply for Purdue’s Sallie Mae Fund Scholarship Program, which assists low-income students with tuition and fees.

Adding to the confusion is that both Jasons share the same middle initial, “P”. Nerdy Jason’s middle name is “Parker”, while athletic Jason’s is “Paul”.

The Boilermakers have a serious problem on their hands. They cannot force Jason Parker Smith to give up the scholarship without facing a great deal of bad publicity for cutting a player who has not violated team rules, and the young man does not plan on giving it up voluntarily.

“I don’t feel bad at all about keeping the scholarship. I have studied hard my whole life (earning a 3.8 GPA at Yorktown). I am captain of the academic team, student council secretary, member of the chess club, and play the flute in the marching band and all I was looking at was getting a lousy couple thousand dollars of my school paid for with academic scholarships. The other Jason gets a 2.5 GPA and the NCAA minimum score on his SAT and he gets a full ride because he can run fast and put a stupid orange ball in a hoop. It looks like Coach Keady is going to be stuck with me for four years.”

Gene Keady was not available for comment. Assistant coach Cuonzo Martin was reached, and said, “Technically, we can’t get rid of the kid, but to stay on the team he is going to have to do everything all the other players do; practice, lift weights, run, watch tape. He also has to keep his nose clean and stay out of trouble.”

“That shouldn’t be a problem,” says Jason Parker’s mother, Debbie, “J.P. has always been a good boy. He never has a bad thing to say about anyone and always works hard at everything he does. His scout leader said he is one of the finest young men he has ever known.”

Don’t feel too sorry for the other Jason. After news broke that Purdue would not be signing Jason Paul Smith, several colleges offered him basketball scholarships. “I don’t really care where I go. All roads lead to the NBA.” He will be attending UNLV next fall.

[Louis Cypher]

purdue.rivals.com

December 16, 2003

Purdue-Related Hoax Goes National

Brian Neubert


No, Boilermaker fans, there is no Jason Parker Smith or Jason Paul Smith. There are no Jason Smiths at all, at least as it pertains to Purdue’s basketball recruiting efforts.

On Tuesday afternoon, a few particularly gullible Purdue fans bought into a circulating phony story about a basketball recruit named Jason Smith. As the story went, Coach Gene Keady intended to sign 6-foot-6 blue-chip Yorktown (Ind.) High School star Jason Paul Smith, only to receive a signed letter-of-intent back from 5-6 geek Jason Parker Smith following a wacky mix-up.

The origin of the story is the newly created satirical Internet "newspaper" HoosierGazette.com, a spoof media outlet created five weeks ago in the mold of such national parody sites as The Onion (theonion.com) or SportsPickle.com.

Ordinarily, few people would have seen the story on the 5-week-old site, which clearly tabs itself as "Indiana’s first source for inaccurate news and commentary since 2003." But the story briefly went national when popular radio sports talk show host Jim Rome reported it on his show this afternoon.

Initially, it sounds as if Rome — known in his early days for an on-air scuffle with former Purdue quarterback Jim Everett, whom he repeatedly referred to as "Chrissy" — bought into the story.

"My firm belief when I heard it is that he was reporting it as true initially. I listen to Rome quite a bit at lunchtime, and it was sounding like he was reporting it as true," Purdue fan Lowell Bittinger said. "I think he did fall for it initially. He didn’t spend a huge amount of time bashing Purdue directly, just enough to make his point, as only Rome can do."

Later in the show, Rome is said to have backed off the story, acknowledging it was a spoof, saying that Purdue knew nothing of this kid and how things can be reported locally then go national quickly.

When asked about the report by Purdue officials, Rome’s producers suggested he knew all along the story was a farce. When told about the situation, Coach Gene Keady laughed it off.

While the story caused quite a stir among Purdue fans, it made for a wild day for 29-year-old social studies teacher Josh Whicker, who authored the story under the pen name "Ross Leslie." Whicker is the primary writer for the site, though he uses numerous different aliases to give the illusion of a full staff.

The story originally appeared on HoosierGazette.com, but was submitted to Fark.com — a clearinghouse for such humor sites — where it was posted and drew more attention.

Whicker wrote an apologetic e-mail to Purdue Tuesday afternoon, regretting the stir his article might have caused. He only chose to "pick on" Purdue in this case in the spirit of equal time. His site had just published a fictitious, and rather scathing, question-and-answer session with Indiana football coach Gerry DiNardo.

"The only reason I singled out Purdue for this story was we already had one about IU on our sports page, so I decided to use Purdue to spread it around the state," said Whicker, who ironically signed on to play football at Indiana out of high school. "I got the idea about the wrong guy signing a scholarship from my own experience in high school.

"When I was (in school), we had a day when everyone who was receiving scholarships — academic or athletic — was called up at an assembly and honored. One guy who barely met NCAA requirements got a full athletic scholarship, while several other people who had almost straight As got $500 or $1,000.

"It is funny thinking back on it, because I was one of the athletic guys who got the big check for football," Whicker added.

As for Keady, he’ll continue to seek a point guard in the spring and summer.

You can bet, though, that his name won’t be Jason Smith.

[Minnow]

Oh man.. That story was just too good to be true, damn it! [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

[Frank]

I heard it on Rome on Tuesday.

That would be hilarious to see that kid on the end of the bench.

Too bad its not true, fans would chant his name late in games to see him come in.

He would be an instant fan favorite after they got over losing a scholarship player

[jjgold]

good story

[Louis Cypher]

Thanks JJ.

This story had Syd Finch written all over it.

LC

[cecil]

I once got a letter from the University of Washington signed by Coach Bob Bender. It had a bunch of orientation information saying he looked forward to seeing me next season blah blah blah.

I knew it was not meant for me, as I was 4 years out of high school. It was meant for somebody with my same name. Fedex refused to take it back.

Then Bender got axed. I hope he didn't miss out on a big recruit. Oh well... [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]