When Did Track and Field News started going downhill ?

they banned me and will die a slow ,painful death.

During the 80's and early 90's I would devour my T&FN the as soon as it arrrived in the mail. Back then it was the only indepth coverage of the sport. Oh you could by RW and read about how much granola you should eat, or how to run a 4 hr marathon, but T&FN gave you coverage of the sport.

Now with the internet when I pick up T&FN it's dated material. Their tried and true formula of just posting pages of black & white results with a few interviews here and there doesn't work with me any more. Maybe they just need to concentrate on interviews and not wory so much about pages of results. We can get that now 2 sec after the conclusion of the meet.

Recently they have shifted their magazine to be more forward looking, and less results based. The articles on the meets typically highlight the best few performances and the results are a little sparser. They have been having more looks forward at the stories for the upcoming season. They are also getting a few more interviews.

They are also getting either lazier or drunker. The mistakes in their magazine and on their website are mind-boggling. They had a cover with Asafa Powell's picture, but they used Donovan Powell's name. Asafa's only the world record holder, and somehow that was missed by a number of staffers. Another article alternated between Deena Kastor and Deena Drossin. Their website is also somewhat lazy. Some of their top-10 lists haven't been updated since 2003. Yet somehow someone else can keep an all-time top 1000 or so world list updated within hours of events occurring.

I could go on.

mcgato wrote:

They are also getting either lazier or drunker. The mistakes in their magazine and on their website are mind-boggling. T

What do you expect? In the past Garry Hill didn't have PlayStation or the internet to fill his time. What with all the time Hill spends lurking at Letsrun don't you feel it's unfair to expect him to get any work done?

Agree that the internet has changed the excitement of seeing those results. I do remember enjoying their articles and interviews. Thee thing about the top 10 lists is so true! Sometimes I have specifically gone to their website to check these lists, and I always think "how long could it really take to update these?"

Video killed the radio star.

Video killed the radio star.

In my mind and in my car, we can't rewind we've gone to far

Oh-a-aho oh,

Oh-a-aho oh

"When did Track and Field News start going downhill?"

When the internet started going uphill.

The Bible of the Sport is Track and Field News.

Tom B wrote:

The Bible of the Sport is Track and Field News.

That title is self-proclaimed! T&F New is what was, not what is. All print media is suffering the same fate - it can't keep up with the internet, where everyone is capable of reporting the news. The true upside is that we no longer have to suffer through GH's bloated prose - he truly loves his own stuff!

I think I'll go back to 1966 and relive that sizzlin' 19.5 200 straight by Tommie "The Jet" Smith. I'll need the pages of T&FN. Who is is familiar with this Norfolk ST 4x1 team? Zack Rodgers Condie Pugh Bill Cuffee Steve Riddick? Enter T&FN! Let's talk about high schoolers (then) Cyril Wyatt and Carter Suggs. Enter T&FN!

Wanna see a picture of the THAT night in Sac when everyone was running 9.9/10.0? Look at Questad in lane .....oh yeah...you don't have that picture ..huh? Yep you'll need......yep!

Love the mag!

T&F NEWS was over for me when they refused to question whether outrageously fast performances were drug induced. They proclaim to be the font of knowledge of the sport yet any moron could tell you that 26:20 10 k's (or whatever the record is now)are the stuff of cheaters. They thought that pursuing the drug angle would hurt the sport. But as we have seen, it is the idolization of drug mutts (geb, lagat, high sham el g..... etc etc) that has brought the sport to ruin.

*Brutal* wrote:

I think I'll go back to 1966 and relive that sizzlin' 19.5 200 straight by Tommie "The Jet" Smith. I'll need the pages of T&FN. Who is is familiar with this Norfolk ST 4x1 team? Zack Rodgers Condie Pugh Bill Cuffee Steve Riddick? Enter T&FN! Let's talk about high schoolers (then) Cyril Wyatt and Carter Suggs. Enter T&FN!

Wanna see a picture of the THAT night in Sac when everyone was running 9.9/10.0? Look at Questad in lane .....oh yeah...you don't have that picture ..huh? Yep you'll need......yep!

Love the mag!

ditto, my man, ditto!

MF

brutal is right, if you are really a track fan you need to subscribe and keep all the magazines. Where do you think my 1000 trivia questions come from? Larry Questad was a white sprinter from Montana who went to Stanford in the 60' s.

The Los Angeles 1992 Uprising was caused by L.A.P.D. and the all-white jury who thought it was o.k. for a dozen sworn officers to trade hits on a black man. It was caught on video and was shown around the world, yet the jury found the dirty cops innocent. After the uprising the federal government stepped in and the dirty cops were convicted of Civil Rights violations and sent to prison. Justice was served.

Me too, ditto the above. Sure it is easy to knock T&FN but they have made a great effort in the last 2-3 years to take advantage of the Internet and e mail. Do all of you realize that along with your subscription you get detailed e mailed full summaries, once a week, of all meets all over the world !? And as Brutal says if you are a Track & Field fan ( not just "running" ), T&FN truly is the Bible of the Sport, self-proclaimed or not. A fabulous reference document. And as to errors, they are few and far between when it coms to stats. Finally the " Donovan Powell" snafu was more funny than significant.

We Don'T CarE about you old folks reminiscing and telling tall tales and war stories. My coach gets Race Resuls Weekly for the team which is far better, cheaper, and accurate. Also RRW doesn't have trolls like Walt Murphy and Tom Borish sneaking in ads here on letsrun.com.

T&F News is the worst magazine on the shelves. NBA, NFL, NCAA sport magazines go into strengths/weaknesses, individual analysis, draft grades, final team analysis, interviews, indepth predictions.

T&F News prints 90% results, a championship cheat sheet, and an occasional profile and interview. A piece of cra.p magazine.

ttc wrote:

T&F News is the worst magazine on the shelves. NBA, NFL, NCAA sport magazines go into strengths/weaknesses, individual analysis, draft grades, final team analysis, interviews, indepth predictions.

T&F News prints 90% results, a championship cheat sheet, and an occasional profile and interview. A piece of cra.p magazine.

Yo ttcm

...then you should very seriously consider unsubscribing to my favorite magazine...good luck in finding another publication to meet your very specific track and field needs year after year for decades on end...if you happen to be succesful in doing so, I am hopeful that you'll share your 'new world' discovery with the rest of us...until then I will ALWAYS be a fan/supporter of the resource that has nourished so many of us for way way more than a quarter of a century...bottom line is that they are the hands down number one outlet for comprehensive and unbiased info in the arena of our passion, track AND field...my hat is off to t&fnews for providing such, for as long (and way longer) than my spikes have been crunching ovals

respectfully

MF

Obviously another T&FN/TS troll posting an advertisement. Buy an ad.