Been out of the Loop History of SPS(ADMIN NOTICE Please Read)

[plumbervol]

I am stepping aside and will no longer take any kind of active role in any phase of SPS other than ownership of the domain name and hosting the site as a Internet Provider. In fact if any body wants to take over just let me know. A core of folks now have admin authority and they will provide oversite as long as they desire to do that. I  plan to leave SPS  as an open forum for the future. Basically because of business reasons the forum has to stay open because the name is a blanket for other business ventures including hosting of web sites. If anyone is interested in running the site let me know. Years back some folks wanted to step in, I explained to them then and to Tony Basilio that the name was a catch all for some other business and the business license was listed as a chat site. The bottom line is that I cannot transfer the domain name and I have to keep it up.

This place still has close to 1,000 visits a day down from the close to 100,000 visits from 5 years ago. The reality is that no real community exists here anymore. TBA wanted OMG to have a stake hold when he left, from the sound of OMG he has basically drifted away. I look at this place as a blog and not a chat site because of the lack of community. I basically shut down the chat site 5 years ago when a father of a recruit threatened to sue me if I would not disclose the posters name who posted that his son had sex with his teacher. But a small bunch still play here. The problem here is ME and many do not want to be involved with anything I have a part of. I am tired and the place needs some new blood. So I am backing away from SPS the chat site and will no longer have any involvement here and I hope the site has a resurrection. If not it will stand here dormant because of its unique situation as a cover all for web hosting, server hosting and coin machine ownership. 6 years ago this place shifted from being a chat site as a primary function to that of a vintage motorcycle club hosting its business and functions. Starting the first of the year it changes again.

TBA knew when we first coupled together that my relationship with some business partners was the primary reason for my involvement and not anything that had any relevance to Tony Basilio. I basically have to take care of their self interest and I used the scraps from them to allow us to function as a site. Even now we exist because of the Time Warp Tea Room. Many that were here lived and breathed Tony B and in their way of thinking the entire world revolved around Tony and his stuff. As an example many credit Tony B with the Neyland Project when in fact OMG and his friend Chartervol hatched and executed the entire thing. Brock came along for the ride but in many folks mind they wanted to give he and Tony the credit. SPS was just the outlet the 2(OMG&CV) used and I really did nothing other than give reports as Mike Hamilton called and emailed me information after those 2 did the grunt work. The work surrounding sending the stuff to our troops in Afghanistan came as a guy from another site who is now deceased approached TBA and myself for some support. Major Ellison's sister worked with my wife in the same office at TVA and that is where I initially had any support for the project. I knew from the start that SPS would get screwed over in the hype but I also knew I could monitor the situation from our contact with Ellison's sister and make sure the folks who we intended to help would get the benefits. TBA's thought was that the ends justified what we did and allowed using SPS. Again many wanted to place the success on Tony B even as many who knew better knew that the Dewey Warren show was more a catalyst than anything SPS or Basilio did. So it is time for this place to evolve into whatever it will become. TBA is a Monk, OMG has faded away and I am walking out the door and my function will only be to pay the yearly bill for the domain name. The lights will be on but nobody will be home here. Many say this place folded a few years back, they may be right but I would do the same thing again that I did then and it was the right thing to do. I loved the idea of a Sports Parlor South but it had evolved into a private club and we were only used because TBA and myself paid the bills(mostly me). The idea of using our media(SPS) as a tool to hurt people, lie, destroy reputations hiding behind the banner of entertainment is repulsive and reflects more on those doing that as people without a moral compass. Some people told me SPS was great because of the members. Most of these  were not around in our Glory Days when we literally built ourselves up from nothing based not on a community that chatted but as a confederation of talk show callers that also wanted their views known to the big shots of UT so they had a voice in a program they followed. I think it was Philly that once told me that none of these talk show hosts had any respect of us as callers they just want to make $$ off of us. We all knew Doug Dickey didn't give a crap about any fan he only respected money.

But the time has come for me to drift away. If I am the problem people will come and rebuild. If I was not the problem it will only mean that the time for SPS has passed but it will still function as a business name for the folks that use it as such. I drifted away in early September, so it has been on autopilot since then But anyway you look at it I will only stop in occasionally and drop a line to the last folks standing. Thanks everybody and let me remind everybody that the Birthday for SPS is December 29th and the first year of existence was 2000 that we will be 11 yrs old this year. I am going to leave a posted History of SPS that you can read or add to if you please. I am not releasing the name of SPS, that I can't do but I am going away and I know that will make some people happy.

[plumbervol]

SPS was founded as an outlet for truth and comradeship for the talk show callers. We were supposed to be an outlet for the "living Fan" whatever the hell that is. We later became activists for the Neyland Projects, Supporting the troops, Raising money at Christmas for charities etc

The founding father CD left shortly after its founding and I came in with TBA that March. We were at a Free site Network54 and soon bought our own Domain Name and software soon after. The site at Network 54 is still up but nobody remembers the password.
http://www.network54.com/Forum/94177/
We went to the Aimoo site but after spending over $1000 in fees for 3 months of hosting we left and went to the IPOWER web hosting site. At the time we were charged by the use of bandwidth after using the the monthly maximum. They later crashed our site and wanted us to move a designated server, we declined and moved to the Blue Host Site. By then Bandwidth was dirt cheap and we were running wide open for only $130 a year compared to $200 a month 3 years earlier. In the early years of SPS post Network54 it cost over $1000 a year to operate, nobody wanted us. When bandwidth fell everybody wanted to take our niche. 6 years ago TBA and I were approached to merge with a local area Sports News provider but we would loose our control. I was for it, TBA was against it. The site that did merge with them is now the largest UT fan site not affliated with Brent Hubbs. We always joked that Gridscape was Gridsheep now it is Inside Tenn and its founder is long gone and its base of user make them the 3rd biggest UT site as support has drtopped. Hubbs is bigger than ever and many news media sites pay his subscription fee and report his stories as theirs.

SPS niche always was the hard truth, but the trouble with the hard truth is that it sucks if it is not what you want it to be. Somebody told me awhile back they first read about Fulmers girlfriend and illegitimate child at SPS(person did not know I was plumbervol) The only problem is that our old Friend the Missing Link, Carter or whatever name he went by shot that down when he talked to Fulmer's MD and found out that he had a vasectomy before  the time all of this was supposed to have happened. But hard edged fans of the truth hated Fulmer and they wanted it to be true. Even after Carter shot that down with the truth. I posted a obscure call I had about a Bama coach and a prostitute from an Auburn fan and SPS was cited by a Rivals site and a link as telling the story before the news servers broke the story. I broke the Spurrier to USC story 6 months before it went public as a former Knoxvillian and USC Board member and former All American told my wife and me at his place at Pawleys Island that SOS had accepted the job and that the current HC Holtz would coach that fall and he would take over after the season....I also broke the Pearl story last November as a current Board Member told me that Pearl was gone at the end of the season. Thats what SPS was known for, hard edged sports talk and breaking inside information and a co owner who painted his face and called himself the Bandit trying to stir up fans at UT BB games. Going to FL and discovering if FL fans were as bad as everyone says they were. TBA and Carter tailgated with them in Florida and had a ball and some great pictures. Core get togethers at Rick's that devolved into the Hall of Fame and a plaque(death of SPS IMHO) As Carter pointed out it is hard to fuss amoung ourselves while posting after you get-togther drink a beer in real life and like each other. 

This changed the atmosphere of SPS and its core reason for existing. A bunch of folks who posted to each other on the Convro Board and started a place to continue as a group to a non sports core who just liked getting together and could care less about the hard edged truth and sports convro. I see JC, Carter Justin and Mouthpiece occasionally at the tailgates. I sit close to Rudedog and Gus at football games. OSVF has drifted away. Magnum does not answer my emails but I did friend him on Facebook, his ittle bitty feelings are still hurt I suppose. OMG and I see each other when I attend 11:30 mass at Holy Ghost. Dan emailed me until his death I suppose now that he is dead and the Chipman Street  trials will be re heard you can know he was on one of the jurys and if you really believe in America and justice those animals deserve a new trial   When Carter came by and played he told me Dan would never post on this site again(he was arguing with him in a thread under his new name and persona)

Happy Birthday SPS

[plumbervol]

My last Day will be Jan 1st. I will be faithfully departed on the same day as I joined 11 years earlier.....

I will see if I can add anymore good memories this week to this thread.

The spirit and Idea that was SPS was wonderful. Being there from the beginning I can tell you what the vision was. TBA was always big on the "vision thing" I was discussing what SPS was founded for and what it was all about to someone not around that argued with me and told me that was not what SPS was all about or founded for. That we were actually formed by and for TonyB......  No TonyB had tossed all the early members from the Convro Board into the garbage can when he shut down and wanted no part of the liability of an open forum. Fast talking Todd told me he didn't know why I would be part of a forum or run one because of my views on free speech. My views on if Fulmer was the devil were different than his and having a different opinion made me anti free speech LOL!!

[plumbervol]

This IP number is why we were so successful 160.36.173.242 You see this was Volhunter's IP and I searched all over the world trying to match a name with the number

People posted and built up the base just to argue with this guy and call him a sheep. He was like DaVol and people luved to hate him.

He was one of the founding early members along with myself JC OSVF TBA TopDawg CraigD KnoxSooner, Phil, Larkin Gray and Beano, Badbob and Dawgystyle and the Mouthpiece.

The vision of TBA was to organize all of the Sports Talk callers, hold them accountable and allow all the www posters to interact with them. My vision grew to require accountability to all the BS and rumors  We called Dewey's show and handed out email addresses for people to email to get our link because the www address was not the name of the site. We had all the good callers except for Small Mike after the early months. The small one said he would not hang out in the ghetto of sports talk the WWW but he finally did sign up, post and then not answer or interact. Beano posted some but soon faded away. Philly was a terrible post but he would draw a crowd when we had get togethers. I always thought D Warren was on site but he said he couldn't work the internet. His get togethers grew into our get togethers.

Called Tony's show and his screeners handed out our address. He mentioned us some on his show, at the time he was tolerant of us. Some of his folks involved in his show came to get togethers and when he was fired from 1240 they all flocked to our site. Tony didn't ever show unless we went to his remotes. When he needed us he called but kept his distance. Big Al always said Tony was protective of the site because he considered it his. Reality is that towards the end of the Convro Board on his site Tenn Big Al was running it and was the admin and it was totally turned over to him. I never called the show until he shut down the convro board. I called him up and chewed out his and craigd heard my bitching and I was contacted to sign up for SPS Network 54 board. In the early days we just talked, People loved beating up on OSVF and Volhunter. JC was really active and only walked away when he was banned from the board for misbehaving and could not enter his pick em picks and thought we took his 20$$$ LOL  The 2nd wave hit with Brockytop Bryan, Buckeye Benny, Carter soon to be followed by OMG,  Chartervol and others. Soon others came in via friends but we were a relatvely small board of about 30 people until the Neyland Project hit. When we moved to the Aimoo board we had a growth spurt of people that came from the Magnum school of SPS as I called them. I remember sitting with TBA at Ricks Place and he asking me who the hell this bunch was LOL. By the end of SPS a few years back they were the majority and we were the minority. We found Rudedog because of the Dewey Warren show. Believe it or not Philly was pushing the Dewey show and asking us all to call in and listen to the show. Rudedog was a regular Dewey caller and he joined up with us. Poor ole Rudedog tried to be nice to TonyB after he lost his job and Tony treated him like crap and disrespected him. If he had talked to me like he talked to Rude I would have  knocked his out. Then again Rudedog is a gentleman of high character and I am just an old SOB. I remember Magnum showing up as we launched Aimoo because of his JR Ewing moniker showing up as his avatar. He brought along Volman54 I think was his name a country boy who also knew the Alabama caller that was the opposite of Bama Fever. Wayne I believe. Went Volman54's house for a Bama game and BBQ way up in the holler along with Wayne. That bunch was famous because of Herman the caller LOL!!

By this time TBA was ready to become the Bandit. He was going to games painted Orange and trying to be a one man cheerleader and he got the attention of the local media. My Dad is a retired KNS employee who sold advertisment use to write for the Business page and had short stint as a UT FB Player in the late 40's. Dad started calling around and got TBA some media Props aside from the sports talk radio bunch. Just this year somebody retired from the media but active during that time period asked me about my old friend the Bandit, told them he was now a MONK and they were not suprised. We gathered tickets and gave them out on the way to games on the busses. We started meeting at games, we had Carter myself, Rude, SixstringVol and some folks I can no longer remember their handles meet and set in the damn worst seats in TBA. TBA would work himself over to the student section with the help of the likes of OSVF and do his schtick. We handed out the www site address to folks clipped to the free tickets we handed out. Carter got a damn handful of tickets once or twice and Dad got TBA and I 50 tickets a couple of times.
I will continue later

[plumbervol]

The Neyland Project Years

The beginning of the second phase started immediately upon the incorporation of the maxims. Coach Fulmer has taken the first phase and put on more steam. The story made the papers in a HUGE way while the members of Sports Parlor South and Neyland traditionalists took to hitting the radio waves in support and rebirth of of the STATUE PROJECT. Dewey Warren has thrown his support of the project through his radio program “The Dewey Warren Show” on WKVL 850 and is in communication with the Lettermen and the quarterbacks club and anyone else who will listen! Below is an account of the media reaction as the full brunt of The GNP makes its way into the lives of the Volunteer Nation!
This is from the Neyland Project archive that SPS Hosts
http://www.spsboard.com/Neyland.htm

I still remember attending the meeting with Mike Hamilton the first time. TBA, OMG, Myself Brockytop and Chartervol had a sit down with Hambone and he told us he was going to move on with the Neyland Project, all he needed was money LOL!! I met with the Lettermen Club and told them what Hambone said and the ex players said they would put their boots up Hambones if they had to get it done.... In the back OMG and Chartervol worked magic because of the access that Chartervol had to Hambone and the AD He would later work with Hambone on the TBA renovations and get butt screwed by the man IMHO as Hambone took his ideas time and work and made it his own. In later years Hambone would send out monthly or quarterly updates on the Neyland Project and in deserved fashion our own OMG got to attend the unveiling of the statue and front row access and accolades.
 
While at the meeting Brock and myself got to watch the men's BB team have a unsupervised practice game on the court at Stokely. LOL!!  

The press started calling and asking questions. Old M Griffith joined SPS as Writer25. OMG and TBA get interviewed by Jim Wogan on TV. Lundy and Lowe call me for information on articles and given access to OMG. SPS the name was in the news as the catalyst of this movement. TBA and myself decided at a sit down shortly after the Hambone meeting that we actually made our dream of a united army of little men and fans a reality and made a difference. All because a member of SPS with the name "PartsUnknown"  who only posted 2-3 times started a snowball rolling!!!!

In the meantime Chartervol is selling his vision of the Jumbotron and the Neyland statue to the UTAD. Brocky gets TonyB's attention and keeps him focused on SPS and the Neyland project. On the other hand Dewey was an active Letterman and had his caller driven show overtaken by ex players, callers from SPS pushing the agenda. Beautiful meshing all of this together to reach a goal. You see it was not chat on the site by the members that made a difference, it was what was accomplished by all of us in the early days of SPS to get our voices heard!! We were not entertaining we were making a damn difference!! That was SPS and what it should return to if this place has a future and needs to exist. Not a damn place to tell fat jokes but a place to get your voice heard!!! Tony and the Animal can't make a dime off of that so they will not bother. I remember being approached by Tony's bunch to honor the older players and I was excited. Turns out he was trying to sell time to Michaels Cow Palace for his show and dragging out some of the old timers in a dog and Pony show. He pissed off some of the old timers who showed up and was used and they thought they should have gotten paid. Who did they turn to why of course Sports Parlor South to have their voice heard!!!

[plumbervol]

All that glitters is not  gold. The reciting of the Maxims was TERRIBLE and didn't work. But from that grew the Neyland Statue, one player reciting a Maxim before every game, and an entire push to honor the UT tradition. The reality that UT has always been the Bridesmaid and not the Bride hit home. But GRN deserved a statue at his own school because who else would you honor as one Letterman told me. I heard stories about Neyland and some were not flattering. But the General was ours and people buried hatchets because everybody knew if not Neyland then who?

After this publicity the forum skyrocketed. Membership approached 1000 and we couldn't keep a forum up and running as the members and guests visited the sites and we lacked the resource to host 2-3 thousand visitors on site at one time.  We also started adding folks none of us knew who the hell they were?  They no longer fit the profile that CD, myself or TBA envisioned as SPS members. They were from out of town, supported schools that even CD never envisioned as having followers on this site.

The Hall of Fame was formed. A poster known as Denny Chimes came to SPS. His brother in law owned Nowell Plumbing and was involved here. His brother in law had family from Blount County and are huge UT boosters. Denny was a Bama and a Troy fan, he came up with the Hall of Fame and I think Magnum got the plaque with Volman54's help I believe. We had a huge get together in the off season that was not a Dewey Warren organized event and people attended to enshrine 6 into the HOF in 2003. Every year more was added and the last guy awarded was Roy Mullins..... This place was no longer the SPS TBA, CD and myself formed or envisioned. The days of activism had passed and we were a gentleman's club. That was the night TBA asked me who in the hell are these people LOL!!

Next post we will discuss the Afghanistan Project

[plumbervol]

The Afghanistan project

A caller from another sports chat site named VolKen started calling Dewey's Show and his dream was to send items sports related to the soldiers in Afghanistan. He was doing a small thing and was financing it but he needed help. He came to Ricks Place for a Dewey remote on a Friday and he approached TBA and myself. He wanted our help. So fresh from the Neyland Project we started pushing this great damn project. Used Radio and TV push to sell the project. We used our saved up resource of over $2000 feed this tiger, I asked that Volken give our site props and a way to self promote. I checked him out and found from his folks that no matter what TBA and I did he was going to promote the site he had been a member of and posted to over the years. I told TBA what was up and I was furious because I used all our resource to help him with his dream and I would have to pay to keep SPS up and running out of my pocket. TBA said he would help me pay the upkeep(money and TBA never mixed well) and I was furious with that old man. But for the record we raised money got donated paraphernalia and items the folks needed packaged and sent overseas to the area troops. The expensive cost of shipping and the work to package was all we had to pay for as we gathered items from tail gates at games. Sent to me by UTAD employees, AD folks, posters from Gridscape and VTTW and donations from some SPS members. I ended up paying $1000 out of Pocket and Carter tried to run a PickEm to RAISE A COUPLE HUNDRED $$ FOR THE SITE.  Tenn Big Al was right, it was the right thing to do. SPS did a great job promoting this and TBA felt like he was helping his kids who had been in the military and Major Ellison appreciated what we did and was a gracious host as returned to the US and took me and my wife and his sister out to dinner. I think TBA and Volken were to embarrassed show up LOL!! But this did get our name out in the public again as SPS.
We started gathering money to hand out $100 to christmas funds everywhere. In fact over the years all money gathered for advertisment over the years ended up going to this or that charity and the Triangle Music, Lee's Flooring Company and Fisher Tire floated us and paid our bills and the other money went to charity.

[plumbervol]

This IP number is why we were so successful in the early years: 128.169.189.119
You see this was Volhunter's IP and I searched all over the world trying to match a name with the number

People posted and built up the base just to argue with this guy and call him a sheep. He was like DaVol and people luved to hate him.

He was one of the founding early members along with myself JC OSVF TBA TopDawg CraigD KnoxSooner, Phil, Larkin Gray and Beano, Badbob and Dawgystyle and the Mouthpiece.

The vision of TBA was to organize all of the Sports Talk callers, hold them accountable and allow all the www posters to interact with them. My vision grew to require accountability to all the BS and rumors  We called Dewey's show and handed out email addresses for people to email to get our link because the www address was not the name of the site. We had all the good callers except for Small Mike after the early months. The small one said he would not hang out in the ghetto of sports talk the WWW but he finally did sign up, post and then not answer or interact. Beano posted some but soon faded away. Philly was a terrible post but he would draw a crowd when we had get togethers. I always thought D Warren was on site but he said he couldn't work the internet. His get togethers grew into our get togethers.

Called Tony's show and his screeners handed out our address. He mentioned us some on his show, at the time he was tolerant of us. Some of his folks involved in his show came to get togethers and when he was fired from 1240 they all flocked to our site. Tony didn't ever show unless we went to his remotes. When he needed us he called but kept his distance. Big Al always said Tony was protective of the site because he considered it his. Reality is that towards the end of the Convro Board on his site Tenn Big Al was running it and was the admin and it was totally turned over to him. I never called the show until he shut down the convro board. I called him up and chewed out his and craigd heard my bitching and I was contacted to sign up for SPS Network 54 board. In the early days we just talked, People loved beating up on OSVF and Volhunter. JC was really active and only walked away when he was banned from the board for misbehaving and could not enter his pick em picks and thought we took his 20$$$ LOL  The 2nd wave hit with Brockytop Bryan, Buckeye Benny, Carter soon to be followed by OMG,  Chartervol and others. Soon others came in via friends but we were a relatvely small board of about 30 people until the Neyland Project hit. When we moved to the Aimoo board we had a growth spurt of people that came from the Magnum school of SPS as I called them. I remember sitting with TBA at Ricks Place and he asking me who the hell this bunch was LOL. By the end of SPS a few years back they were the majority and we were the minority. We found Rudedog because of the Dewey Warren show. Believe it or not Philly was pushing the Dewey show and asking us all to call in and listen to the show. Rudedog was a regular Dewey caller and he joined up with us. Poor ole Rudedog tried to be nice to TonyB after he lost his job and Tony treated him like crap and disrespected him. If he had talked to me like he talked to Rude I would of knocked his out. Then again Rudedog is a gentleman of high character and I am just an old SOB. I remember Magnum showing up as we launched Aimoo because of his JR Ewing moniker showing up as his avatar. He brought along Volman 54 I think was his name a country boy who also knew the Alabama caller that was the opposite of Bama Fever. Wayne I believe. Went to his house for a Bama game and BBQ way up in the holler along with the Volman54.

By this time TBA was ready to become the Bandit. He was going to games painted Orange and trying to be a one man cheerleader and he got the attention of the local media. My Dad is a retired KNS employee who sold advertisment use to write for the Business page and had short stint as a UT FB Player in the late 40's. Dad started calling around and got TBA some media Props aside from the sports talk radio bunch. Just this year somebody retired from the media but active during that time period asked me about my old friend the Bandit, told them he was now a MONK and they were not suprised. We gathered tickets and gave them out on the way to games on the busses. We started meeting at games, we had Carter myself, Rude, SixstringVol and some folks I can no longer remember their handles meet and set in the damn worst seats in TBA. TBA would work himself over to the student section with the help of the likes of OSVF and do his schtick. We handed out the www site address to folks clipped to the free tickets we handed out. Carter got a damn handful of tickets once or twice and Dad got TBA and I 50 tickets a couple of times. Of course Food City gave TBA tickets most games that he could distribute.
I will continue later

[plumbervol]

Sheep Wolves Deweyism and the Next Level....

These were terms that evolved around TonyB SPS and Dewey Warren. They became a vocabulary and one had to know the significance surrounding these terms to understand much of what was posted here. Sheep luved Fulmer and listened to the Jimmy and John Show and posted to Gridsheep that was ran by Homers that used propaganda to keep the Wolves in line. The KNS was Senseless and was much like Pravda to the UT Athletic Department. Wolves wanted Fulmer fired, humiliated and shows like Tony Basilio was what the enlightened-the smart fan-listened to. Dewey would say things that many thought were ignorant and in my opinions were just funny things he played word games with. Rocket Surgery and other phrases and mis-pronounced words were known as Deweyisms. In the mean time Tony is saying len wah city for Lenoir City and talking about the next level and other such words surrounding his merry men. Toss in that Phillys brother used to sing off key songs about sheep and Fulmer etc and they became a cult following. I offered to have the songs cleaned up and recorded in a promotional setting and his Brother Philly told me he didn't want his Brother exploited. Because of his request I refused to allow any uploading of the song etc here at SPS In the meantime our old friend JC had an original cassette with the music on it that was passed around. Hell that crap now has a facebook page. The Next Level idea is everywhere and everybody thinks Dewey is some sort of moron. Go Figure? When Chartervol came on board here he asked me to interpret what the hell everybody was talking about because he did not get the relevance of any of the isms be they Tony, Dewey or SPS. In fact we had threads pop up every so often listing what the deweyisms Tonyisms etc was all about and what they meant..... Charter was from Middle TN and had never heard of Tony B, to him Dewey W was an ex QB and not a radio talk show host. He had access into the AD and the subject of sheep and wolf never came up LOL!!

On the other hand Beano told me he hated the sheep wolf thing  and our own OSVF hated the farm animal talk and attempts were made to tone down the farm animal talk. I am sure people are still referred to as sheep and wolves in certain circles
Next The great damn Logo and format

[plumbervol]

When SPS was created and CraigD started the task of decorating the forum the logo was Sports Parlor South and the Barbed wire gif that the two found from a Marines web site was put together to form the logo. The barbed wire gif had a flaw of a white spot and resolution problems. The text Logo was something CD put together from the flaming Text site and we didn't actually have it loaded on site. As we grew before we owned our own software the chatboard included this huge logo, the statement of what we stood for etc and links to radio shows. You actually had to roll down a page and half to find a damn chat post....I raised hell and we undertook the task of having a logo created. Neither of us were artists and we found folks that wanted us to pay them thousands of $$ to decorate our software and create a branded logo LOL. Eventually we had another page of a logo that was huge and you scroll down 2 pages to get to the chat site. The insistence of keeping this great damn Logo and statement made our forum slow to load and more likely to crash. Between changing software servers etc we moved 3-4 times .

I said that as we left Network 54 we probably had 30-40 members at most. But everybody had 3-4 fake accounts. It was just a part of SPS you had to endure, supposedly it grew from Halloween Sport Talk when area shows encouraged a Fake ID call. As we left NW54 our site grew orange and we started to go to the new logo look. IMO most all of the members from Network54 were close friends and local Sports Talk callers. I would guess CD would recognize the forum less and less as we grew. But the marriage of the Sports Caller and WWW was just getting started. Soon sports talk callers would turn into HOSTS and founding members here became Talk Show Hosts and have their own shows.

As Brocky became a part of the Basilio team he became more of a host less a caller. Soon Beano and Philly followed suit. The problem with this system was all three were great callers and missing their daily calls hurt the shows because they did not call into their own shows as callers. Tenn Big Al started a weekly SPS internet talk show on the WSRadio software. Everybody had nightmare stories of crashes etc as he really wanted to be on radio. Brockytop asked me about my dreams of radio, I had none. Our own OMG was actually on radio talking wars conservative politics etc. But what did occur was a Saturday morning talk show  with the 3 amigos hosting that everybody called into. Philly continued to support Swamp Rat but Brocky and Beano slid into slots as TonyB's sidekicks. By now SPS was losing its steam. TBA was finding religion and starting his path towards the monastery. I cared less about SPS being anything other than available as an archive for the Neyland Project. OMG Chartervol came in for our last hurrah as I call it. TBA was way in the back and eventually out as he started the journey to become a Brother and a monk. I lost time for SPS as my parents became my responsibility and I their caretaker. I buried mother, grandmother, grandfather and a father in law. I was raised by my grandparents and was their sole caretaker as they reached end of life and I had to walk them to the end. The relevancy of SPS became less of importance to me. I cared only that our archive and the Neyland stuff was REMEMBERED!! TBA going out the door did the same as he locked down the old Neyland Project Posts so all can see and remember. This place is on autopilot and it will continue as that archive. The real story is just as we reached our peak the day of the CHAT BOARD was drawing to an end and the Social Networks were growing. If CD called me and TBA tonight to put something together because Basilio in his wisdom shut down our chat site it would be a Facebook page. That is the future of talk as new up and comers in Sports Talk turn to Twitter and Facebook to promote their shows. The Wes Ruckers of the www are now joined by folks that are casualties of the written press. These old newspaper guys need a paying gig and use talk radio as tool to get a paycheck. They claim press status as they push their agenda to push buttons and get calls and ratings. I know they hated Dewey Warren, his schtick was he strapped it on and knew what it was like to play sports. In truth people liked calling him up because it was an easy call. The new world order claims insider status  because they use to be or are currently with a news service. Fact is they know less than the old callers such as Brocky Beano etc. The reality is all of the shock jock schtick is an out growth of UT grad Finebaum and all are pretenders compared to him and he has no loyalty to anyone. Just ask our old Friend Chartervol who worked the UT Beacon and apparatus back in the day with another old SPS original member The Hef. The up and comers from the School of Broadcasting used SPS as a vehicle and a GRADE until they developed thier own little www news page at the college to publish. The first generation of that is reflected in a salesman I know at Kenny Pipe who did it all and left Radio and writing to sell pipe and make a paycheck. If I find out he ventures out as a part time talk show fellow I would not be suprised. So it goes....

[The One Man Gang]

Entertaining history there, Old Top.

I hope your recovery is progressing nicely.  I know well how much fun recovery from major abdominal surgery can be.

I'd like to wish you and your lovely bride a very Merry Ho Ho from all of us here at the Ancestral Manse.

One small correction, Charter wasn't all that involved in the Neyland thing, but he and I did make a full-scale proposal to Hamilton regarding upgrades to the Tommy Bowl.  It was all there: putting the scoreboard above center court, focusing the lights on the floor instead of the seats, replacing the steel railings in front of upper-deck seats with clear plexiglas, moving the Orange-tie club types into skyboxes, etc.

Naturally, the UTAD then saw fit to pay somebody else $3.5 mill to put our ideas into reality.

Water under the bridge now.

I do still have the proposal files and can show them to anyone who cares.  It'll only cost you a beer or three.

[plumbervol]

Roll Call of the Founders of SPS
volhunter   TnBigAl  plumbervol craigd    Larkkin  Gray OrangeSkyVolFan Blountvolfan
sandersisweak    Vol-Dame   TOPDAWG   ZR   Phil   KnoxSooner Beano Volmeister Snoop Dawg, Phillip E Fulmer, Joe Vol Fan, Carter, badbob, Malrobert, Mouthpiece, Gatekeeper, UT Charlie, Redcork, Ihatewolves, faircatch, Porkypine, Rabidvolfan, Tennessee Stud,    AccuracyInMedia, Coach Jerry Green, IHW He_Hate_Me, UF owns UT, 98NCHAMPS, CD, DocVol, Justin, Lone wolf, gillvol, Smitty, MP Vol, buzz Cut, Phil hates losing to UGA!!!!!!!!!!!!,
Stan, volstothewalls, Smitola, Dean, VolDude   smallmike Douglas A Dickey, ronboy, realist. Chartervol    Three Beers Typing OneManGang DirectVol,    Volman Bryan, Ray StormRyder, Stan, Whitney, Muriano, SevierCountyBoy, Brockytop, WoolyOne, Gekvol,    volcrazy, Ray,
ddnick15, Leroy Mercer, SS's got nothing on Coach Full,    Phil hates Tall!, Volsforever,    tnvlfn16, Ut_Stick, BEAVE, HOOTERMAN, WILL, BillVol,    TRU_VOL,    cmap, GRAYZEN, fuzzinavel23, UTC, VOLHATE, WoolyOne, Ted, Larry, Jbaz, Idiot_Detector, Deano, chopfan, SESSPOOL OF KNOWLEDGE, Idiot_Detector, SCB, BamaZaq, JeremyRoenick, PAT GANG, Worsted ONE, OrangeCrusher, lambert, GRADY, OrangeCrusher, VaVol,     L D J, WoolyOne,
SMB, Robb, VolPaul, grady, BC, Stacy Bellard, Proud american,   SMB, 4MRM, Pete,    UT Jethro, Bark_Simpson, Ticketman, Phake Phil, VOLNATION, sixstringvol, PONKEY, Adamvol, VolJr, LonghornTy, Orangecrusher, GatorTD,    cgate, HE HATE SHEEP & ALLERGIC TO WOOL, HE_HATE_MEDIOCRITY, UGA Class of 1991; Airborne Infantry 1992-'96; Mer, Wolfdawg, VOLS=4th in the East, GREG BEELER,    DirectVol     Vol420, The Enforcer, Vols82nd,    t-mail, Pat Gang, D-Back Carter,    Tro' da' Bomb,    Sheepshears,    Sheepius MAXIMus,    TheGreatVolBoy,  Zaq Sheep Shears Volman    TheMOUTHPIECE Bryan, WoolyOne
__________________________________---------------------------_______________
   Phil is glad Jed is gone, volbrawl,    InvestiGator,  MRM,    crmsnwarrior, DirectVol TRU_VOL, worsted one,    BIG_12_RULES, top_tenn,    Bobby Medders,
TRU_VOL, NCVol, Deano , AIM HE_HATE_ME, Gray, Larkkin,    THE ENFORCER
KingBenthelus    BuckeyeBenny    44s, Smitty, megalodon, SCBears Stan, InstiGATOR, VJ, Single wing, Bark Simpson, Vol Dude, mscreasy, cybervol, bigorangejason    james, Billvol, TennesseeSites, SingleWing, creamydrink,    Larry Harper, MAGATOR, VolfanJB, orangezone, Phat Fil, knoxtnhorn,
vol_jedi, SCB, BS, GillVol, LDJ MikeIV, ORANGE69, orangeT, EAZY ,    csides, volstudent, Fat Phil the Donut King, kjf, Stamen-Flicker, BuckeyeBenny       Vol fan for life!, Tim, Fatdaddys, Asinine Genius, DOUBLE WIDE, SHEEP_HATE_JC, Trev, Grayzen Michigan Blue, Everybody hates JC, Voldude, Another Blithering Idiot, jacketfan, EVERYONE-LOVE-JC, Wooley BCS Carter, LOVE-JC-TODAY, BubbaVol,    kidlomas, Sheep still hate JC, pepvol, Spurrier Fan Wooly Carter, vol82nd, TheInsider, GatorTD, MouthPiece, Phil, Max Fischer (yeah, the letter guy), Philly,  joel,    aussiegator, baaah, TheMOUTHPIECE, The Realist,
_____________________--------------------------------___________________
fab phil, touchdown27, SHEEP-SHOULD-LOVE-JC, vol420, newvol,    beregost    iamwalrusvol97,  jdvol621,    John Dorflinger, TheGreatVolBoy,    Touchdown27, roustabout, Crawdaddy The Insider, Dave, T1House, Justin- SHEEP-HATE-THE-STABLE, AdamVol , orangezone, Robert Gass, Phake Phil, PUP VOL,    CW, BillVol    
lambert,    PrivateEye, Alydar, ORANGEWASHED,  Lambert, New Vol, The Love Doctor,    Russellmania,    MAXOMG ( Anonymous) at least 25 of these