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Embracing the "Madness"
"The Old Heads" at Southern Arkansas break up the routine of spring cross-over season through intramural basketball.
by Daniel Gallegos – Arkansas Tech, Director of Athletic Communications @d_legos_ATU
Raise your hand if you love cross-over season.
Ok, now that all your hands are down let me tell you about something I came across this past February that really helped me get through it. Dare I say it was refreshing even.
I’m talking about The Old Heads. Find them on Twitter @The_old_heads.
This Twitter feed details the intramural basketball exploits of my former assistant and current Assistant AD for Communications at Southern Arkansas University, Jacob Pumphrey (@jtpumphrey_01) and four other athletic department employees at SAU who took us on a hilarious ride through their season like they were Cinderalla at March Madness.
Their shenanigans reminded me that it’s ok to let loose, have fun and even use our skills as athletic communicators to do so.
“It had been in plans for a little bit,” noted teammate Chris Vann, Assistant AD for Facilities and Events. “Pump and I talked about putting a team together last year and it never came to fruition, so this year we made sure we got a team together.”
The first tweet on the feed was posted on February 7 and was an obviously photoshopped edit of how a story link would appear on Twitter from a SIDEARM Sports site. The editing emulated a preview story of an intramural basketball team about to embark on their 2022 season.
It was extremely-well done and truly made me laugh out loud when I came across it. It was just a small sample of what kind of content this account would post over the next month.
The next day, the account posted a game day graphic with all the pertinent information for the intramural team’s “franchise opener”. There was the opponent – Phi Lamb Fraternity, the date – February 8, 2022, the time – 7 p.m., and the location, even the exact court they would be playing on. You even got a couple of hashtags to follow along with #GoOldHeads and #OldAsOne
At first glance, you would have thought that you were looking at a game day graphic for the Mulerider men’s basketball team and not for an intramural basketball team with a roster full of athletic department employees. I was instantly hooked and quickly followed the newly created account.
“
Stephen (Featherston) decided to create the account, go with it, and see what happened,” recalled Pumphrey on the implementation of the Twitter account. “In this line of work, I think we all are familiar with the power of social media, both good and bad. We like to have a good time, so we thought ‘let’s just see what can happen’. We created it and it took off. I mean, we had people asking for merch, so it must be a sign that something good went on.”
Later that same day, the account treated their followers to a behind-the-scenes look at a game day with the obligatory “arriving to the arena walk past a camera” shot seen so prominently on pre-game NBA coverage.
As tip-off grew closer, your typical game day content was being posted, but perhaps the best piece of content that day came in the form of the halftime score update as Pumphrey gave a brief 18-second video recap of the first half and a look ahead to rest of the game.
Sadly, the franchise-opener would not go the way of the Old Heads as they lost 64-39, and similar to the halftime update, Pumphrey, now joined by his fellow teammates, would provide a video recap of the game to satisfy their post-game media obligations likely found in their intramural basketball contracts.
Not long after the post-game presser, your typical post-game content was posted — a score graphic followed by a recap written in notes from a phone touting the individual efforts, albeit in defeat.
In all, there were eight posts made for this singular intramural basketball game and each one reminded me that we can take the monotony of our jobs and use our skills as communicators and promoters to turn the tables and create fun and enjoyable content about ourselves
Featherston, the assistant director of athletic communications at SAU echoed that sentiment when he recounted the decision to chronical this experience on Twitter. “It was an old account I had originally set up for myself, but never really used it, and I remembered I had the account and thought ‘Oh, I can use this account to promote the Old Heads, show off our highlights and do what we do as SIDs, but for ourselves.”
That decision proved to be the starting point for an account that evolved over a 10-game season schedule to include post-game highlights, numerous GIF retweets from players and even a fictitious sponsorship from Icy Hot.
While the content was truly refreshing and lighthearted, there was a particular post-game presser that brought everything back full circle for me. Following their game on February 24, a tough 60-35 loss, the closing statement by Pumphrey was “there won’t be a recap tonight, we actually have our real jobs to do tonight,” as they had to cover a road basketball doubleheader with an actual recap and post-game coverage.
It was a reminder to me that even in our busiest times of the year, we all still have opportunities around us to get out from behind our desks, be active and have fun while still doing the jobs we are paid for.
Pumphrey concluded the sentiment in a poignant way on what the overall experience meant to him. “To have something to break up the routine of normal work in athletics was a relief and we always looked forward to it. The guys on our team are great to work with, but it’s even better to be friends with them and to be able share something away from work has been fun for me and a blessing too.
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