Fax Machine Shines Again on National Signing Day

[Harry]

DENTON -- Members of the North Texas media staff crowded around a room Wednesday using the latest tools in instant communication to keep the Mean Green fandom up to date on every development of National Signing Day.

The manner in which they got their information, though, would have made Steve Jobs wince.

"Mark Lewis is in," said one staffer, passing a piece of fax paper through various hands as if it were classroom syllabi.

When it comes to signing, sealing and delivering a high-priority and time-sensitive National Letter of Intent, North Texas -- like every other university -- is decidedly old-school.

In the iAge, where practical technology is as common as a cold, colleges and universities employ the tools of the Jurassic Age: the pen... a piece of paper... and that newfangled gizmo, the fax machine.

At North Texas, 24 prospects signed on Wednesday and each of them sent their paperwork via the fax. This in a day when Hancock would've been made famous by an electronic signature.

As the joke goes, National Signing Day is the only day of relevance for the fax machine.

That is until North Texas coach Dan McCarney lends perspective. Coaches once were allowed to be at a recruit's home for the signing.

"I remember flying, driving and speeding tickets and all that stuff," said McCarney, who has been in Division I football since 1971 as a player at Iowa. "Sitting outside homes and getting the great news or learning you lose guys, literally with papers in hand hoping it's you.

"For years and years and years, that's all we knew."

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/02/01/3705553/fax-machine-shines-again-on-national.html#storylink=cpy

[LongJim]

Old school FTW.