In today’s Jetsons world, a slice of Flintstones remains.

Once upon a time, college sports information offices embraced an emerging technology to serve their teams’ followers. It was a quick and easy way for fans and media to obtain score updates, final results, schedules and breaking news.

The new technology didn’t involve a computer, fax machine or cell phone, and it was introduced long before the Internet, Webcasts, videocasts, podcasts, live stats, RSS feeds, text messaging, E-scores, Twitter or Facebook.

This high-tech breakthrough tool? A telephone hotline.

At St. Thomas, the “Tommie Ticker” has existed for more than 20 years. In addition to the Web site and other technology tools, fans still can get scores, ticket and schedule information, plus breaking news, such as postponed baseball or softball games, at the touch of a speed dial.

Many other schools still have their own versions as well.

“You can use the hotline to make a score or detail engaging and fun, something a basic AP-style release really doesn’t capture,” said Guilford SID Dave Walters. “I remember my mentor at Ithaca, Pete Moore, once starting a hotline this way: ‘Thanks for calling the Ithaca College Sports Hotline. If Fred Flintstone was a Bombers’ fan, today he’d be saying Yabba dabba doo!’”

In the mid-1980s, the arrival of voice mail gave businesses the means to record a message that multiple customers could simultaneously access, such as store hours of operation or movie times. Some SIDs saw value in the new technology.

The concept made even more sense at non-Division I schools, which rarely have the same radio and TV exposure for their teams. In fact, Virginia’s original phone-in service, called “Sportsline,” was primarily for media use.

“Interviews with coaches, student-athletes and administrators were featured on our Sportsline, and there might also be postgame comments from coaches,” said Rich Murray, Virginia’s associate AD for public relations. “We later went to a score line and refined it to where anyone could call in and punch a number to listen to the results for a particular sport. A couple of years ago, our sense was that not many people were using the system, so we dropped it. The Sportsline served us well back in the day, but with the technological advancements that have taken place since then, we no longer use what some refer to as a hotline.”

Greg Capell, now an assistant athletics director at Colorado College, launched St. Thomas’ Tommie Ticker during a stretch from the late 1980s at the beginning of a seven-year tenure as SID.

“I remember getting a couple of nasty phone messages from fans when I didn’t update it quickly enough, which told me that at least people were calling in,” Capell said. “It was probably my first attempt at facilitating the need for ‘instant’ sports news, a need that I know has been taken to a new level now online.”

Technology rules

Fast forward 20 years. Sports information offices that built a small but loyal following on their hotlines now face a decision. Should they invest valuable time on hotlines for just a few users, or should they work more efficiently by steering fans to Web sites and Twitter?

Today, hotlines are especially scarce in Division I. One of the last holdovers, Notre Dame, just decided to retire its call-in option and will rely on Twitter, Facebook, e-mails, texts and its Web site to serve followers.

But at Connecticut, the “Husky Hotline” lives on.

“Obviously, the number of calls has decreased over the years, but there is still a steady number of people who call in,” said UConn assistant SID Mike Enright.

Some time-strapped SIDs consider hotline services part of a larger frustration in their jobs. For a frazzled SID, the hotline with a small audience becomes an easy target.

A few schools like Oneonta State still tape separate reports for each sport and let callers access them with touch-tone phones. Others have streamlined their reports into quick summaries that steer fans to the Web site.

Personal touch

“We still have a telephone hotline available since many elderly followers and supporters don’t have access to a computer,” said Franklin SID Kevin Elixman.

Guilford’s Walters, who still maintains his hotline, added, “Sometimes folks aren’t near the computer, but they usually have a cell phone.”

“It’s worth the modest effort, even if it’s only a handful of people who use it,” said Muhlenberg SID Mike Falk. “I know several people who work at the college, and if they’re on the road and don’t have access to the Internet, they’ll call the hotline for results. I’m sure there are some older alums who are in the same boat. Not everyone has an iPhone or Blackberry – yet.”

Fran Elia, the sports information director at SUNY Cortland, said recording the hotline is just part of the work routine and is worth the time.

“We started ours in 1985 after going to the CoSIDA workshop and learning about the one at Virginia,” Elia said. “Many of our loyal fans (including a former president of the college who still calls) are in the habit of calling.”

Hope SID Tom Renner said while it’s tempting to discontinue the hotline given the demands of maintaining the school’s athletics Web site, it continues to serve an important – though small – segment of the Hope community.

“It’s very popular, especially with the snowbirds during the basketball season,” Renner said. “We have shortened the message to provide just the scores with the suggestion that they go to the Web site for details. Because I can update it remotely, it takes only a couple of minutes.”

“We still use a phone line for scores and schedules,” said Wisconsin-Whitewater SID Tom Fick. “I have been tempted to cut it, but it does get used, especially on football and men’s basketball game days, and almost any playoff event. And if we stopped doing it for the routine tennis match, then the public or parents or team friends would assume that the service in general was not available. I don’t want that to happen.”

For other SIDs, it was the right call to let their hotlines go the way of 8-track tapes, rotary telephones, Walkman radios and Beta VCRs.

“We discontinued the use of the hotline about five or six years ago,” said Kalamazoo SID Steve Wideen. “Our machine tracked the calls, and the numbers were low, so we decided it wasn’t worth the time or expense of the extra line. We also began putting scores online very quickly, and we send an e-mail with results each day there is an event.

“A few people, mostly retired staff, were disappointed to see the hotline go, so I gave them my cell phone number and told them to call anytime they wanted a score. It was more efficient to answer their calls a few times a year than to update the hotline 100-plus times a year.”

Ithaca retired its hotline after 20 years this past spring. SID Mike Warwick said, “It was too much hassle for too little return. Plus, we were paying for the additional phone line, so we’ll save $100 per year by turning it off.”

Aiming to please

Then there are special circumstances. Trinity (Connecticut) SID Dave Kingsley explained that he may resurrect his discontinued hotline.

“The father of one of our head coaches is blind, and that’s the best way he can keep up with the teams,” Kingsley said.

Hope’s Renner said, “If only one person used our hotline, and it was our president calling to get scores while he is on the road, it would be worth doing. The last time I checked, his signature is on my paycheck."

“We are still doing a sports hotline,” said Gettysburg SID Braden Snyder. “I continue to be surprised by the number of people – and not always the older fans – who say they check it. But any thoughts I had of discontinuing it fell by the wayside when our new president told me she checks it.”

An East Coast sports information director had another take. “In 2006, we stopped updating our hotline as an experiment, to see if anyone missed it,” he said. “No one said anything except the former SID. When I moved on to my current job and a new school in 2007, I continued the experiment and eliminated the hotline here. No one said a word.”

Mostly forgotten, but not gone. That seems to sum up the state of the sports information hotline in 2009.

Gene McGivern is in his 16th season as SID at St. Thomas and 22nd in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.