Evolution of Recruiting Services
Meet Joe Terranova - this man is the acknowledged granddaddy of recruiting geekdom and the monetizing of scouting services and he dates back to 1970. Terranova compiled folders of data on prep prospects, using the same standards of coaches and gave them ratings up to four stars. Terranova's "Handbook of College Football Recruiting" & "Who`s Who in College Recruiting" newsletter were regional obviously but it spanned a industry very quickly. Terranova didn't consider covering recruiting to be his job, he apparently worked full time with Ford and did his recruiting rankings in his spare time as more of hobby than a business. Terranova sold his newsletter for $2.00 a subscription per year and eventually had something like 3,500 subscribers by the late 70's.
Basically Terranova took his hobby of data collecting as a graduate student and sparked an industry, he took his interest to local news papers and they ran with it much to the chagrin of some famous coaches While publications like Dave Campbell's Texas Football covered recruiting tangentially in the 1960's, Terranova codification of prospects in 1970 set off a wave of "cub scouts" as they were called. A wave of regional recruiting specific newsletter started to emerge
The late Randy Moore, who covered Tennessee Vol recruiting wrote of newspapers early recruiting coverage in the age before computers in the 1980's back in 2014. Randy couldn't leave the house between October and February. Reread that and think back to the relationship dynamic of recruiting, both with coaches and sports reporters who report on it. Moore probably had to foster a ton of good will to be so annoying over those early days.
The industry started up pretty quickly after Terranova got rolling There was a nature progession away from regional newsletters to national codification recruiting coverage into the 80's and 90'. The beginnings of recruiting hotlines and the emergence of scouting magazines like Blue Chip Illustrated and PrepStar. These national publications are the predecessors to todays Rivals, Scout,247 services. The main people still tangibly inside the recruiting industry today, were mostly there on the ground floor. People like Tom Lemming and Bobby Burton among several others. Example Bobby Burton of the National Recruiting Advisor of Texas eventually became Rivals, Rivals eventually begat 247sports as a result of a purchase. You can find similar connections all over the industry.
Recruiting coverage basically has evolved from regional media(newsletters), to national media(Magazines), to its current form of on demand media(Websites/Podcasts)
