Pacific In The Media: Legends and Football

Wow! It seems like over the past three weeks or so, Pacific University has been all over the place. Be it because of the Pacific Legends Golf Classic or the goings on with the Pacific football program. Here are a collection of links to recent Pacific media hits from all over...

PACIFIC UNIVERSITY LEGENDS GOLF CLASSIC
The third annual event at The Reserve Vineyards & Golf Club produced a lot of notable media attention.

• The big story was the presence of PGA Tour bad boy John Daly at the tournament. Fresh off a sub-par performance at the Buick Open, Daly came to Aloha looking slimmed down and looking to have a good time with the Legends folk. The Oregonian ran an article on Daly's recent comeback and some of his reaction to his latest round. The story also ran front sports page in the Aug. 4 print edition.

• John Canzano brought his Bald Faced Truth show out to The Reserve on Monday, where he broadcast live from 3-6 p.m. John interviewed newly minted Pacific head football coach Keith Buckley (and pressed him after learning of his student journalism background at UC Davis) and talked football with Dallas Cowboys great Ed "Too Tall" Jones. Both interviews were in the second hour and can be heard here.

• For the third straight year, KGW Newschannel 8 was at the tournament and, of course, spent some time talking with John Daly. Sports reporter Adam Bjaranson, who has been a good friend of Pacific Athletics over the years, lucked out and got to play with Daly. Trust me...Adam will remember that for a long time!

• KPTV Fox 12 was also on site for the third straight year and covered the tournament (no video link available).

• Forest Grove News-Times reporter Christian Gaston did a feature on the tournament's Sunday concert and the challenges that the celebrity musicians have in putting a set together with jost one rehearsal (they made it look flawless).

• KPAM 860 will feature the Legends Golf Classic on their Saturday, Aug. 15 Inside Sports show. The Hillsboro Argus will also have an article in their Friday (Aug. 7) edition.

• Prior to the tournament, Legends namesake and host Tommy Thayer appeared on KATU's AM Northwest and KGW's Live at 7 programs, providing the University yet another avenue to promote the tournament and the institution.

• Leading up to the tournament, media sponsor 95.5 The Game ran a number of interviews of appearing celebrities. Interviews included Chuck Finley, Preston Pearson, Jaret Wright, Lisa Guerrero and Mike Bellotti. These intervews can be heard from links at the Pacific Legends Golf Classic Web site (click on MEDIA at the top of the page).

FOOTBALL COACH KEITH BUCKLEY
The buzz on Friday was about Pacific's selection of Keith Buckley as head football coach and the press conference to announce his hiring at the Multnomah Athletic Club. All four Portland area television stations covered the news (with KGW and KPTV live on site), along with three newspapers.

• Amidst the newspaper coverage, the Forest Grove News-Times and the Hillsboro Argus covered the press conference live, while The Oregonian gave the announcement prominent space on both the Friday and Saturday sports pages (for The O's online version, please note the Oregon/Oregon State venom creeping into the comment section).

• As mentioned, KGW, KPTV, KOIN and KATU all covered Buckley's hiring on their Friday sportscasts (sorry...no video links for any of those).

• The Associated Press picked up the story a hour after the press conference and released it to the wire, making it available to media outlets nationwide. Among the outlets making it available in print or online: the Minneapolis Star Tribune, NBC Sports, The New York Times, the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times and Yahoo Sports.

•D3Football.com, the definitive site for news and information on Division III football, ran the announcement as their top story over the weekend.

• Also...check out the attractive media backdrop behind Coach Buckley. Not bad for 24 hours notice. Props to Shana at the Pacific University Service Center for her help.

And some stories from the non-traditional " more than the press release angle...
• The Keith Buckley announcement was the top "tweeted" item in the Portland area on Twitter on July 31, that according to a Web site that tracks such things.

• Cal Poly assistant coach Greg Lupfer tells the San Luis Obispo (Calif.) Tribune that he "pulled out of the running" for the Pacific job on Wednesday. Hmmmm....

• A blogger from around the Bellingham, Wash., area uses the announcement to take aim at Western Washington University, which discontinued its Division II program this last spring.

• Advantage Catdome, a Linfield football blogger who has been supportive of Pacific's football efforts over the months, aupines on Buckley's hiring.

• And, of course, from the department of the inveitable confusion with our Stockton counterpart, a USC blogger must assure Trojan faithful that there is no chance that Pete Carroll will end up in Forest Grove.

AND FROM THE PRO RANKS
• From this NFL blog entry on the Dallas Cowboys training camp, former Cowboys vice president Gil Brandt talks about how much has changed in terms of training camp. He specifically references the Cowboys' first training camp, held at none other than Pacific University in Forest Grove. Yes, it is amazing how things have changed.