Collie "J": Grambling's Man With the Golden Pen

by Michael Hurd

Collie J Grambling's Man with the Golden Pen by Michael Hurd.

240 pages, Paperback

First published February 28, 2007

Reviews

[Adamdaigle · Rating 3 out of 5]

It still amazes me how Grambling was able to do the things it did during that era. It was truly a three-pronged effort made up of three incredibly visionary people.

If there is college football a million years from now, I highly doubt you will again see a team from a 4,500-enrollment FCS university located in a tiny country town land an hour-long nationwide highlight show. Nor will you see that coach in a nationwide commercial.

There has been and will be only one Collie Nicholson in this world.

[Jayne Cravens · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have no interest in college football. American football bores me. I grew up watching sports: American football, basketball, baseball, and the Olympics. But American football always left me cold. I had never heard of Collie J. Nicholson, who was considered a legend in his time by every sports figure who knew him, black or white, and whose name inspires awe among those know about black college football. And while I had heard of Grambling, I cared about it about as much as I cared about American football. I read this book because a dear friend wrote it, and I thought I would politely slog through it. But I loved this book. Anyone who works in public relations or marketing, or wants to, needs to read this book, particularly people who feel that their communications efforts are woefully under-funded. What Collie J. did with no Internet, no fax machines and barely a budget is a lesson for anyone *now* who wants to know how to sell a program or build a brand, particularly nationally or internationally. This was a man who didn't spend his time whining and complaining about what he didn't have or how many challenges he faced; he was undaunted in his task to sell Grambling to the USA and, indeed, the world. He was relentless in his efforts. He was an opportunist, in the best sense of the word, and he made things happen through persistence, vigilance, a huge amount of hard work, and constant networking in-person and on the phone and via whatever tools were available to him back in the day. He was an utterly dependable, honest person that everyone knew they could trust to do the best job possible. Collie J. worked in an environment at Grambling that encouraged him to be innovative and to take risks -- he was allowed to experiment and dream big -- VERY big. And because of his abilities and the support he received, his achievements as sports information director are nothing short of stunning. Jaw-dropping. As a professional in communications myself, I found myself jealous of the support Nicholson got from Grambling to do his job, and the environment in which he worked, where ideas were thrown out no matter how big, no matter how fantastic, and were sincerely considered and, more often than not, supported. If you have a marketing, public relations, communications, advertising or journalism major in your life, or someone working in any of those fields, buy them this book. If they aren't an American football fan, they can skip the game accounts and scores -- I did. But Collie J.'s strategies, planning, press releases, dreams -- don't miss those, because in terms of advice, they are golden.