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The story behind the story
July 7, 2009In Sunday's TRN, a wrote a story questioning the legitimacy of whether Henrietta's Brian Parrish set a state record almost 14 years ago by completing 48 passes in a loss to Electra.
I guess some people read the story and thought I was out to "erase" this guy's record, but that was not the case at all.
In fact, when I first started writing this story, it was with the intent to bring to light what Parrish is doing now and to talk to him about if he's surprised the record is still intact.
After interviewing him and both coaches involved in that game, I took a trip down to the library to look up the story from that game (I knew my boss Nick had covered it) to get the score and maybe include a couple more details. I was very surprised when I saw his story, though.
Turns out, according to the story, that Parrish completed 30-of-48 passes that night. I then spent the next couple days tracking down old sports writers to see how records from that long ago were kept. And I discovered that it's all pretty fishy.
So then I talked to both coaches again, and to Parrish one last time. Parrish is adamant he was 48-of-60 that night.
I have no idea whether Parrish's completion total will still be considered a record. But I do know this.
I can't imagine Nick missing 18 completions in one game, and he also had the same amount of yards that Parrish said he had, so it's not like one entire passing stat sheet was left out.
Who knows who turned in the 48-of-60, because it was not in our paper, nor did the coach or Parrish know it was a record right afterward.
Somewhere hopeful there is a video of the game, and that will put the matter to rest. Until then, I think you have to question the record.
Posted by at 12:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
