Talk:Southwestern Athletic Conference Men's Basketball Player of the Year

Spotty record keeping

I (User:Jrcla2) researched and found all of the references listed in the article that verify all of the listed players as the SWAC Players of the Year. The SWAC Men's Basketball Media Guide only went back to the 1989–90 season, and any players of the years prior to that were found through other sources. Despite my countless hours of research, I was still unable to verify the 1978, 1979 and 1981 winners (plus any prior to 1974, which I am unsure even exist). After exhausting my own resources, I contacted Tom Galbraith, who at the time of the e-mail correspondences was the official SWAC Men's Basketball contact. He confirmed that the SWAC did a poor job of keeping historical records and ultimately could not provide any further information. What follows is the most pertinent e-mails in our string of replies.

Correspondence with Tom Galbraith

Hello Tom,
I was just wondering when I can expect to hear from you? I am still interested in the SWAC Men's Basketball Players of the Year for an article I am trying to write. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

— Best regards,
(Jrcla2)
Fri, Dec 17, 2010 at 2:01 PM

Hi (Jrcla2),
I actually had you on my list to contact today as now things have settled down a little after the football championship. I am not sure how far I can go back on players of the year, to be honest. My predecessors have let some things fall through the cracks in retaining our history sections, and right now I am unable to put my hands on that information. I have a couple other places to look, but in all frankness, my optimism is bleak.

— TG
Fri, Dec 17, 2010 at 2:02 PM

This was essentially the end of anything useful from Tom (although the SWAC's bad record keeping is not his fault). I wanted to paste part of our back-and-forth for a further explanation of why some of the years are missing, and why there aren't any POYs listed prior to 1974 (if there were any). Jrcla2 (talk) 02:44, 10 January 2011 (UTC)