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Contest Entry-School Hoax
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Posted By:
Wes Hobart
Oct 06, 2004
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I took typing in high school as a junior because I was told it was a necessary skill for college. At the same time, college recruiting letters started coming in (I played football in both HS and college). My best friend at the time (let's call him Jim), who also played football, wasn't receiving any correspondance from institutions of higher learning. It may have been his average GPA, his reputation as a jokester who didn't take anything seriously, or that he didn't see a whole lot of the field his junior year. Either way, Jim was more than a little jealous of me as I received college letters almost daily.
Back to the typing class (there is a reason for mentioning the typing class). One of the most important things a student can do is practice outside of class. Well, I thought I would kill two birds with one stone: I would practice my typing one night after football and would cheer up my good friend Jim by typing him up a college recruiting letter.
I had no letterhead. I had no envelope. I placed the school in Bourbon, Indiana (which is such a small town that it takes three communities from around the area to make up a 1A school (smallest in IN)). I had at LEAST two typos on the letter. What I didn't have was any idea about the way Jim swallowed this gag hook, line, and sinker. And I mean: he took it and ran.
Jim showed his mother. She believed it. Jim showed the letter to the rest of his family, and they bought it. Jim then brought the letter to school to show faculty and classmates. As you might imagine, when a class clown suddenly gets a recruiting letter from "Northern Bay University"(for three sports, no less), it quickly spreads like wildfire and becomes the talk of the school. I had people coming up to me all morning and excitedly asking if I knew Jim had gotten a recruiting letter. It was very hard for me to keep a straight face for about half a day. Actually, even one teacher believed the letter, so it must have been somewhat convincing.
And then, of course, the inevitable happened. I was exposed by accident (read: yappy ex-girlfriend right after that) to Jim that I, and not the athletic director for the "Northern Bay University Polecats", was the true author of the recruiting letter.
The fallout: Jim called me an "SOB" and other things that I can't put here, but eventually he even laughed at himself a little bit as he sworn revenge (which he failed at trying to do 6 months later) upon me.
The bad part was that his mother said she was going to kick my a$@. And she was originally from Arkansas, so I'm sure she meant it literally. Or I might have gotten a frying pan across the head. I didn't see her for awhile as I thought it wise to let the situation settle, and then I did apologize to her.
BUT I NEVER APOLOGIZED TO JIM!! Friends don't do that when they pull a prank on each other. To this day I occasionally run into one of my old teachers from high school who remembers that prank and says it's the best "pimp your friend" gag he's ever heard.
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Note: This thread is located in the Old Forum of the Museum of Hoaxes.
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