If basketball recruiting can be a year-long obsession with hoops fans, so can writing about it, particularly on the weekend of the NCAA Final Four.

The outcome of future Final Fours will be influenced on the players recruited this year. It will also affect the lives of basketball fans across the country in a number of ways, either when a favored player goes elsewhere or their school signs a big-time prospect from anywhere.

The recent recruiting announcements, commitments for now, for Bruce Pearl’s 2008-09 team brought to mind how different things were in the 1960s and into the 1970s and 1980s. Fans knew precious little about the players college coaches were bringing in.

Recruiting hadn’t yet become a “science.” There was none of the instant communication links we all know and love today. When a television station in those days said “Film at 11,” they meant it. Videotape had not yet found its niche.

As stated in earlier columns, there were neither talk shows nor “talk radio.” Cable television, to compete with ESPN was not yet a “must-have” item for the well-equipped home. There was no way, short of extensive travel, fans could watch the players of tomorrow do their thing on the court.

There were, of course, the major, highly recruited players, such as Lew Alcindor, Rick Mount, Bill Walton, and others, but, other than the players close to home, fans had to rely on sketchy newspaper reports of the high school players in attendance for a particular game.

That information usually was found at the bottom of a game story after a “jump” to another page. It was nothing like what it is today. Recruiting was not covered in the media on a day-to-day basis. Marvin West called the coverage “a little story that turned into a big story.” Local fans rooted for their favorite player to be recruited by Tennessee. Sometimes they were, sometimes not.

When Ray Mears showed up at a high school game in Knoxville or surrounding areas, it was an exceptionally big deal.

Mears showed up at Holston High School one winter night in 1965 to watch teams led by future Vols Jimmy England and Bill Justus square off. There wasn’t a seat to be had, but when Mears, resplendent in an orange blazer, arrived, the waters parted, and he found a seat in the Holston student section. The man knew how to make an entrance.

There were some interesting moments. In 1970, no one could miss the sight of Vol assistant coach Stu Aberdeen, all 5-foot-4 of him, squiring Tommy Burleson, all of 7-2, around Stokely Center. North Carolina State eventually signed Burleson and won a national championship in 1974, but Burleson had to have been impressed by the welcome he received. So were many other players.

Aberdeen was a master of the recruiting details (West called him “tenacious”), from camping out in New York City, allegedly for 30 days, to make an impression on Ernie Grunfeld (not to mention AD Bob Woodruff), to having jerseys with a recruit’s name and number on them front and center coincidental with an official visit to the Tennessee locker room.

One of the memorable aspects about the Tennessee experience was the halftime introduction of a visiting player Mears wanted to be a Volunteer. It was all part of the pageantry Ray brought to Tennessee basketball, like the band marching around the court at Stokely.

The arena was full, garnished in orange. The games were hotly contested. Moments after the teams left the floor, the house lights dimmed.

A spotlight, ably operated by Wallace McClure, shone down on the Tartan floor where two cheerleaders escorted a prospect to the old-fashioned “UT” at center court. The band cranked up one or more school songs. (In the early years, one of the songs wasn’t “Rocky Top.” That popular little ditty did not make an appearance until the mid-1970s.)

Fans rose as Haywood Harris read his marvelously well-crafted script about the prospect’s exploits on the court.

“He recently scored 35 points in a win over arch-rival Fulton High School,” Haywood’s script might have said about England the night he was introduced in 1967. “He averaged 24 points per game last season and is averaging 25 points this year. His team is ranked No. 7 in the state and recently completed a two-game sweep against teams from Atlanta. He is considered the top prospect in the state of Tennessee. Please welcome …” The noise reached a crescendo as Harris introduced the visiting prospect by name. It was a thrilling moment.

The NCAA later put the kibosh on such shenanigans, but they were an integral part of the Tennessee basketball experience.

Fans today don’t know what they missed in earlier years. The good old days were pretty good. Don’t let anybody tell you differently.

Tom Mattingly is the author of “The Tennessee Football Vault: The Story of the Tennessee Volunteers, 1891-2006” (2006), to be published in second edition in 2008, and “Tennessee Football: The Peyton Manning Years” (1998). He may be reached at tjmshm@comcast.net. His News Sentinel blog is called “The Vol Historian.”

© 2008, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.