Alan J. Gould

While still in high school, Gould was hired by Frank Gannett (founder of Gannett media corporation) as a part-time reporter for the Star Gazette in Elmira, New York.^[1][2] He also worked for a time at Gannett's Ithaca Journal.^[3] He next became the news editor of the Morning Sun in Binghamton, New York.^[4]

Gould went to work for the Associated Press in 1922. He served as the wire service's sports editor from 1922 to 1938. Gould was an innovator during his time in charge of sports at the Associated Press. For many years, Walter Camp had been the "official" selector of college football's annual All-America team. Controversy had for years surrounded the selection of an All-America team by one man. After Camp died in March 1925, Gould created the Associated Press All-America team. In announcing the first Associated Press All-America team, Gould wrote that the team was a "comprehensive consensus" based on input from 100 coaches and critics from around the country.^[5] In 1933, Gould was the first to coin the term "Grand Slam" in respect to winning the four major tennis titles in a calendar year.^[6] In 1936, Gould brought another innovation to the sport with the introduction of the AP Poll to rank the country's college football teams and determine a national champion. He polled the editors of AP newspapers to determine the rankings. Gould later recalled, "It was a case of thinking up ideas to develop interest and controversy. Papers wanted material to fill space between games. That's all I had in mind, something to keep the pot boiling. Sports was then living off controversy, opinion, whatever. This was just another exercise in hoopla."^[7] The AP Poll quickly became the standard for determining each year's national championship team.