Sep 24, 2019

"Taro Lives: Confessions of a Sports Hoaxer,” by Paul Wieland, retired lecturer in the Jandoli School of Communication, traces the author’s beginnings as a grammar school newspaperman, to his early days in the news business, where he pulled his first gags and met up with his hero, a fellow reporter who was an accomplished hoaxer.

Wieland cooperates in one big hoax and then realizes he’d like to pull off his own, but with the caveat that his wouldn’t do harm, just provide laughs. After a stint in hoax-punctuated public relations with General Motors, Wieland joined the Buffalo Sabres in August 1970, serving as public relations director and later as communications director.

He invented a Japanese hockey player named Taro Tsujimoto, soon a legend in the National Hockey League. Taro, the off-the-cuff imaginary player, set Wieland off on the pursuit of hoaxes for two decades, resulting in some of the strangest news announcements and sports television ever presented.

He continued his fun in a next incarnation as a TV sports director in New England, boss of a public TV station, and finally, as a college professor. Along the way Wieland’s career touched luminaries such as Jack and Bobby Kennedy, the U.S. space program, legendary football star Frank Gifford, and presidential candidate Jack Kemp. He even hoaxed President Ronald Reagan, whose press office was not amused.

The book is available at amazon.com.