Travis Feldhaus, the Texas sports information director in charge of media relations for the Longhorns swimming teams, was named the best swimming SID by Swimming World magazine.

This is a little unexpected for local media, as Feldhaus is a notoriously bad SID in terms of returning phone calls and emails from reporters, let alone setting up interviews. Part of the problem, though, is Feldhaus is also the SID for the men’s and women’s golf teams and tennis teams. No other SID has more than two teams to themselves, whereas Feldhaus has six.

If you’re a subscriber you’ve probably already got the letter explaining this, but for you newsstand junkies out there (if there are any left in the U.S.) the Houston Chronicle - the 10th-largest paper in terms of circulation - can’t get any copies the whole 165 miles to Austin.

So, no more hometown Astros, Rockets or Texans coverage for you Houstonians out there living in the Capitol City. To be clear, you won’t be getting this Sunday’s paper.

According to the letter, “economic factors caused this decision; specifically, extremely high transportation costs, driven by gasoline prices.”

We have a feeling the dying out of printed news products is more the root of this problem, but we do appreciate a soid explanation. In the end, though, blaming gas prices is placing the responsibility somewhere else instead of facing the truth about the industry.

Texas women’s basketball coach Gail Goestenkors was seen reading Tuesday’s copy of the the Texan sports section at the Potbelly’s sandwich shop on the Drag (stretch of Guadalupe street across from campus).

Coach G was reportedly eating with ex-Ole Miss women’s basketball coach Carol Ross. Ross has been seen around Austin all season. The two coached USA Basketball’s U19 team in 2006, where Goestenkors was head coach and Ross her assistant, and word is they have remained friends.

First, the Austin American-Statesman published a love letter to the Longhorns basketball team on its sports blog, Bevo Beat. The author was not a sportswriter, but to put this on their sports blog is a true act of homerism (showing bias toward the team one covers for a living).

Within this love letter, there is a line that is particularly offputting and factually wrong.

Writers Ricky Treon and Colby White both won second-place SPJ region 8 awards in sportswriting-related categories, while photographer Jaqueline Walker took third place for her sports photography.

Treon won in “Sports Writing,” White won in “Sports Column Writing” and Walker won in “Sports Photography.” Though none of them won first-place awards, this is still a coup for the Texan, which hasn’t won any sports-related awards from the SPJ in years.