Thomas Bonk coined Phi Slamma Jamma but no copyright royalties.

Bonk takes it all in his long, lanky stride. I thought Bonk couldn’t cash in because he wrote “Phi Slama Jama” for the newspaper.

“That’s not the way it works,” he said. “Had nothing to do with the paper. It was the way copyright laws work. If you create a slogan or a marketing campaign for the purpose of making a marketing campaign, that’s a different story. I didn’t do that though. So it didn’t work. I thought about assigning a tax value to it and charging it off on my income tax but that didn’t work. So the best way was to donate it to the university. It’s a state school, my dad worked at a state school, he was an educator at a state school, just a better way to do it. and I’m happy the way it worked out. It’s OK.”

Bonk has, at least, been given proper credit for the phrase and will soon be featured in an upcoming ESPN “30 for 30” on Phi Slama Jama.