As "sci fi" began to lose its pejorative edge – new fans entering the microcosm used it in the mundane fashion, as a shorthand way to say "science fiction," and could not easily be re-educated to its connotations with campy monster movies – Lizzy Lynn and others at the SFWA's 1976 Nebula Awards banquet began pushing for the alternate pronunciation of "skiffy" to retain that edge. Thus, the tongue-in-cheek comment, "Hoi polloi pronounce it psi phi, but we cognoscenti call it skiffy," did not actually coin the term but helped promote its use.
See Sci-Fi and SCIFI.
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