Looking back on 50 years of sports writing
Getting long in the tooth, gray/white in the hair, and wrinkly on the face reminds me in the mirror every day that I am not a spring chicken anymore. Of course, I don’t even remember back when or if I ever was a spring chicken, and I am not even sure if that was/is even something to which to aspire.
Anyhow, I have met some nice folks from other communities over the long years, with these past four games being some of the better experiences I have had in the press box. I have been writing sports for a long time, and the writer visiting here from Maumelle, Jim Ashley, was an alum from Harding University and we had several friends in common so we talked a lot. During our conversation, he asked me just how long I had been writing sports.
I had never given it that much thought (or any thought for that matter) and so during the halftime break, I figured it out. I began writing for the Grizzly Gazette in 1969 (Monett, Mo., student newspaper) as that was the first season I could drive a car to the games. This means that I have been writing sports stories for FIFTY Years! I used to think just being 50 was old, which, incidentally, is what my students think right now.
When I applied for admission to Harding upon my high school graduation in 1971, I filled out and submitted a questionnaire inquiring into what activities I was involved in as a high school student. I was later approached by students who ran the Harding Bison student newspaper who extended an invitation to me to write for them. Thus, I began the second phase of my journalistic journey.
The Sports Information Director at Harding (Stan Green) contacted me a year after I began being published in the Bison with a job offer to write for the university, offering to actually pay me. Being a typical college student (needing money) and with the deal sweetened with free food on sports trips, I was all in. While on the university payroll, I did sports writing, brochure design, photography (when it was a whole other animal) and editing.
This experience led me to write for a number of small daily and weekly papers from the 1970s ’til the present day. I was a stringer for the old Arkansas Gazette before it folded and was absorbed by the Arkansas Democrat. I wrote pieces for the Benton County Democrat before it was expanded, renamed, sold, then buried by the folks who own the GazetteDemocrat.
I began to write a little for The TIMES here in the late ’90s, and did more when Becky Tyson started running the paper. When Annette Beard took over the helm, I was even more involved with writing local sports.
Now I draw the same pay with The TIMES that I did with the Grizzly Gazette. While writing youth sports can be time consuming, it is rewarding and even fun at times. Having had most of the present day Pea Ridge athletes in my art room as elementary students, it is great to see how they have matured.
Speaking of students, I met a college student who was working for the Gazette who was doing his first sports writing at the Farmington game. He was me back in 1974. He was very inquisitive and I helped him identify the Blackhawk players, providing him a little background information as well.
Last week, I sat in the Lincoln press box with Randy Magar, a First Baptist minister who was the announcer and had the only room for a visiting reporter to sit in. We had some good conversations, once referring to Lance Nunley’s grandmother who attended his church and who was sitting on the Pea Ridge side even though she was from Lincoln.
Mr. Magar told me about the balloon release they were going to do before kickoff for those who had lost loved ones to cancer. I obtained one of the said balloons, wrote my late daughter’s name on it (Lora) and released it when the rest of the crowd did. This unexpected activity meant something to me and I deeply appreciate the Lincoln folks for recognizing the scourge that cancer places on society.
I have had a lot of great experiences in the role of sports reporter over the years, but the major reason I still do this is so that the kids have something to cut out for their scrap books. We are lucky in Pea Ridge to have a venue like The TIMES that can publish the athletic exploits of the students here to a degree not available to very many other schools and communities in the state.
None of us are kids very long (my wife might dispute that) and the best things we bring forward in our lives are the memories. It is nice to have some of them typed up, printed, cut out and glued into something to remember.
Next up:
The Gravette Lions
The 2-3 Gravette Lions will be in town this week for a conference game.
The Lions have beaten Jay, Okla., and Lincoln by 34-13 and 34-14 counts, respectively. Their losses were to Tulsa Cascia Hall 38-6, Farmington 49-19 and Prairie Grove 48-7. There was a report in MaxPreps for awhile that the Tigers had beaten the Lions 93-7 in overtime. It wasn’t true.
Their quarterback Cy Hilger leads the team with 913 passing yards, second most in the conference. Hilger is not much of a risk to run, as he averages less than 2 yards a carry, but he can throw the football.