Editor’s Note: Writing a goodbye column was a tradition at The University Daily, the campus paper at Texas Tech University. And I probably wrote mine in a huff. Too many ads. Not enough editorial space. Why my editor, Inez Russell, didn’t calf-tie me and leave me in a forgotten barn, I’ll never know. Thank you for not finding the keys to the school van. From the May 4, 1982, edition of the UD, a long-seasoned vanity piece.
HIGHWAY 84 – I guess it’s time to shut the book on an era. The wild and carefree columns of the past will make like my grade point and fade away. No more columns about filling 32 inches of space in the newspaper. No more columns about Tech students going on strike demanding easier courses and less-stringent grading policies. Even Ol’ Dusty may have seen his last Tech-Arkansas football game.
Tradition is dying out, folks.
Despite claims by the Latin faculty, I’m not very old. But when you’re 21 and have four years of higher learning tucked away in a copy of Sports Illustrated, some of the newer students look upon you as if you were Will Rogers’ statue – a Tech fixture. The baseball players can’t imagine anyone but you covering their team, and the other sports writers can’t remember when anyone but you finished last in Fearless Forecasters.
But how old can you be when you’re in college. The life is as carefree as you’ll ever experience. I can remember when Tech had a winning football team. When the basketball team participated in post-season tournaments. When a night of intramural basketball was spent at the Intramural Gym. And when Applause was one of the hottest clubs in Lubbock.
Now my catalog tells me I have enough hours to graduate, so I should leave Tech and make something of myself. Administration said I should grow up while I was at it. I was grown up when I entered college. I just regressed as the years progressed.
A couple of days ago someone said that maybe in 50 years I’d grow up. Why? I’m having a good time, and I don’t think I’m hurting anybody. Besides, everyone needs to keep a little childishness within themselves. Those people who don’t, well, I feel sorry for them. They’ll grow old long before the rest of us.
When I began working for the campus paper 3 1/2 years ago, the sports writers talked about Kirk Dooley and Chuck McDonald, former UD sports editors. Now they talk about John Eubanks and Jon Mark Beilue, also former UD sports editors. Most of next year’s sports writers know McDonald only as the AJ sports writer who grooves on golf and Dooley only as that Texas Limousine type of guy who went to high school with John Hinckley.
Graduation (the grades, however, are still out) isn’t anything to get depressed about. As soon as Dr. Graves hands me my diploma or sheepskin or merit badge (whatever they hand graduates), I’ll shed by cap and gown and head straight for South Padre Island. If a job opportunity crops up, I’ll probably jump at it. If not, we’re talking about some serious beach combing.
The sports writers today seem so much more serious than when I started. When I began, sports writers at the UD were writers first and journalists second. Now sports writers are journalists first and writers second. I hope they don’t go overboard and take all the fun out of writing sports. There aren’t too many jobs left in the world where you can have a good time and get paid for doing so.
Coming back next year to cover sports for the UD will be a veteran of Tech athletics, sports editor Doug Simpson from Floydada. Some of the graybeards of Tech academics remember Simpson as that Los Angeles Dodger kind of guy who wrote sports for the UD for 1 1l2 years before transferring to news for a two-year stint.
Maybe he’ll keep the tradition of craziness alive. Keep the Bad News Bearers intramural teams going and the UD parties something Mom would be better off not knowing about. However, the three-year reign the Houston Astros had in the UD probably will fall to the wayside. The rest of the 1982-83 sports staff is made up of three writers from the Metroplex – pro-Texas Ranger types.
Mike McAllister, that 6-4 center from Hurst who wants to be buried on the 18th green at Augusta, will return for a year as associate sports editor – Simpson’s number one man. He can write some pretty far out stuff.
Tradition will stay alive as long as Mac hangs around.
Lyn McKinley, the first woman to work for the UD sports staff since the Raiders made annual bowl game appearances, will take over a typewriter and crank out some copy next year. The junior-to-be from Denton has been bouncing around the sports staff’s minor league system for two years. All indications show she’ll make like Buddy Bell and tear up the league.
She has heard enough about the sports tradition to not let it die.
John Kelley, that Rec Sports guy, rode the bench this season, waiting for one of the starters to falter. Such was not the case, but with three writers retiring from the UD sports scene, Kelley has a chance to make Dallas proud of its favorite son. Move over Skip Bayless, the hottest guard in Tech’s intramurals thinks he can write columns.
Again, tradition will be served.
It’s a tradition a few campus organizations aren’t very fond of. A few coaches have complained about and the alumni have howled about. Even a few students off the street have griped because the words “Go Raiders” never appeared in print. We’ve had a good time writing UD sports, but we’ve also been honest with the reader. Not everyone can say that.
But then not everyone has a tradition to maintain either.
Copyright (c) 1982 by Lubbock County Stock & Feed. All Rights Reserved.