Wendell was the best, and so was our boss

"The best newspaper boss I worked for was the last newspaper boss I worked for." 

-- Wendell Barnhouse, about Celeste Williams (Fort Worth Star-Telegram sports editor, 1999-2017).

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     One of the great pleasures of 45 years in the newspaper business was working with dedicated and talented journalists, and good people. 

     It happened at every stop, but it was especially true in the last decade at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. 

     Some were more outstanding than others. Wendell

Barnhouse was one.

     I am writing here what I told many people many times: We had the best college football and basketball writer in the country. Wendell proved it every year, darned near every day when he wrote.

     We had a terrific staff in almost every area -- inside (the "desk" people, in newspaper terms -- editors, designers, copy editors) and outside (the writers that the public knew).

     This was all put together by Celeste Williams, the S-T's sports editor for 18 years until cancer took her from us three years ago. Beloved is the best way to put how we all felt about her.

     See Wendell's quote to start this piece. Me, too.

     Just so happens that last Friday -- Oct. 1 -- on Celeste's birthdate, I received from a friend a link to two columns that an 88-year-old ex-sports editor in Columbia, Missouri, wrote about the young Wendell Barnhouse. 

     Our mutual friend, Joel Bierig (whose own productive sportswriting career began at the Shreveport Journal in May 1975), also sent a link to an autobiography that Wendell has written in the past few months to stay busy during the pandemic-restricted months.

     (I am sharing the book link at the bottom of this piece. I recommend it to my journalism friends.)

     The autobiography is very, very detailed, covering every aspect of Wendell's life -- he's 66 1/2  now -- and his career, and there's plenty of commentary because Wendell is never without opinions (what did you expect from a journalist?).

     It is, as with everything he writes, an interesting, complete and well-done effort.

     We were not, I must say, close friends. I knew of Wendell  and had met him a couple of times before I joined the Star-Telegram staff as a sports copy editor in late December 2001.

      Our careers had many similarities. Started at a medium-sized paper writing about kids' stuff (writing our stories long-hand at first, until we were taught better), covering American Legion baseball (loved it!), covering high school athletics, working "inside" as  designers/layout and copy editors, sports editor positions, lots of writing and editing. Moved around -- a lot (Wendell worked in Missouri, Illinois, Arizona, Atlanta and settled in Texas). We were high-strung (you know that), teed off people and got teed off. 

     (See photos of the young Wendell at the bottom of this blog.)

     Big difference: Wendell was a big-time writer covering all the major college sports events (and many others), winning national awards. Me, not so much.

     So we were on the same staff for about 6 1/2 years until Wendell -- sensing that the S-T layoffs which had begun in April 2008 -- were going to keep happening. He took a buyout, ending his 25-year stay at the S-T. This was his last newspaper stop.

      He had come to the Metroplex in 1981, with The Dallas Morning News. There he was a desk man -- a very skilled designer, then a section editor. 

     The DMN, starting in about 1980, had one of the nation's best -- and most respected -- sports sections. After two years of "meat grinder" work, he turned down a chance to become Sunday section editor -- an important role there, an almost-sure step to bigger and better jobs. That led to another move. 

     Through his connection with Bud Kennedy, he joined  the Star-Telegram; Fort Worth's gain, no question. Began as a desk man, became an assistant sports editor, then turned to writing fulltime in 1986 (when the NCAA Tournament Final Four was in Dallas). 

      Among our many talented writers, Wendell was so knowledgeable, so thorough, productive and reliable,  and -- in all my years in newspapers -- the very best "on deadline" (only Mike Strange at the Knoxville News-Sentinel was his deadline equal, in my experience).

      And Wendell's writing was just darned interesting, factual ... and when needed, opinionated. 

     He was, in editing terms, a "clean" read, an easy assignment for us. Few mistakes ... and if you caught him in one, he was appreciative (not all writers were; some would argue almost every word or fact you suggested changing).

      He covered all the major college football and basketball events, and wrote about the newsmakers, trends and controversies. (He did NOT love Bobby Knight ... who the hell did?).      

Wendell with ESPN college
basketball analyst Jay Bilas.

     He especially loved college basketball and here is his tally of NCAA Tournament coverage: 343 games, 26 Final Fours, two women's Final Fours (and one more championship game).

     This is where he really shined. On NCAA Tournament Selection Sunday, every year we had a special section -- 8-10 pages, breaking down all the regions, with analysis, featured players, and sketches on all 64 (or 68) teams. Wendell each year wrote just about every word in those sections. 

     And did the bulk of it "on deadline," in a space of 2-3 hours after the late-afternoon tournament bracket announcement show. 

     It was a tribute to his organization, preparation and work ethic. Can you imagine how hard that was to do?

      He never failed, and it was damn impressive.

      We didn't see a lot of Wendell; he worked from home ... or from all parts of the country. On his office visits -- or on the phone -- was he was very business-like, not chatty, not a BSer (a lot of sports people specialized in those areas). 

      He was, in baseball terms, a "tough out." That could be interpreted as criticism, and to some, it seemed he was standoffish or aloof. But if you knew a little of Wendell's background, a hard-knock early life with challenges, you could understand why he was tough. Plus, he was just a busy guy -- in stressful circumstances. 

       But also, if he had time and you hit on the right subject, he would ease up and talk away. And we knew he was a devoted husband and father ... and a dedicated worker.

      He was only fired once, from the job that followed his Star-Telegram time, as a writer/TV-video host for the Big 12 Conference for seven years. (We could talk about being fired, but we're not going to do that.) 

      Here is how Wendell -- unemployed in 2015 for the first time in 43 years and trying to find ways to find jobs --  described his work attributes on his LinkedIn page:

     "Exceptional writing, editing and time management skills. Thorough researcher, inquisitive interviewer. Organized multi-tasker and task-oriented. Delivers before deadline. Understands importance of collaboration, but can work independently. Keen eye for logic, facts and flow when editing. Customer oriented (the reader being the customer). Innovative problem solver. Understands changing media landscape with experience in social media and video production."

     Yes, indeed. I could not describe it better; no one could.

     Nominally, Wendell is now retired. But I suspect that if he was asked to write an in-depth feature or an analysis or a guest column for a newspaper or web site, he could do it ... today.

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      Back to Wendell's autobiography. The chapter that most interested me is Chapter Eight, titled "The Best of Times." It is about the 2000s decade at the Star-Telegram and, like Wendell, like all of us who were there, we were proud of our section. 

      We were, in short, as good as anyone in the country, including our Metroplex buddies, the DMN.

     In this chapter, he writes about the D-FW newspaper battles; interesting stuff. With Wendell's permission, I am borrowing much of it in this blog. Because we lived some of it with Wendell.

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    The Best of Times

     The best newspaper boss I worked for was the last newspaper boss I worked for. ...

      Ellen Alfano was promoted to assistant managing editor and was still overseeing sports. In May of 1999 she hired Celeste Williams to be Senior Editor for sports. For the next nine years under Celeste's leadership, we kicked ass.

     Knight-Ridder owned several outstanding newspapers around the country. When the Morning News opened its Arlington edition in 1996, it laid down a gauntlet. When K-R took ownership of the Star-Telegram, its main goal was to establish the paper’s superiority in Tarrant County and to beat back the challenger from the East. The home office gave the Star-Telegram the resources and marching orders to be the best. We had the right leadership to make that happen.

     Arlington and the areas northeast of Fort Worth were booming in terms of business and population. The Star-Telegram had for years produced zoned editions, with pages of the paper produced for specific suburbs. To combat the DMN, that strategy was placed on steroids. The paper opened and staffed bureaus for Arlington and Northeast zoned editions. Those bureaus included about two dozen writers and editors that focused only on their editions.

     The seriousness of our intentions was displayed in 1998 when the Star-Telegram hired Randy Galloway, the Morning News’ top sports columnist. Galloway had become a major player in the sports scene since becoming a columnist at the DMN in 1982 and then adding a nightly sports talk radio show on WBAP, a 50,000-watt AM station. Galloway was having a dispute with DMN management when Jim Witt, the Star-Telegram’s executive editor, offered him a five-year, $1.5 million deal.

     Damn right we were serious.

     I had known Randy during my time at the Morning News. He had been promoted to columnist from the Rangers beat when the Times Herald shocked the Dallas media world by hiring Skip Bayless, the DMN’s “star” columnist, at the height of the newspaper war. While Bayless was a flake and a jerk, Galloway was a Texan and a newspaper man with no ego. Despite his huge contract, he didn’t “big time” the Star-Telegram staff. He always treated me as an equal and tipped well when I delivered his dry cleaning. (Just kidding.)

     Once Celeste came on board as editor we had the perfect person to guide and direct us. She had the experience and understanding of how a sports department needed to function. She loved great writing and she supported the folks who labored on the desk. Trust me, that’s a rare combo.

     Here’s what Galloway said about Celeste: “The bottom line is she was not just a damn good newspaperwoman, but just a damn good person. There were many times in my column writing that I made some people mad, some people in high positions, ownership positions — I can think of Rangers owners in particular — and Celeste would have to meet with those angry Rangers people.

     “I never asked what went on in the meeting, but Celeste would call, she would say they explained their side, we explained our side, and by the way, I loved the column. That was Celeste.”

     Celeste also loved college sports. It soon became evident to me that starting with college football media days in July, I was going to be going balls to the wall covering the sport. Once the season started, we would meet in her office each Monday to talk about upcoming coverage. Celeste was great with ideas, but she also listened and collaborated. I had learned how to look ahead and plan so that whatever road trips I made produced the most bang for the buck.

     Ellen and Celeste had worked together before and they made a good team. We were probably the only newspaper in the country with two females overseeing a sports department. While there might have been some resentment from a few males on the staff, Ellen and Celeste knew what they were doing, and they were empowered by management to “go for the gold.” They were respected and they earned that respect.

     From 1999 to 2008, we did something I never thought would be possible. We were the equal if not superior to the Dallas Morning News. The work produced by our sports staff – writers, page designers, editors – was prolific and stunning.

     Ellen and Celeste decided that in the annual Associated Press Sports Editors contests for best writing and best sections, we would “play up” and compete in the largest circulation category even though we were eligible to stay in the category that was a step lower. From 2001 through 2007, the Star-Telegram earned Top 10 status six times for its daily sports section, five times for special sections and twice, in 2002 and 2005, it won Triple Crown recognition for daily, special sections and Sunday section.

     Celeste was supportive of my ideas no matter how crazy. Crazy like attending and covering two football games featuring four top-10 teams in cities 475 miles apart.

     (Note: First Saturday in November 2000, No. 2 Virginia Tech at No. 3 Miami, noon EST; No. 10 Clemson at No. 3 Florida State in Tallahassee at 7:30 p.m. EST.)

     For Monday’s paper, I wrote a “tick tock” story that recounted the events and observations of covering two games in one day. Those were the type of unique stories that Celeste craved and helped make us a great sports section.

     Those self-made challenges/assignments that I  concocted during my newspaper career were probably what it’s like for the adrenaline junkies who skydive, scuba, climb mountains or street race. I enjoyed the planning and the challenge of executing the plan. It was exciting but typically left me telling myself: “That was fun, but let’s not do that again."

     During each football season, the quantity and quality of what the department produced was arugably the best in the country. Ellen and Celeste understood how important football was and the weekends in September, October and November revolved around the sport.

     In addition to producing a daily sports section that was often 16 to 20 pages, four days a week the Star-Telegram produced bonus sections.

     Friday was an 8-page weekend kickoff section previewing high school, college and NFL games. Typically, that would include a feature story from me on that weekend’s big college game or a hot-topic trend piece.

     Saturday was an 8-page section devoted to Friday night high school football coverage. And in Saturday’s main sports section, I had a full-page on college football – a column on the big game that day or a trending topic, a 400-word spotlight feature on a player, plus quotes and notes. My guesstimate is that I wrote between 3,000 to 3,500 words for that page each Saturday during the season.

     Sunday was an 8-page section covering Saturday’s college football action. That typically featured game reports on TCU, top Big 12 games, SMU, North Texas and my story from the biggest national game.

     Monday was an 8-page section with stories on the Cowboys game and wrapping up the NFL.

     Considering the incredible shrinking newspapers that exist in 2020, it’s hard to believe that just two decades ago the Star-Telegram sports department basically produced 11 sections a week. The combined page counts of those four days of double sections would almost be equal to the weekday total page count printed now.

     I often wonder if subscribers who enjoyed reading about sports wonder what happened to all the sports coverage.

     Knight-Ridder was a company and companies have stockholders. In the mid-2000s, the rise of digital publishing started to overtake print. While major newspapers around the country remained highly profitable, their profit margins started to shrink. That meant newspaper companies had to start cutting corners. Eventually, K-R couldn’t tighten its belt anymore.

     In 2006, a small fish swallowed a whale. McClatchy bought Knight-Ridder, taking on debt and selling off several newspapers. The Star-Telegram was among the papers it kept. However, it soon became obvious that McClatchy not only cared more about the bottom line than about bylines and deadlines but it also bit off more than it could chew.

     The writing was on the wall. Wes Turner left as publisher. Ellen and Celeste continued trying to fight the good fight, but we had less space for stories and a tighter travel budget. The Bowl Championship Series title game for the 2007 season was in New Orleans, a cheap and easy trip. When I was told that only Gil Lebreton, one of our columnists, would be going to the game and that I would miss my first national championship game since the 1994 season, I started to strap on my parachute."

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     In our exchange of e-mails the past few days, I told Wendell that I planned to write this piece, use his chapter on the S-T glory days, and that I considered him the best college sports writer in the country. Here is a bit of his reply:

     "Dude, your compliments are humbling. Particularly during that time from 2000 through 2008 when the section was kicking ass. I had the opportunity to work my ass off alongside other folks who were just as talented and hard-working. 

     "You know the old saying that it's hard to fly like an eagle when you work with a bunch of turkeys. ... We were all eagles. It was a rare and memorable time."

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https://wendellbarnhousebook.pressbooks.com/