A hectic first night at the Star-Telegram

    When No. 3-ranked Texas and No. 12-ranked Oklahoma -- both 5-0 and on their Big 12 farewell tour -- meet Saturday afternoon at the Cotton Bowl, it will remind me of ... 2001.

     Similar scenario, another monumental Red River Rivalry football game.

    But what I remember about 2001's meeting is not the game; it's the night before. Friday, October 5, 2001.

     My first night working at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. One of the most memorable -- and most important -- work shifts in a five-decade career.

    It would change lives, Beatrice and me and our kids. 

    As happened far too often, I needed a job. And here was a prospective one.

    Had been in contact with the Star-Telegram sports editor, Celeste Williams, and had an advantage -- a recommendation from a friend with a Shreveport newspaper connection.

    So when Celeste invited me for a "tryout" or "audition," I made the trip from Knoxville, Tennessee -- where we'd been for six years -- through Shreveport (to see my parents) and into a city where the West begins, but where I'd rarely been.

     (Had two other job chances then, in Marshall, Texas -- only 40 miles from Shreveport and the aging Rose and Louis -- and in Orlando, Florida. But neither felt like a fit.)

      It was an unsettling time for us; let's sum it up with "personal problems." But what great fortune the trip to Fort Worth was.

       And what an unforgettable night at the Star-Telegram. I'd never seen anything like it. It was a helluva challenge.

       Worked my tail off that night (we all did); met a whole bunch of strangers, some of whom would become very good friends. Found a staff so talented and so deep (numbers-wise). 

      Had the privilege of working for a sports editor who was wise and organized and loyal, and would become a person we so loved and admired (and lost far too soon). Made our home in an area where I'd always wanted to be, and at one of the most-established newspapers in this part of the country.    

      Had interviewed with the Dallas Morning News sports department in early 1982, and had a brief dalliance with Star-Telegram sports in summer of 1995. Neither was the right time, right place.

      But this time -- early October 2001 -- was my chance. Boom!

---

      The country was in a mess, the September 11 attacks still on everyone's mind. Travel by airplane was still uncertain, so I made the long drive (11 hours to Shreveport).

The tornado-wrecked Tower

     Fort Worth had a visible scar, too -- the many shattered windows of The Tower, the 35-story building a long foul ball away from the Star-Telegram office in downtown. It had been struck by the F3 tornado a year and a half earlier; the talk was that it was going to be demolished (it wasn't). 

     My connection to the S-T was Lois Norder, a managing editor (in charge of terrorism-related coverage) and also editor of the paper's Northeast edition. In the mid-1980s, we had been at the Shreveport Journal; she was a star reporter/writer, and so was her husband, Steve. It was a wonderful time at the Journal.

      So, a Friday night in Fort Worth, and I quickly was amazed at the personnel in the sports department. More than 30 people -- four assistant sports editors, three copy "chiefs" (final proofers, approve or rewrite headlines), a Sunday-section editor, three high-school editors, nine copy editors (like me), eight page designers, three "agate" scoreboard editors ... and later a dozen parttimers to take high school call-in statistics and game details.

     (Came to learn that we had 85 fulltime people in sports, and about 40 "stringers" or parttimers. Not making this up. The Star-Telegram, in the early 2000s,  was what I called "fat" in personnel. And, yes, we were among the best sports sections in the country. The awards received in those years proved that.)

     What an operation it was, especially that night.  (Turned out, there were many nights like this.)

     What made it extra challenging was this: A Barry Bonds "special" section that was pending.

     Bonds, with 70 home runs, needed one to break  Mark McGwire's single-season record (set in 1998).  The San Francisco Giants were playing on the West Coast, and would not start until 9 p.m. our time.

    A four-page section was planned, if it happened.  

    But also there was a 16-page regular sports section, and an eight-page high school section (with three separate "zone" editions). I'd never experienced that kind of volume.

    So when I got the "duty roster," with copy-editor assignments, it was just a bit daunting. 

    Plus, a bunch of strangers around me, and yet another strange computer system to battle.

    Vince Langford was one of the sports copy desk assignment gurus, and a great help. He would become one of my best friends there (and a super talent, with words and sports knowledge). 

     He was sitting closeby, guiding me through stories.  I work quickly, so he kept giving me stories. I hadn't worked in a couple of months, so I was eager, and it was exciting.

       We were waiting on the Bonds saga, but meanwhile, here is the scope of what that night was like, how many stories we worked ...

Sports front page -- Oct. 6, 2001

      -- The Texas-OU advance pages, several stories, a position-by-position breakdown. It was the first Longhorns-Sooners game with both teams ranked in the top five in 17 years (OU was No. 3; UT No. 5); the Sooners were the defending national champion and had a 17-game winning streak, but had squeezed past Kansas State 38-37 the week before.

     -- College football advance stories ... Wendell Barnhouse's whole page of stories (he was covering Florida-at-LSU that Saturday, features (one on Tennessee wide receiver Kelley Washington, who had caught 11 passes for 256 yards against LSU the previous Saturday, a game the kids and I attended in Knoxville; Vols won 26-18. But LSU got even that December in the SEC Championship Game).

    -- It was a Texas Motor Speedway weekend -- a NASCAR Craftsman Trucks race that night, an Indy Racing League 300 on Saturday.

    -- The Dallas Stars played their first-ever regular-season game at the $46 million American Airlines Center, a 4-1 victory against Nashville. So a Jim Reeves column and several stories on the game.

     -- The Texas Rangers were playing a late game at Seattle; the Mariners had beaten them 16-1 on Thursday night (coverage in the Saturday paper). Alex Rodriguez hit his 52nd home run for the only Rangers run; Rafael Palmeiro had two of their four hits. Seattle had a spectacular 114-45 record; the Rangers were only 42 games behind them in the standings.)

   -- The Dallas Cowboys, with Dave Campo as head coach, were 0-3 and getting ready to play at Oakland, and rookie QB Quincy Carter was about to make his first start. (They lost 28-21 that Sunday.)

    -- The Dallas Mavericks were in training camp, with a young owner (Mark Cuban), an innovative head coach (Don Nelson), and three star players (Michael Finley, and two young superstars-in-the-making, Steve Nash and a 7-foot German guy who had a great shooting touch, Dirk Nowitzki.

    -- There was quarter-horse racing at Lone Star Park.

    All these elements had one or multiple stories.

     And then there was high school football. I knew what Friday nights were like in the fall, but this was a mad scramble -- game after game story to work, first-come basis.

    So, about 40 games covered, with 20 full stories to work. I remember editing a Brownwood vs. Stephenville story, not knowing how huge a rivalry that was. 

   All this, and -- while high school games are coming in -- we're watching Bonds' at-bats in San Francisco. 

     Luckily, in the first inning, he hit No. 71 off Chan Ho Park. So, the Bonds special section was in play. More work for everyone. And while we started editing that copy, Bonds hit No. 72 -- again off Park -- in the third inning. More work.

     One memory: The deadline for pages to go to print was midnight. As I recall, we finished up closer to 1 a.m. We were a bit overloaded.

---

     I sat across from a veteran sports department guy named Don Bowman. Didn't take long to realize he was funny, outrageous, knew his sports, was an extreme University of Maryland/Oakland A's/Washington baseball fan, and was talented. We lost him far too soon, too, and too suddenly.

     As it happened, the desk where I was working was Jeff Wilson's. He was helping with auto-racing coverage that night. He would become a friend, and his talent has him now covering the Texas Rangers and TCU. And one of the S-T's top sports columnists was Gil LeBreton, an old friend from LSU and New Orleans.

     One guy not working that night came in with his kid in a stroller to see his wife (who also worked at the paper). I knew his face, couldn't remember his name. Asked, and -- aha! (Andy Clay) -- I had worked with him in Jacksonville, Florida, about a decade earlier.

      And one funny moment: One of the sports copy editors came up to introduce himself: Jerry Barnes. "Nice to meet you," I said. "Oh, we've met before," Jerry said, smiling. "I was sitting next to you at the [Centenary College] Gold Dome the night you threw the basketball at an official (who was a friend of his)."

      Oops. Yes, in 1979, Barnes was an assistant sports information director at University of North Texas; I was the SID at Centenary. UNT's players that night were beating the hell out of our 6-11 center, Cherokee Rhone. I didn't like it. When the ball came bouncing over the media table right to me, I (not) gently directed back at an official with a (not) soft remark. I was excused from the table. (I have written a blog on that.)

    "Please don't tell anybody," I asked Barnes that night. I think he's tattled on me a few times since. We're still laughing about it.

---

    So, I ended up working some 14 to 16 stories that night ... and made an impression.

    Michele Machado, one of our page designers, laughingly recalled that when the shift was finished, she told people in the department, "That guy will never be back."

    But I knew that I wanted to work at the Star-Telegram, and told Bea that when I got back to Knoxville.

     When the shift ended, I drove to Carrollton where our son Jason was living (he had graduated from LSU and found a job in Dallas -- with travel to Tarrant County -- a few years earlier). Got up the next morning and drove to Shreveport, picked up Dad and we went to the San Jose State-at-Louisiana Tech football game that night, a one-sided Tech victory.

     Meanwhile, OU beat Texas 14-3 at the Cotton Bowl, with the memorable "Superman" tackle by OU safety Roy Williams that resulted in linebacker Teddy Lehman's 2-yard pass interception return near the end of the game clinching the victory for the Sooners.

    In a few days, Celeste called and offered me a position as a "contract" worker, not fulltime. But the pay was good, and we quickly decided to make the move from Knoxville to Fort Worth. 

     That meant leaving our Rachel behind in Knoxville, where she was a junior at the University of Tennessee. It meant being closer to the Van Thyns in Shreveport and even closer to Jason.

      No insurance coverage came with the job, but Celeste promised that the first copy-editor opening she had would be mine. Two weeks later, a copy editor left and I went fulltime, with insurance benefits. Good thing because only a few months later Bea was diagnosed with colon cancer. That insurance was a saver.

      What followed was Bea surviving two surgeries in four years, and a beautiful life still. For me, a decade at the Star-Telegram and a fulfilling end to a career. 

      Lots of good luck involved, and a first night at the S-T to remember.