And in those almost 24 years, there has always been a handful of stories that I never really had time to tell. Now that I'm in my 70s, I guess it's now or never.
In the years before angry, partisan politics and seemingly endless conflict dominated our world, I devoted a lot of time to covering high school athletics. The memories are precious.
One sports article that I'll never forget came in from the Sam Rayburn girls basketball team...or at least that's what I thought at first glance.
The first photo looked like the Sam Rayburn girls point guard was bringing the ball up the court, but something seemed amiss; upon closer examination it was her dad wearing her uniform and a wig that duplicated his daughter's hair exactly.
Slowly it sunk in that what I was looking at it was actually the fathers of the Sam Rayburn girls basketball team dressed up to look exactly like their daughters. Someone had gone to an awful lot of trouble because the resemblance was stunning.
Oh, the photo was of Hardy, Arthur and Manhart, all right, but as I leaned in for a closer look, it was actually Monte Hardy, Steve Arthur and Charlie Manhart dressed to be carbon copies of their daughters.
Fans around the gym thought it was hysterical. Leisha Hardy was dressed like Coach Pate, right down to the Hawaiian shirt that he used to wear, and she even got upset and threw the clipboard as he was known to do on occasion.
Lynn Arthur was dressed like Coach Jenkins, the assistant coach at the time, and she was scrambling to pick up the clipboard. I always wondered if the girls and Coach Pate thought it was as funny as I did.
When I covered sports, I usually did it from the visitors side. I did it for two reasons: first of all, it was easier to get good photos from there, plus and there were a lot fewer people who disliked me on that side.
One night De Kalb was scrimmaging Bonham in football and De Kalb had only one play remaining and a last-second chance to finish with a touchdown that would tie Bonham.
The De Kalb coach called his guys around him...it was crunch time. The coach started to talk, but there were 3 or 4 conversations going on around him in the huddle.
"OK, I'll tell you what," the exasperated coach began, "since you're not listening to a word I say, call your own play."
With that, the coach spun around and walked off.
At first, the players simply shrugged and frowned as they waited for the coach to let the lesson sink in and then return to the huddle. So, they waited. And they waited.
But the coach was halfway to Braum's when they realized he wasn't coming back. They all went to talking at once again...it was chaos. In the nick of time, they agreed to try a long pass that, 30 seconds later, fell short.
The coach learned that, in a pinch, his guys weren't scared to go for broke. And the team learned a little something about their coach, too.
On another memorable night, Bonham was celebrating Senior Night during basketball season and the stands were full. Bonham was playing the Pottsboro Cardinals, and Pottsboro brought a full house to support their kids. The announcer asked everyone to rise for the national anthem. Everyone was on their feet and we waited...and waited...and waited. Obviously, there was a serious problem with the sound system. Just when everyone was ready to sit down and give up, the announcer for Bonham stood up, grabbed the microphone, put his big black cowboy hat over his heart, took a deep breath and belted out a perfect version of an extremely difficult song, "The Star Spangled Banner." If you start out in the wrong key, you will live to regret it.
Now, I knew all along that our announcer that night was Mark Rattan and I knew he'd knock it out of the park because Mark had been singing professionally for decades. Afterward, the hometown fans gave Mark a rousing round of applause, but it was the reaction from the Pottsboro fans that I'll always remember.
Collectively, folks on the Pottsboro side held their breath as they watched a reluctant announcer get forced onto the court to sing a very difficult song. The tension was palpable. No one would have wanted to be in that position. Imagine their shock when every note was perfect. When it was over, there was a moment of stunned disbelief among the Pottsboro crowd before the ovation erupted. If you didn't know Mark, you would have thought that you just witnessed a rookie miraculously pull off a Pavarotti.
"Well I remember it like yesterday!" Mark recalls. "The CD player wouldn’t work and I saw them struggling across the court. It was dead silent! A few people in the crowd were whispering 'sing it Mark!' I saw my hand reaching for the mic and I thought…NO! That was right after Christina Aguilera forgot the words to the anthem during an NFL game. I focused on one star on the flag and just prayed the words would come out in the right order."
When the game was over an hour later, the adrenaline was still pumping.
"I walked straight to my truck and got in and just started shaking! It was emotional." Mark recalls. "I’ve sang in front of a lot of people for years, but never had that feeling!"
