Proof that once upon a time 40 years ago, I was still somewhat athletic while playing baseball as a junior for Murphy High School. Cue “Glory Days.”
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Since I started compiling This Week in Local History last year, I find myself spending more time in the Cherokee Scout’s bound volumes from 1924 to the present. And the more I read our archives, the more I realize that while some things have changed a lot, other things have changed very little.
One thing I had not done, however, was search for my personal history in the local newspaper. So after a reader told me last week, “You don’t know what it’s like to be a subject in the Scout,” I conveniently overlooked the fact that my photo is in print every week nowadays and figured I should go back 40 years to find out.
u In my junior year at Murphy High School, because I was one of the tallest kids on campus I was roped into playing varsity basketball, a sport I barely played before then. On Nov. 25, 1981, the team photo was published on page 3 in the Scout, marking my debut in the local newspaper of record. I was stoked at the time.
Andre Smith was the star of that squad – he dunked in warmups once, which sent shockwaves among the Bulldogs’ faithful – and I jammed with him a couple times, he on bass and me on drums. Dallas “Buddy” McMillan (spelled right this time) joined me as big guys riding the pine; he is already retired, of which I’m incredibly envious. The athletic Mark Simmons was also on that team, and today his daughter McKynzie is working with the Scout as a student intern.
How time flies, and eventually circles back around, when you’re having fun in small towns.
When asked about my short-lived hoops career, I usually reference the film White Men Can’t Jump. I also couldn’t shoot very well, wasn’t fast and had little muscle mass, so there’s a good reason I played baseball.
u My second flash with local fame occurred a couple of months later, when I was the weekend disc jockey at WCVP-AM 600, which back then was Cherokee County’s official weather station. I came in one Sunday morning and checked the equipment, only to discover the temperature at the moment was -5 and the overnight low was -15, with a wind-chill factor of -30.
For a skinny boy raised in south Florida, that was still the coldest moment I’ve ever had in my life. To be sure, I checked – and rechecked – the numbers to make sure they were accurate.
Schools were closed for a week, which as I recall led to a wild tackle football game on the frozen tundra of the field next to what today is Moog Components Group in Peachtree. Eric Mulkey might still remember what pulling a muscle on that arctic day was like.
To wrap it up, the Jan. 21, 1982, edition of the Scout included the front-page headline, “Would You Believe 15 Below Zero?” It felt pretty cool to play a part in reporting the news.
u On Jan. 28, 1982, I had my first byline in the Scout as “MHS Correspondent,” writing about a basketball game in which I had an excellent view from my end of the bench. I ended up with many more bylines – in both the Scout and Murphy’s student newspaper, The Boomerang – never getting tired of seeing my name in print at the top of the story since I didn’t do anything noteworthy on the basketball court.
u That was until February, when I
finally got on the floor during a wipeout win and somehow managed to make the only shot I ever attempted, thus guaranteeing me a perfect shooting percentage into history.
u Baseball was back in the March 25, 1982, edition of the Scout, which included publishing a team photo and report on the opening game of the season, which the Dogs won 21-0. That was a fun team filled with good guys – you know, the kind who only played reasonable jokes on underclassmen, like throwing their clothes on top of the concession stand while they were changing.
I spotted Joel Jackson a few months ago at a local restaurant, and once I got past the fact that he has a lot more facial hair today, we hugged like we just left the locker room four decades back. Sports helps build lifetime friendships.
u It was much more challenging to write about baseball when I was in the middle of just about everything. That began with the April 1, 1982, edition of the Scout, which seemed like an appropriate time to start writing about myself in the third person. Thankfully, I never quoted myself.
u The April 22 edition is my personal favorite, as it’s the only time a photo of me throwing a pitch was ever published in a newspaper or anywhere else. Note to coaches: I was pitching from the stretch or my right knee would have been closer to the ground.
By the way, the Bulldogs’ team hat I’m wearing in that photo is still on display at my office. It even has official 1982 Konehete Park clay and sweat baked into it.
u Thankfully, there was no mention of the Cherryville debacle, of which I’ve written about before and refuse to relive again.
Journalism can be many things to many people, from real work as depicted in All the President’s Men to the nightly hate-throwers on cable news. However, it’s also about the little stories that get cut out and stuck on the refrigerator with a magnet – and that are still there for the viewing four decades later, having become part of our area’s history.
There will always be room for both at the Scout.
David Brown is publisher of the Cherokee Scout. You can reach him at 837-5122, Ext. 26; dbrown@cherokee-scout.com; or via Twitter
@daviddBstroh.