Wednesday, April 10, 2002
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Wednesday, April 10, 2002 |
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'Sports guy' remembers getting hired by Hamrick It was some time around March 1993 when I got a call from Dolly Purvis, my old boss at the Clayton Sun, where I had been sports editor before the Sun Newspaper Group went under. She told me that a sports editor job had opened up at a brand new paper in Fayetteville, and that I needed to contact Dave Hamrick. I was pretty bummed about the newspaper business at that point, having been kicked out of the army, where I started out as a military journalist, then watched my first civilian newspaper go bankrupt. I showed up for my interview with Dave wearing shorts, a Georgia Tech T-shirt and a Tech baseball cap. I thought to myself, "If they want a sports guy, they'll get a sports guy." I walked into Dave's office, and the first thing he said to me was, "You must be a sports guy." The weird thing was that my show of individualism didn't put him off at all. That's what I'll remember most about Dave. He saw the talent in me, hired me to my third associate editorship at age 22, and set me loose to see where my talent would take me. He was very much like my dad, who hesitated to overstress discipline because he wanted me to develop on my own and become my own man. Maybe Dave should have cracked the whip a little more, but I think his style was just to surround himself with good people and let everyone make their own contribution. This freedom allowed me to have some great moments at The Citizen. I remember when the sports information director at the University of Kentucky wouldn't help me out with a press pass to see McIntosh graduate and UK basketball star Jeff Sheppard play at UGA, or even grant me a phone interview with Jeff. I called up the Red & Black, the student newspaper at UGA, and got in touch with their staff photographer. I drove up to Athens, met this guy after the game and got a great picture, then published it with an interview with Jeff's parents. Then there was the time when somebody gave me the number for Eloise McCoy, Evander Holyfield's sister and personal secretary. I called her up to explore the possibility of getting a phone interview with Evander (who I believe was heavyweight champ for the second time at that point). The next day she called back telling me to be at Evander's Fayetteville home one morning that week and we would do an interview and photo session in his private gym. I was awestruck enough as Evander walked me past his full-sized boxing ring, which was surrounded by ceiling-high mirrors. Then we got to his workout area and there was his personal trainer Lee Haney, eight-time Mr. Olympia (and also a Fayette County resident). I stood there staring at Lee for a solid 10 seconds while Evander went to get his workout started. Finally, Lee looked up and said, "Do you want to ask me some questions or something?" Eventually sports began to be less important to me than real life. My work started to suffer as my motivation lagged, and I had to tell Dave that I needed to get out and maybe try and go to school. Now that I'm making a few baby steps toward getting back into writing in some capacity, it's a terrible blow that my mentor won't be there for me to chat with or ask for advice. To Dave's family I would only say this: Take comfort by taking pride in who Dave was. He was a great example of what a man, an editor and a citizen should be. Buddy Grizzard the_allfather@hotmail.com
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