FAVORITE AP STORIES
Basketball player Katrina Price was a third-team AP All-American in 1998. The following January, she shot herself to death. I wrote a few paragraphs about the breaking news when it happened, then insisted on going to East Texas; there was a bigger, better story to be told and I wanted to tell it. My bosses weren't as interested, but ultimately relented. The resulting story won the 1999 Newspaper Individual Achievement Award from The Headliners Foundation of Texas. On the award certificate, the judges' comments say: "For his straightforward and well-sourced story about the stunning suicide of an outstanding young women's basketball star."
While in Alpine, Texas, working on a story about a retired NFL player who was suing the league, I bumped into an acquaintance who said, "Are you here to write about our 59-year-old linebacker?" My reply: "I am now." The story introducing Mike Flynt as "The Senior" made such a splash that the day it was released, not only did his business' website crash from all the traffic, so did every website on that server. Many more trips to Alpine followed to chronicle his amazing season.
Donnie Nelson was among my favorite people I regularly covered, in part because he was so darn interesting. He liked this story so much that when I met his mom a few years later, he introduced me as the guy who'd written it. Donnie later dragged me into another fun adventure: the birth of a sport that he'd conceived.
Another of my favorite people is Ray Johnston. His rise from walk-on point guard at Alabama to playing for the Mavericks' summer league team was a story in itself. But when a minor injury that summer led to a diagnosis of leukemia, and then a coma, the story became even more powerful. This is what I wrote about Ray, before Mark Cuban nominated him as his hero for a CNN series, and before Ray reinvented himself again as a country singer and the star of his own reality TV show.
In 2001, I was named AP Sports Writer of the Year for a portfolio of stories. Judges offered praise for "rich detail, great leads and willingness to take some chances with his writing." The six-story package included: Ivan Rodriguez returning to his roots in Puerto Rico, a look at Bob Knight's arrival at Texas Tech (along with a second story on his critics), Troy Aikman's retirement news conference (note: I also was the first to report he'd been cut), the Cowboys trusting Quincy Carter to lead the post-Aikman era and a feature on Mavericks owner Mark Cuban (couldn't find exact award entry; this was one of the first takeouts I did on him).
My most memorable foray into first-person journalism came from batting against Nolan Ryan. Sure, he was 56 at the time. But he was still Nolan Ryan, and I'll forever be a bottom-of-the-lineup hitter even in my Sunday softball league. I later received the bat I used, signed by Nolan - and scuffed by the two balls I hit.
A few other notables from my AP career:
Basketball player Katrina Price was a third-team AP All-American in 1998. The following January, she shot herself to death. I wrote a few paragraphs about the breaking news when it happened, then insisted on going to East Texas; there was a bigger, better story to be told and I wanted to tell it. My bosses weren't as interested, but ultimately relented. The resulting story won the 1999 Newspaper Individual Achievement Award from The Headliners Foundation of Texas. On the award certificate, the judges' comments say: "For his straightforward and well-sourced story about the stunning suicide of an outstanding young women's basketball star."
While in Alpine, Texas, working on a story about a retired NFL player who was suing the league, I bumped into an acquaintance who said, "Are you here to write about our 59-year-old linebacker?" My reply: "I am now." The story introducing Mike Flynt as "The Senior" made such a splash that the day it was released, not only did his business' website crash from all the traffic, so did every website on that server. Many more trips to Alpine followed to chronicle his amazing season.
Donnie Nelson was among my favorite people I regularly covered, in part because he was so darn interesting. He liked this story so much that when I met his mom a few years later, he introduced me as the guy who'd written it. Donnie later dragged me into another fun adventure: the birth of a sport that he'd conceived.
Another of my favorite people is Ray Johnston. His rise from walk-on point guard at Alabama to playing for the Mavericks' summer league team was a story in itself. But when a minor injury that summer led to a diagnosis of leukemia, and then a coma, the story became even more powerful. This is what I wrote about Ray, before Mark Cuban nominated him as his hero for a CNN series, and before Ray reinvented himself again as a country singer and the star of his own reality TV show.
In 2001, I was named AP Sports Writer of the Year for a portfolio of stories. Judges offered praise for "rich detail, great leads and willingness to take some chances with his writing." The six-story package included: Ivan Rodriguez returning to his roots in Puerto Rico, a look at Bob Knight's arrival at Texas Tech (along with a second story on his critics), Troy Aikman's retirement news conference (note: I also was the first to report he'd been cut), the Cowboys trusting Quincy Carter to lead the post-Aikman era and a feature on Mavericks owner Mark Cuban (couldn't find exact award entry; this was one of the first takeouts I did on him).
My most memorable foray into first-person journalism came from batting against Nolan Ryan. Sure, he was 56 at the time. But he was still Nolan Ryan, and I'll forever be a bottom-of-the-lineup hitter even in my Sunday softball league. I later received the bat I used, signed by Nolan - and scuffed by the two balls I hit.
A few other notables from my AP career:
- Dirk Nowitzki is not only the best basketball player I covered, he's also the greatest superstar to deal with - a smart, introspective, down-to-earth guy. Among the many features I did on him, my favorites come from the start of both NBA finals he's played in - this in 2006, and this in 2011.
- This story from the wild day after Terrell Owens nearly killed himself, the one best remembered for his publicist saying T.O. had "25 million reasons" not to kill himself. (My full story of that day, and the day before, is a doozie, too. It includes handling Byron Nelson's obit and a late-night stakeout of T.O.'s hospital.)
- I was there when Bob Knight became the winningest coach in men's college basketball history, and, of course, celebrated in his own indomitable fashion.
- My first big national sports feature for AP was about a high school football player who was shot to death.
- Remember Erik Bickerstaff? Probably not, but he had an amazing tale of going from being a janitor to being one of the running backs Bill Parcells relied on to fill the void created when the Cowboys cut Emmitt Smith.
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