Marty Kirkland: New publication a crash course in area’s greatest

Published 12:26 am Sunday, December 12, 2010

One of the coolest things about my job will forever be having the chance to see amazing things happen firsthand, then share that moment with others through a story or a column. Knowing you get to put together the words and phrases that recreate the moment in a reader’s mind can be a pretty special thing, particularly when the moment is one that makes you shake your head at the circumstances — whether they’re shocking, impressive or simply humbling.

But a close second for me is having the chance to hear athletes and coaches tell stories about great moments from the past, then putting that sports history on the page. For one thing, it’s rarely a contentious interview when you’re asking someone to tell you about the night they scored 50 points to help Hometown High win the state basketball title. For another, it’s quite enjoyable to let such moments give one perspective on the accomplishments of today. We sometimes forget that the games weren’t invented yesterday, and that the latest hotshot on the field might have some competition he couldn’t keep up with if time travel was possible.

Anyway, I mention all of this because an upcoming special publication from The Daily Citizen gave me and several other writers a chance to recently hear some of those tales of glory from a contingent of the area’s most outstanding athletes from the past half century or so. In addition to the stories I wrote for the publication, I’ve had the chance to read the profiles of all 50 of the sports figures who make up “Local Legends: A collection of outstanding area athletes,” which should be available to readers by the end of this week.

I promise you this is more than stumping for the purpose of trying to move a few magazines, because they’re not adding any extra digits to my paycheck either way. But I hope this little book does catch your eye and reach your hands, because it’s one of the more interesting projects I’ve had the chance to be a part of in more than a decade in the newspaper business. We play historians on a daily basis in this line of work, although we often don’t think about it because what we write about often happened just the day before. But when it goes on the record, there’s the chance that someone will pull a roll of microfilm 40 years from now — or maybe by then, we’ll have everything digitally archived — and come across a story on how Jimmy Joe Fullback broke Rival High’s heart with his 99-yard touchdown run as time expired. That long view is not something you actively think about much as a reporter, but it’s a good reminder to get things right for the big picture of history.

I first wrote about this publication several months back, asking readers to send in names and information we might find valuable in picking 50 of the greatest athletes to ever compete in Murray and Whitfield counties. In addition to the suggestion of readers, Larry Fleming, the recently retired Daily Citizen Sports Editor, consulted with area coaches whose memories extended back well beyond the time before he came to Dalton.

When that list was settled, a group that includes current Daily Citizen sports staffers Drew Brantley and Chris Whitfield, as well as freelance contributors Dave Gordon and Doug Hawley — who is himself a former Daily Citizen Sports Editor and helped suggest names for the publication — went to work tracking down the 50 and pressing them for war stories.

We heard a lot of good ones, too.

Tales of fantastic feats. Numbers that will have you scratching your head. A drive for their given sports that makes it clear why these guys and gals were great at what they did.

Several of those on the list are still in the area as coaches or in other capacities, but you might not know what they did in their previous life, so to speak, as a gladiator still in the arena. To me, that’s one of the coolest parts of being part of this project, and one you’ll have the chance to share in soon — simply learning some of the stories of the area’s outstanding athletes for the first time. I’ve only been here in Dalton for six years, so I’m still learning a lot about the area’s sports history, but I feel like this was a pretty good (and enjoyable) cram session as far as that’s concerned.

Hopefully, some of you will learn things you didn’t know either. For the sake of maintaining the suspense of just who is on this list, I won’t give away too much — but it’s neat to know that the guy you cross paths with at the hardware store once provided his school with a moment of pride in the competitive arena.

For some, picking up this publication will be special because a friend or loved one graces its pages. But even if you don’t know anyone in the magazine personally, I hope you’ll at least take the time to read through and learn a little history of the area’s sports scene.

And whether or not you agree with all of the selections for the list, hopefully you’ll agree with this — taken as a whole, this is an impressive group of which our area should be proud. Now and always.

Marty Kirkland is Sports Editor of The Daily Citizen. You can write to him at martykirkland@daltoncitizen.com.