Both Allen Worrell and Chuck McGill managed to deal with me for a combined 10 years. The best estimate of how many of my stories these two edited would be 700 – 800. Both men were good at their job and a credit to the newspaper business !

McGill took over for Mike Petre at the Northern Virginia Daily in Strasburg, Virginia, and held that post until returning to West Virginia. His highlights there included working for the paper in Charleston and a great stint at Marshall University. We spent his final night working for the Thundering Herd at a home football game.

That weekend was another bizarre one as it went Laurel Fork to Obio for an App State Field Hockey game to James River for a JV District volleyball post-season tournament and then on to Huntington and finally back to Laurel Fork.

Allen Worrell not only edited 250 – 300 stories, he created another dozen or so over our four years together. We partnered on a number of projects that fit under our OneofUs.Care umbrella.

Each of the three Sportswriters / Editors listed above has been given the opportunity to submit a companion piece for the book, and they are the last three things left in question as we wrap things up. Regardless of whether or not they find the time to put pen to paper or not, they are all still Aces in my book !

It has been fun to rehash 50 years of writing and storytelling. It will be interesting to see the finished product !

I’m not sure that the Little Brother would fit into said costume nowadays, but his smile is still his smile !

Forgive me for the unbalanced magnets as the Kate Gordon in Oklahoma City is playing hide and seek right now.

From the first phone conversation with Chris Graham, which took 26 minutes for me to answer his first question, it just felt right. When you add to it that even after we stopped working together on a regular basis, I still turn to Chris when I have a big enough story, like some of the ones above, he is still the editor of choice.

The season of Virginia Tech softball, in which we teamed up for both the Regional and Super Regional, was a blast, but then again, most everything we touched was a treat. The two ACC Men’s Basketball tournaments down in Greensboro allowed me to create the Eight is  Enough story in 2015, and the publishing of the Alan Knight story assisted us in getting Coach into the Hall of Fame.

Interviewing Thad Lewis while wearing my Thad Lewis jersey was a memory for sure, but so was working alongside Jay Bilas and Mike Gmenski. The year of broadcasting Waynesboro Little Giants football was an experience plus the year of working together with the Waynesboro Generals is priceless.

We spent some time working on circulation for their Magazine back in the day as well. Podcasts numbering well into the hundreds, including one from Germany and one from Vancouver Island, British Columbia.

Life in the Big Top was quite possibly the peak of my career, and the Kate Gordon Home Run in OKC was my most read story, ever. He ran with my Frank Beamer story and helped get the word out on Joe Goddard as well.

Thanks for the memories and for the bigger stage !

Who knows, maybe we will cross paths again next Friday night when Duke University travels up to the Grounds to play UVA.

Chris Dodson on Alan Knight

There was no one person on earth who did more for myself and my family than the late John Culp.

When it came time to write a eulogy for him, it just flowed from the heart. John had lost his battle with cancer back on July 26th, but the memorial service didn’t take place until September 8th.

Chris and I met up and drove over to the little nook that is Oakland, Maryland. The two of us met up with Lawrence Nesselrodt, and we played a round of golf in John’s honor before meeting back up for the service that evening.

Sadly, because it wasn’t published anywhere, I can’t share it with the readers in this book, but to not mention it at all would be very detrimental to the impact that John was to our family.

Ness and some of more of John’s old friends still get together up there and celebrate the mountain of a man that John Culp was. Each year, one of the awards that we present is named the John Culp Memorial Award !