Stan Hochman died a few weeks ago. He had been a reporter and columnist with the Philadelphia Daily News since 1959, and for the past few decades probably was the city’s most prominent sports journalist. Before Philadelphia? He had worked as a sports writer at the San Bernardino Sun, my old paper. Actually, he went […]

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I remember when Redlands East Valley High School opened, in the fall of 1997. My son was part of the first freshman class. REV was the second high school in the Redlands Unified School District, and opened about a century later than the first — Redlands High School. In most areas of endeavor, it didn’t […]

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In a previous life, I often compiled a list of the “10 biggest local sports events of the year” and prepared it to run on the morning of December 31. That typically is a slow day in the sports world, and readers often like to have a year recapped for them. And journalists who have […]

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Note: This post originally appeared on February 26. I took it down a few hours after posting it after I gave in to my misgivings about an accurate recollection of events. It reappears in the wake of Chuck Pettersen’s well-attended funeral, yesterday, at the request of a key member of one of his football teams, […]

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Chuck Pettersen died on Tuesday. He was a successful high school football coach in the city of San Bernardino. He put in 31 years on the sidelines. I saw his teams play probably 20 times. Maybe more. In this space I originally went on at some length about what I remembered about the man. He […]

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This is kinda obnoxious, isn’t it. “Yeah, I’ve seen so many Super Bowls that I can do a list of my favorite five. That I saw. In person.” I have watched most of all of the 47 played so far. Which mostly means I’m old. I watched 35 of them on TV, but the other […]

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So, back in the U.S. with a chance to peruse what is left of American daily print journalism. It is a melancholy activity, indeed. Measured against the sweep of history, the nosedive of U.S. print was an accelerated affair. A decade ago, American newspapers were still making a lot of money and, collectively, were probably […]

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At my first professional journalism job, at the San Bernardino Sun, in 1976, one of the biggest and brightest influences on me was Paul Hagen, whom I considered a wise old sports writing veteran. He might have been 25. Paul covered the Dodgers for us, and he did it well and loved the beat. The […]

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In 35-plus years of print journalism, I have worked for perhaps a dozen editors and experienced both ends (and the middle) of the good/competent/awful spectrum. Wayne Sargent, however, was easily the most colorful of those dozen. But also one of the best. I am reminded of Wayne because he died last week at the age […]

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The Euros winning the Ryder Cup was very big over here. “Massive!”, as the Brits like to say. Seems as if half the sports department (the British half) stayed up into the wee hours of Sunday night/Monday morning to watch the big comeback by Europe against the U.S.  “I couldn’t turn it off!” one said. […]

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