“I wanted to drop you a line thanking you for the years you gave us at The Journal. You have gone well above and beyond to give us hicks the best sports coverage we have ever had. You have a natural gift to write and deliver and I wish you the best in your future endeavors.”
I promise not to use the term “hicks” when referring to Borderland folk in the future.
I will, however, promise to speak well of this place after spending 4 1/2 years here in my work-hard, play-hard 20s. How could I not.
My old man sent me an e-mail last week wondering if I was going to write an exit column, and the one movie scene that keeps circling through my mind comes from “Gladiator,” when Marcus Aurelius is pondering his final days.
“When a man sees his end... he wants to know there was some purpose to his life. How will the world speak my name in years to come? Will I be known as the philosopher? The warrior? The tyrant...?” Aurelius asks Maximus (Russell Crowe’s character).
It’s comments like the one above that made it all worth while.
Throw a sun-burned, 22-year-old punk from the suburbs (still use the same mug shot) into his first career job that no one cares about and the result would be disastrous. I would’ve been out of here faster than you can say Boise.
The complete opposite happened.
Six and a half years ago I replied to a small ad in the Anoka newspaper about an open sports editor position in International Falls.
I experienced my first car-kills-deer situation on the way up for the interview, and never had a more exciting 4 1/2 hour drive home that same day after accepting the offer.
I took a 2-year detour in Red Wing before coming back in 2008. I never regretted coming back, and I have no regrets accepting this new position. It has nothing to do with sports — I’m stepping into the world of sales at a staffing company named Aerotek in Arden Hills, Minn. — but, ironically, it will give me an opportunity to enjoy sports more by having hours that line up with the rest of the world and by having a job that doesn’t involve photography (it’s tougher than you think taking in a game behind a camera).
I couldn’t help but feel like Shawn Filipiak and the other Bronco seniors who walked off the court one last time a week ago Thursday following their 66-48 loss to Moose Lake-Willow River in Duluth. No offense to the Old-Timer’s tournament (something I’ll be back for), but that Bronco boys basketball contest was the last game I covered.
In 20 years, it won’t be about the money or who won or lost or who thought their kid didn’t get in the newspaper enough. It’ll be about that day I hit a golf ball into Canada from the ninth tee box at the Falls Country Club just hours after catching my first sturgeon on Rainy River. It’ll be about sitting in a boat with my old man while he visits Rainy Lake. It’ll be about the people ...
The people that made me want to treat the sports pages like gold. The coworkers that tried to find me a wife so I’d stick around longer. The roommates that were a part of stories I’ll always remember (or not remember). The parents, coaches and readers that made it enjoyable for me to wake up every afternoon and cover sports for a living.
All I can say is thanks a mil.
Like I told my coworkers last week, I appreciate you guys more than you know and wish you all the best. It was a great run in the Borderland area and I’ll never forget it.
Thanks a mil
“To the Borderland athletic community, thanks for accepting a city kid who can’t skate as your sports editor for 4 1/2 years. I got cut from my high school basketball team that eventually finished 0-23. I golf left-handed, putt right-handed, throw left-handed, shoot a basketball right-handed, am left-eye dominant and kick right-footed, yet this athletic community treated me like one of its own. Thanks again and keep your passion.”
Jim Johnson
