Hubie Brown, named the NBA’s Coach of the Year at age 70, still works today at age 90 as an NBA analyst for ABC and ESPN.
I love Hubie. He’s always been my senior citizen role model. I want to be him when I grow up.
On Saturday in Natchitoches at age 67 after 45 years as a sportswriter for nine publications in four states, I’m being inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame (which will be streamed live on lpb.org and LaSportsHall.com starting at 6 p.m.; today’s 3 p.m. press conference is on LaSportsHall.com from 3-5 o’clock).
Such an unbelievable honor plus aging forces self-reflection, something rarely done when you have the career pedal to the metal for decades.
My biggest life regret is my job consumed me. I failed miserably to balance it with my family life. My wife Paige (the smartest and best-looking one in our marriage) carried the daily load, working full time and managing the household.
She raised our sons Carl and Jackson. Both fortunately have Paige’s finest traits of intelligence and kindness and are two good men who make me extremely proud daily.
They also have unique senses of humor. I once apologized to Carl for being immersed in my career and not spending enough time with him.
He replied, “Dude, it’s okay. Just give me $10,000 and we’ll call it even.”
My Hall of Fame honor belongs more to my wife and sons than it does to me. They had to live with a maniacal perfectionist who was rarely satisfied, too driven, and always focused on the next story.
I wasn’t a person I would have liked to have been around. I apologize to my family and every managing editor or sports editor wherever I’ve worked.
A few weeks ago, I did a one-hour TV interview with Eric Asher on “Inside New Orleans Sports.” He interviewed me about my career that unofficially started at ages 8 and 13 (my first non-byline story and first byline story, both in the Baton Rouge Advocate).
I rarely go back and watch myself in any interview. But Paige viewed it and said, “I learned things you’ve done I didn’t even know about. And you always think you never accomplished enough in your career.”
I watched the interview and instantly became grateful. It’s like someone drenched me with a Gatorade cooler full of humility.
My career flashed before my eyes, the places I’ve been, the people I’ve met, and the unique situations I’ve experienced.
I once told Bear Bryant to get his team off Legion Field in pregame warmups, was 20 feet away when Ohio State football coach Woody Hayes slugged the Clemson player at the Gator Bowl, shared a Final Four halftime press room refreshment and conversation with actor Jack Nicholson, ordered a pizza 30 minutes before kickoff at a 100,000-seat college stadium to see if it could be delivered to the press box within the half-hour, and picked up a loose basketball that bounced into press row during pregame warmups at a college game and swished a 40-foot shot standing next to my seat (then sat down expressionless like it was no big deal).
I also cruised the streets of Seoul at 2 a.m. with a Korean taxi driver playing a Frank Sinatra cassette tape because he thought all Americans loved Ol’ Blue Eyes, saw an open switchblade thrown at a basketball ref, spent all night in an Atlanta emergency room with food poisoning being released just in time to cover a full day of the SEC basketball tournament, sat courtside at an SEC hoops tourney when a tornado bounced off the Georgia Dome roof, interviewed an apologetic and somewhat drunk Luc Longley who had just rehydrated with a six-pack of beer after an Olympic post-game drug test, and attended the greatest Final Four media party in history at a Kentucky horse farm in 1985.
Along the way, I’ve had so many great mentors like LSU sports information directors Ace Higgins (my late dad) and Paul Manasseh, my Baton Rouge High English teacher the late Laura Cotton, my Angelina College journalism teacher Cassy Burleson, former Advocate sports editor Mike McKenzie and the entire family of the late Joe “String Music” Dean Sr. who became my emotional rescue after my dad died when I was 12.
A huge thanks to my first daily newspaper boss Gerry Robichaux for hiring me, to editor Stan Tiner for hiring me twice in different locales, to the late Advocate prep editor Ted Castillo for assigning me to cover games when I wasn’t old enough to own a driver’s license, to former Scripps-Howard sports editor Marvin West who sent me around the world to cover the Olympics, to former Commercial Appeal executive sports editor John Stamm who always had my back and to longtime friend Jim Kleinpeter and James O’Byrne for bringing me back to Louisiana as a NOLA.com/Times-Picayune columnist after three decades away from home.
And finally, thank you to the Louisiana Sports Writers Association, especially Doug Ireland (the unofficial mayor of Natchitoches) and the multi-talented soon-to-be Reverend Raymond Partsch III for making my Hall of Fame honor an unexpected reality.
In the meantime, as long as my employer considers my age and experience a plus and my health is good, I’ll aim to become the Hubie Brown of Sportswriters.
Contact Ron at ronhigginsmedia@gmail.com