But something happened this week that brought back something very important that I had all but forgotten.
Somebody died.
When I went to Greeley in the fall of 1986, I had been in journalism as a sportswriter for seven years. My job in St. Louis had been big-time until the paper ran out of money. I covered college basketball and went to the NCAA Final Four in both 1985 and '86.
But my purpose in going to Greeley was to manage a department -- three full-time and three part-time employees -- and serve as a mentor to them. I told them when I started there that if they had ambitions, I wanted to help them achieve them. Two of my people want on to big-time careers.
My other employee who made it even bigger originally came from Texas. Nancy Gay worked for several major metros before winding up at the San Francisco Chronicle. Earlier this year, she went to work as managing editor for Comcast's Sports Net in the Bay Area and for all of California.
As impressive as the two of them turned out to be, and as proud as I am of the small role I played in their success, I'm pretty sure both of them would have succeeded if I had never gone within a thousand miles of Colorado.
Where I made a difference was with Matt Schuman, who died Sunday at the age of 49.
When I first met Matt, I was told that the previous sports editor had hired him to grab sports agate off the wire and clean it up for publication. I was told that was all I could expect of Matt, since he had been born with muscular dystrophy.That was fine with me. I liked him and felt good about the fact that we were providing a job for someone who was partly disabled.
He told me he thought he could do more, though, and he asked for the opportunity. I had him take phone calls from high schools and write up the reports, a huge part of any small-city sports department.
He did well, so we tried sending him out for feature stories, sidebars at afternoon events and finally game coverage.
He may not have been able to stand up, but he certainly was able to rise to the challenge. He was still a part-timer when I left Greeley in October 1988, In my final column as sports editor, I wrote about some of the things I would never forget about my two years in Colorado. I mentioned 15 different items, and this one was No. 6:
"One of my sportswriters, Matt Schuman, who is fighting a lifelong battle against muscular dystrophy. When the previous sports editor hired Matt, he didn't expect him to be able to do more than type up agate results. Now he writes almost as well as a lot of full-time sportswriters I've known."
Sometime in the years after I left, Matt earned a full-time position with the Tribune and he worked there for the rest of his life. In 2003, he did a seven-part series on Weld County citizens living with disabilities that won him numerous awards.
This past weekend, he went into the hospital for some routine tests, and he developed pneumonia and died. In many of the stories written about Matt after his death, so many of the people who knew him talked about how he never complained. I didn't laugh when I read it, but I did think it was strange.
Complain about what? His disability? I think Matt understood that most of us have strengths and weaknesses, and we don't always get to choose what they are. There are plenty of people who have no obvious physical shortcomings, but they're dumb as a bagful of hammers. Or they're rich but they have no heart, no compassion for others.
Matt's legs didn't work, and he had other shortcomings physically, but he was smart, talented and had a lot of people who loved him.
My guess is he thought he had a pretty good deal.
Sail on, Matt. I believe you are in a better place, and I know you'll appreciate it. I thank the Lord for my contact with you and for any small role I played in improving your situation. You're my best memory of my time as a mentor.
God bless you.
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