If you live long enough you get the chance to have a front row seat into the departure from Earth of a lot of friends. And each time the sadness, the hurt is as much as always.
Today, I learned from former Bremerton Sun sports editor Bill Schey that another giant in our sports news gathering profession has died. Don Davison was as beloved and respected a sports writer as I have known in these parts. Don worked for the Tacoma News Tribune where he became a legend for his attention to detail and for his ability to wring all the facts, including scores, from schools all over the state.
He was, in short, the main man for high school sports in the state for a long, long time. If you needed a score or any information on a high school team, you dialed up Don and in most cases he instantly gave you what you needed without any concern who you might be or who you wasn’t. For him, we were all in this game of gathering sports news together and if he could help you he was always available to do so without hesitation.
I first heard of Don in the early 1970s. I went to work writing sports at the Bremerton Sun on Feb. 2, 1970, and it wasn’t too long after that I received a call from Don. He wanted to know if I had a basketball score for Joyce.
Joyce!!! Who was she, I wondered. I put the phone down and asked around the sports department if we had a score for Joyce. No we didn’t, came back the reply. So I told Don no. He hung up and when he did I turned and asked who Joyce was, and why would this guy want to know a score for her?
I don’t remember the snickering, but I do remember learning Joyce was a school north of Port Angeles and that the caller was a guy named Don Davison, who worked at the Tacoma News Tribune.
Don Davison
Later in 1970, during the spring, I would run into Don at a track meet in Tacoma. He kind of took me under his wing, telling me how to report events, and in what order they should be in: shorter distances to longer distances, then the hurdles from shorter to longer, the relay events, then the shot put, discus, javelin, high jump, pole vault, long jump and triple jump.
There should be no deviation from that order, and for the most part that is how they are reported to this day.
He also told me how to score a meet – 5 points for first, 3 for second and 1 for third – and for bigger meets the point distribution is 10 for first, 8 for second, 6 for third, 4 for fourth, 2 for fifth and 1 for sixth.
There were other nuances, but the overall point he stressed was to get it right. He obtained the rank of Colonel in the Air Force reserves, always wore a crew cut, and had the upright and stiff manner of a military officer to go along with his concern that meet officials, coaches and little peon writers like myself did things correctly. I saw him get outraged when he was ignored over the running of a meet. And coaches learned soon enough to listen when he talked.
Me too.
When Davison retired at the age of 65 in 2001 as a copy editor with the Trib, I wondered what we would do now that he wasn’t available to make sure all the scores from around the state were reported. He did keep his hand into the prep scene by helping the WIAA compile its thick archives on past results in all the sports. Without him we writers would have no reference point to visit to add a little history and color to our stories.
It’s sad he is no longer with us. I know you probably don’t know him from Adam or Eve, but believe me he was a giant among writers who covered the preps in the state. He set the standard and we would be remiss if we failed to adhere to the bar that he set.
I took my Davison lesson to heart. For years I compiled track and field, football and basketball and baseball statistics for the Bremerton Sun. It’s the least I could do to honor Davison.
Now he’s gone. I had thought for the last several years it would be great to write a story on him. I kept putting it off and now it’s too late. According to a story in the Trib today (Oct. 3) he suffered from Parkinson’s disease and a rare form of dementia. He died on Tuesday (Oct. 1) at the age of 77.
I have witnessed in the past few years the death of other giants in the sports news business – Ted Pearson, Stan Farber and Clay Huntington, all from Tacoma.
Pearson was a sportswriter for the Bremerton Sun when I arrived in 1970. He wasn’t here long before going to the Trib in 1971 where he eventually became sports editor. Ted died in 2007 at the age of 67, eight years after retiring from the Trib.
Ted was not very tall, maybe five-foot-five, but he had more spunk and fire then people much taller. I remember him typing away on his typewriter (this was before computers) with two fingers. He would hit those keys so hard I wondered how he did not break his fingers.
I have told this story more than a few times, but the thing I remember most about Ted is the night he was taking information on an away Olympic College football game over the phone. Lynn Rosenbach was the head coach and after about 15 minutes, Ted broke out laughing. When he hung up the phone, he raced over to Schey’s desk to tell him what was so funny. Rosenbach had apparently gotten tired of answering Ted’s questions and told Ted to just make up the quotes and put his name to them.
So Ted did.
Stan “The Man” Farber was another guy who stored all the information, books and press guides he ever came across in his home. He was a virtual encyclopedia of sports trivia and was famous for citing them at inappropriate times. In fact, he was also famous for asking questions during group interview sessions that were far a field from the topic on hand. So he could be difficult to be around him sometimes because you never knew what weird question he would throw out there.
But Stan was good person and was very involved in the Tacoma community, and was a pivotal player in getting the Tacoma Dome built. I used to call him when I needed some relevant information for a story, and he never let me down. Stan, who used to attend Seattle Mariner games with Huntington in his later years even though he was not covering the games anymore, died in 2005.
Huntington owned KLAY 1160 radio when he died two years ago. There isn’t enough space to talk about Clay, who was a founder of the Tacoma Athletic Commission, brought triple-A baseball to Tacoma in 1960 when he led the effort to get Cheney Stadium built, broadcast baseball games on radio and TV, owned several other radio stations at one time, and was the founder of the state of Washington Sports Hall of Fame, Washington State
Clay also served as a Pierce County Commissioner, which led to an angry outburst by him that was directed at me one night in the media lunchroom at Safeco Field. I had teased Clay for several years that as a politician he shook people’s hands while reaching around behind with the other hand to pick their pocket.
I went too far with it and one night he exploded on me. But he got over it and I backed off and we were friends right up until he died at 89. He used to call me at least once a month to discuss primarily the Mariners, although we would also touch on other sports’ subjects.
I really miss those calls, but that is the way it goes if you live long enough. People who are important in your life die and you are left with memories and sadness. So I’m here and Clay, Stan The Man, Ted and now Don are gone.
Be well pal.
Be careful out there.
Have a great day.
You are loved.
