Official Memories: Unintended Consequences | News, Sports, Jobs

The previous two sports editors didn’t work out. Since they were not from the area, they quickly moved to work in their home state.

I later learned that me and an older man who had multiple physical ailments were the final deciding factors for the job.

I worked as a stringer in the athletic department for four years and was a senior at SUNY Fredonia.

I had recently switched my major from Education to English after a humiliating and life-changing interview with the vice principal of a local high school. As a trainee teacher, he saw my appointment not as a future educator, but as a scribble police officer who policed ​​bored, artistic, and delinquent boys.

The OBSERVER building has been a second home to me for decades.

My offers to volunteer as a coach or advisor for the yearbook, school newspaper, library, discussion group, honor society, etc., were summarily rejected. What was important was the graffiti. It had to stop. Pretty bad, right?

I never applied for a sports editor position. It was a dream job for me, but I thought it was out of reach, especially at my age.

I was surprised when City Editor Keith Sheldon and Deputy City Editor Ted Lutz offered me the job. My parents, Mark and Gene Hammond, advised me to accept, and I never regretted my decision.

However, there was one local high school football coach who was not happy about my appointment. He complained bitterly about me at a school booster club meeting. He was a graduate of Cardinal Mindszenty High School and was convinced that my career as a student-athlete at FSUC would be disastrous for his school.

My father heard this criticism and wrote a memo. He said I had no prejudice against his school and please give me a chance to prove myself. It’s quite quiet, isn’t it?

mark hammond

Somehow, information about that communication reached my father’s enemies in the local football officials association, and he was immediately charged. Officials are prohibited from contacting coaches.

My father was a thorn in the group for years. He advocated change in various areas and repeatedly clashed with the Jamestown-dominated leadership.

A popular emcee at sports banquets, his excellent debating and public speaking skills made him a persistent problem within the board. The leaders wanted him gone.

He was accused of conduct detrimental to the organization, and the group’s grievance committee recommended the death penalty or lifetime ban. It’s pretty lame, isn’t it?

Regarding expulsion, the accused had the right to present his case to the entire membership for a final and decisive vote. Two-thirds of the votes are required to uphold the commission’s strict decisions.

The board called an emergency meeting to address the issue, anticipating that out-of-town members were unlikely to attend on short notice. They felt that they had received more than enough votes from the Jamestown attendees and that their father’s fate would be sealed forever. That’s pretty low, right?

They seriously underestimated my father, and my father hired a lawyer friend to represent him. He personally called all members outside of Jamestown and implored them to attend and vote against this gross injustice.

They showed up in overwhelming numbers and their lawyers put up a brilliant defense.

The chairman of the grievance committee was asked by his lawyer to provide the alleged memo, but he admitted that he did not have it and had never actually seen it.

The coach was then contacted by phone and was told that the correspondence had been destroyed.

You cannot win a case even in a kangaroo court if there is a complete lack of evidence or hearsay testimony.

The vote was close. My father was acquitted and served as a judge for over 10 years. That night, he happily bought drinks at a nearby store.

My father confessed this incident to me after he was acquitted on false charges. He said he didn’t want me to feel guilty about getting my dream job. Pretty noble, right?

I wish more fathers were like my father.

——

Bill Hammond is the former sports editor of the Evening Observer.