How Can I Help You?

When I was in the Navy and my ship went overseas, the Philippines, Japan, Hong Kong, I wrote a couple of letters to Brodie S. Griffith, editor of The Charlotte News, the newspaper where I worked the summer after I graduated from Garinger High School in 1960.

I wanted to keep that door open.

Brodie S. Griffith, Editor, The Charlotte News
Brodie S. Griffith, Editor, The Charlotte News

I came home on leave for the last time in the summer of 1962, just before I was released from active duty and started school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  I went by the paper to see Mr. Griffith and say hello, a courtesy call.

We talked a few minutes and, as I was about to leave, he asked if there was anything he could do for me.

Normally when someone says something like that I think they’re just being polite and I wave it off.  I say, “No, but thanks anyway.” But for some reason I didn’t do that; I did just the opposite.

“You could get me a job and a scholarship,” I said.

So he did.

Pee Ivey, director, UNC News Bureau
Pee Ivey, director, UNC News Bureau

While I sat there in his office he called the University News Bureau, talked to Pete Ivey, the director, and then told me to go around and see Mr. Ivey when I started school. I did, and Mr. Ivey hired me.

And then Mr. Griffith called the UNC School of Journalism. I don’t know who he talked to but I heard what he told them, words to this effect:

“You know we’ve sent a lot of money up there over the years. Uh-huh. Well, now I want some of it back. I have a fine young man sitting here in my office and he needs a scholarship.”

When I enrolled in the School of Journalism, a scholarship was waiting for me.

Coming Friday: “Get A Gun,” Part 1

Bob Quincy
Bob Quincy, director, UNC Sports Information

NOTE: I didn’t work very long for the UNC News Bureau before Bob Quincy, director of the UNC Office of Sports Information, hired me.  Bob had been sports editor of The Charlotte News when I worked there in the summer of 1960, just before I went on active duty in the Navy.

Bob was a pro, through and through — a good mentor. But he had a temper, and I’ve written about it, twice. See “Quincy The Terrible,” Part I and Part II, posted on Dec. 12-13, 2016.

Bear Bryant Called

Vito Ragazzo, an assistant football coach at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, dropped by the Sports Information Office one afternoon to see Bob Quincy, the director. I worked there after class and I heard this exchange.

Paul William "Bear" Bryant
Paul William “Bear” Bryant

Ragazzo, who coached ends, told Quincy that he had just gotten a phone call from “Bear” Bryant, the legendary University of Alabama coach whose team had just won the national championship.

“What did he want,” Quincy asked.

“He wanted ends,” Ragazzo replied.

“I hope you didn’t give him any of ours,” Quincy said.

“He doesn’t want our ends,” Ragazzo said. “Coach Bryant wanted to know if I knew of any good ends we couldn’t get in school.”

Ragazzo said he told the Alabama coach that he knew of a couple of good ones but he said he told Bryant they were dumb as a post.

He said Bryant told him, “I’m not looking for students. I’m looking for ends.”

Coming Friday: How Times Have Changed