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Letter to the editor

Time has come to say goodbye ... again

By HUBERT MIZELL
Published December 26, 2004

This isn't my first goodbye to Times readers, but likely my last.

Au revoir was written in 1986, when I decided after 121/2 years in St. Petersburg to take a job at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Middle-aged zeal was involved, an urge to try something different. I eschewed sports, writing Page 1 features and later becoming the newspaper's television critic.

After six months, everything was going well, but a visit by Times president Andy Barnes would change my life. Again. He sold me on returning as sports columnist, leading to 15 more bountiful years with Florida's biggest, best daily.

Wonderlust was harnessed.

In May 2001, at 62, I typed another Times farewell column. I was retiring but it didn't involve a total split from a readership that means so much to me. Marcy and I were moving to the Blue Ridge foothills of Virginia, living amid the beauty of a resort called Wintergreen, but I would still have a Florida voice.

Our last night before the adios, there came an overwhelming honor, a roast at the Vinoy emceed by my pal Bob Costas with a program including Tony Dungy, Bobby Bowden, Steve Spurrier, George Steinbrenner , Bob Knight, Dick Vitale and Chris Berman.

With relocation, continuing Times involvement was an opportunity granted by CEO Paul Tash to write a weekly column, for at least three years. In mid-2004, that was stretched to 43 months by executive editor Neil Brown. Now it's ending.

Due to family needs, Marcy and I sold our new Virginia house 11 months ago and returned to Florida, building a home near loved ones in Gainesville. I am enormously happy. It is tremendous being back among friends and occurances with which we are so familiar.

I feel good. I play golf. I work out, but not enough. With our 40th anniversary coming in February, Marcy and I are at the stage where maintaining health is the ultimate challenge. Being in a community with a university medical complex is soothing.

If, by now, anybody wonders if I'm okay with this being my final column, after more than 30 years and 5,000-plus Mizell editorials in the Times, my reply is, "I'm fine." I'm still eager for projects, feeling positive about another shift in gears, concentrating more on my longtime avocation of broadcasting.

If you love golf, I have a gig to envy, heading to a third year as Westwood One/CBS Radio analyst at the Masters and U.S. Open. Operating with a microphone instead of writing on a laptop.

Sunshine Network periodically invites me to be a Monday night panelist on Sports Talk Live. I am discussing with several entities other broadcasting possibilities.

I've never written a book and plan none. I do get freelance writing opportunities but turn away just about all; it's too much like the work I've been doing for so long.

Forty-three months ago, I made myself a promise: To take on no project if there seemed to be any chance that, on the day the assignment needed to be addressed, that I would wish I hadn't committed.

There is something I unquestionably will miss. For most of a lifetime, when I had a thought that seemed worthy of sharing, there has always been a way to get it into print. An unbroken lifeline to you. Not having that will be strange.

With just a few paragraphs to go, I should be into thanking people. But there are too many to even start. Bosses, coworkers, editors, athletes, coaches, managers, sources, neighbors, readers and my buddies around the world who write and talk about sports for a living. They all mean so much.

I've never had a real job, not since walking into the Florida Times-Union building as a high school junior, feeling enormously lucky. An emotion that has lasted 48 years.

Eventually based in Orlando, Miami, New York, St. Pete, Atlanta and St. Pete again, I was assigned to the hottest stuff, sent to watch choice events and talk with prime performers. Having my say. Going to 46 states and 21 foreign countries.

Stepping back, reflecting, it has been an extraordinary array. Such diversity in being there for 10 Olympics, 32 Super Bowls, nine Wimbledons, 30 Final Fours, a couple dozen World Series, plus all the Daytona 500s, Kentucky Derbies, U.S. Opens, Indy 500s, British Opens ... and 45 years of Gators and 'Noles and Hurricanes ... going to just about every college bowl game ever devised ... dealing with just about every big-name athlete and coach and manager since Ike was president ... what a trip it has been.

Who would ever really say goodbye to such a deal?

Hubert Mizell can be contacted at mizell3@cox.net

[Last modified December 25, 2004, 23:09:18]