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Keeping Score
FOR some reason, that old Classics IV song -- "Traces of Love'' -- keeps playing in my mind. Aloha means
‘goodbye’... and ‘hello’You know. The one that starts off "Faded photographs ... memories in bits and pieces.''
That's what life has been like in the Star-Bulletin newsroom for the past week or so.
As you read this, likely there are boxes still being taped up and drawers being emptied as we move down the street to a new home.
And it truly is like moving out of an old house. What to take and what to throw out ...
Does the large framed photo of Dick Tomey after a loss come along? What about the Official Major League Baseball Register from 1952?
I'm rather attached to the vintage Sanka coffee can that has served generations on the sports desk as the paper clip holder.
Although our sports files don't date back the entire 119 years of the Star-Bulletin, the dust we've encountered during our spring cleaning makes it seem like it.
It's been a convenient excuse to blame the wayward tears on the little clouds that arise from the packaging boxes.
We've said good-bye to three colleagues and over 80 years of sports department history during the past few days.
Bill Kwon, the sports editor who hired me in 1981, has retired from our pages. At age 6, on Pua Lane, he first sold the Star-Bulletin the morning Pearl Harbor was bombed. His first byline appeared in 1959, the same year Hawaii became a state.
Pat Bigold, a bulldog of a reporter, joined the staff in 1988. His final column is on C-3.
Dick Couch, who has been on the desk for the past 20 years, retired last week.
Long-time readers will remember him as the beat writer for University of Hawaii football and basketball teams in the 1970s. I'll remember him as the finest newspaperman I've ever known.
IT is their legacy that we also pack and bring to our new office. As well as the legacy of such fine sports editors and writers as Carl Machado, Bill Gee, Jim Hackleman and Jim Easterwood.
Tomorrow's Star-Bulletin will welcome a number of new bylines in the sports section. We'll also have a new look.
But our tradition of excellence will continue.
Eighteen months ago, I was writing about what looked to be the death of a newspaper.
Now I am happy to write of an incredible opportunity, one that doesn't happen often for many journalists.
Admittedly, it's an overwhelming undertaking. We're adding a morning edition starting tomorrow and a Sunday edition on April 1.
It's going to be a lot of work. It's going to be a huge challenge.
It's going to be a lot of fun.
Change is unsettling. It can also be a good thing.
When I first stepped into the News Building over 20 years ago, there was a wire room, copy boys and pneumatic tubes that shot page proofs back and forth between the backshop and the newsroom.
Now we have IMacs and the Internet.
It's a leap of faith that we're all making. But, then, isn't that what happens every time a basketball leaves your hands when you let a 3-point shot fly?
See you tomorrow.
Cindy Luis is Star-Bulletin sports editor.
Her column appears periodically.
Email Cindy: cluis@starbulletin.com