It was different 30 years ago.
Forgive me for being nostalgic and a bit melancholy, but the passing of Herb Dower recently brought back a flood of memories. Herb was a friend and, although I would never have admitted it to him, my mentor. He showed me by his advice and his example how to be a local sports writer.
I was a fresh young punk of a sportswriter just out of the Army when I became sports editor of the then six-day-a-week Petaluma Argus-Courier in the 1970s. I had bright ideas, a strong feeling of my own importance and not a clue about what I was doing. Herb, at the time, was already well established as one of the best prep writers in the state.
It was Herb who showed me how to keep a play-by-play account of high school football games. Today, stat keepers push buttons on an app and a computer shoots out the game statistics. Back then, we kept our own on paper, prayed it didn’t rain, and rushed to add things up at the end of the game. Herb’s stats were considered the most accurate account of games. Mine were, and still are, best-guess estimates.
Working games with him and watching how he worked and the precision of his writing, I tried to emulate him as I learned. I also shared with Herb a love for high school sports and the young athletes who played them.
Herb was a community journalist before the term became a cliché. He covered and wrote about local athletes – their games, their accomplishments and their lives. Herb had ample opportunities to climb the ladder at the Press Democrat. He could have covered the Giants, the 49ers or just about any team he chose, but he stayed with high school and local sports.
Ralph Leef, who eventually became sports editor of the Press Democrat, started by covering high school games under Herb’s guidance.
Things were different during Herb’s career. The Press Democrat, and, to a more limited extent, the Argus-Courier, were the news sources for the community. There was no internet. You couldn’t call up scores on your non-existent cell phone. If you wanted to find out who won a high school game, you waited until the Press Democrat or Argus-Courier arrived on your doorstep, expertly thrown by a youngster riding a bicycle.
High school athletes eagerly anticipated the stories about their games to see if Herb mentioned them in his write-ups. Parents and grandparents clipped stories from the sports pages. I wonder how many Herb Dower stories are yellowing in scrapbooks throughout the Redwood Empire.
Back in Herb’s heyday, local sports were a big deal. There were three of us who made it a way of life. Herb was the acknowledged master, I tried to emulate him in Petaluma and a man named Glen Erickson was revered in Ukiah and Mendocino County for his local sports work at the Ukiah Daily Journal.
In addition to being featured in some way daily, Petaluma, St. Vincent and, once it was built, Casa Grande games were broadcast by Petaluma’s legendary Ron Walters on KTOB radio and a game of the week was sent around the Redwood Empire on KSRO.
But the acknowledged prep expert was Herb Dower. He seemingly knew every coach in every sport in the area.
Herb was ahead of us all in covering girls sports. At a time when I have to admit I paid very little attention to the girls, Herb was a strong advocate for girls sports. If you wanted to know league standings in a girls sport, you didn’t go to the league, you went to Herb. It must have thrilled him to see girls athletics blossom into the nearly equal footing with the boys they have achieved today.
He was also a fast-pitch softball enthusiast, who not only covered game, but was, at one time, a pretty good pitcher himself.
On top of everything else, he was a good man
I am saddened by the passing of Herb Dower, but you will excuse me for smiling as I think about the memories his name brings back and the huge part he played in what was one of the Golden Ages of high school sports in the Redwood Empire.
(Contact John Jackson at johnie.jackson@arguscourier.com)
The Link LonkDecember 08, 2020 at 06:50AM
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JJ Says: Herb Dower set the standard for high school sports coverage - Petaluma Argus Courier
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