Columnist Wayne Smith

I first met John Mullen on the sidelines of a high school football field almost 40 years ago. He was there to cover the game as a sportswriter for the Decatur Daily; I was there covering it for the Florence TimesDaily.

We’re not exactly sure whether it was a game at Hazlewood High School or nearby Courtland High School. Time does that to your memory, I suppose.

I do remember all we had was a pen and a notebook. No smartphone.

Now, flash forward to 2026. John and I remain friends and he’s helped me acclimate to living in Gulf Shores. We get together for lunch every now and then. We did one recent Saturday to watch the Alabama-Mississippi State game.

And we talked about one of John’s new high school football journeys — joining Gulf Coast Media sports editor Parker Gillam for a podcast about high school sports in Baldwin County.

A podcast? If you’d told either one of us in 1988 that we’d be talking about high school football through something called a podcast, we probably would have asked what it was or what station it came on.

But it’s the era we live in — where midnight deadlines for sending pages back to the pressroom have been replaced by instant video, scores, photos and game comments via social media. Where digital e-editions have joined — and in many places replaced — printed newspapers. Heck, my hometown newspaper doesn’t even have a Sunday edition anymore.

Where sportswriters once kept stats in paper notebooks, schools now file stats almost instantly as the game is in progress.

Different times.

But it did have me thinking about those old Friday football nights in the newsroom.

I’d go cover a 7:30 game, hoping for no delays that would push it any later. Then I’d race back to the office to write my game story, help answer calls from stringers covering other games and finish designing the Saturday morning sports section as the clock ticked closer to midnight.

Or if it was a game further away from the office, it meant finding a pay phone somewhere and dictating your story to someone in the office.

Wayne Smith interviews Dale Earnhardt in 1989, back when sportswriting meant pens, notebooks and late-night pressroom deadlines.

Photo courtesy of Wayne Smith

And that clock above the door leading to the composing room always seemed to pick up speed as we got closer to midnight.

Composing rooms and the roar of the printing press starting up. Waiting around to proof a printed copy for the inevitable headline typo or other mistake. I was a much younger man. I couldn’t do football Fridays now.

These days, legal pads have been replaced by a different kind of notebook. Cameras on smartphones allow a reporter to post something instantaneously.

I remember one of my first assignments as a sports intern for the Florence paper. Our coverage area had three schools playing at home on the same night for a state championship. Rusty Starr, our managing editor, had an idea on the best way to get photos back to the newsroom quickly for darkroom processing. I would pick up rolls of film from our photographers at each game by halftime, covering a triangle of schools roughly 30 minutes apart, and bring them back to the office. That allowed the photographers to stay at the game for any championship celebration photos.

I accomplished the task, and black-and-white prints of the best photos were made, which seems like comparing dial-up internet to fiber today. Rusty, who sadly passed away last month, hired me full-time the following summer. Maybe that race against the deadline made an impression.

There’s a different kind of deadline pressure now. Sportswriters like Parker have to juggle writing their stories with posting to social media, planning and hosting podcasts, taking pictures and videos themselves and promoting it all almost simultaneously.

I’ve yet to meet Parker, but I see the young man’s work and the sheer number of bylines he produces covering Baldwin County sports. I’ve listened to a couple of his podcasts, with John joining him for commentary. I appreciate the work he is doing. I know it isn’t easy.

Former NASCAR and Alabama sportscaster Eli Gold joined Gulf Coast Media Sports Editor Parker Gillam for a podcast earlier this month.

GCM File Photo / Alabama Athletics

Speaking of podcasts, check out Parker’s recent episode featuring former Alabama and NASCAR sportscaster Eli Gold (https://tinyurl.com/ex5788jw). I interviewed Gold for a story while covering NASCAR in 1989, when he was NASCAR’s radio voice. A Brooklyn native who found a home in Alabama, Gold reminded me then of Mel Allen — an Alabama native who found his home as the voice of the New York Yankees. How about that?

Somewhere there’s a photo of me on the sidelines covering a game in the ’80s. I couldn’t put my hands on it in time for this column.

But I did find one of me interviewing Dale Earnhardt back in 1989, pen and notebook in hand. No screens. No podcast. No social media.

Yep, I’ll admit I do miss holding that newspaper in hand as it rolled off the presses. But while the tools have changed, the story hasn’t.

It’s about telling people in their community what happened — whether in Gulf Shores or at a football stadium in North Alabama.

So as we wind down another high school football season and head toward the playoffs, I remember working in the newsroom with a mom of a football player. She told me one Monday after one of those crazy football Fridays that her son couldn’t wait to get the Saturday paper.

That carried me to the next Friday kickoff.

And the clock picking up speed.

Wayne Smith is a freelance writer and has worked as a writer and editor at newspapers across Alabama, Florida and South Carolina. His column focuses on navigating Gulf Shores alone after losing his wife to cancer, and the places he discovers and the people he meets. Read his previous columns at www.GulfCoastMedia.com. Contact him at wwsmith6410@gmail.com or visit www.doublewwordsmith.com.