When I was sports editor of the Times-Standard in the 1990s, I did a long interview with Lawrence "Scoop" Beal. He was one of the great newspapermen in Humboldt County history. He was the sports editor of one of the two dailies in Eureka...then became the managing editor...yielding his sports duties to Don Terbush.
Scoop was a promoter...a talker...he had stories one would expect from a character in "Guys & Dolls." He ran with former heavyweight champion Max Baer...and actually played a role in the formation and early promotion of the Humboldt Clowns traveling basketball troupe that made routine, and popular, stops in West Coast towns that the Harlem Globetrotters would never visit. Scoop knew everybody and was happy to talk and talk and talk...which was a joy for a kid who can't hear enough stories about things like the old swim stadium at Freshwater Park. (If you cross the water and get up on the bank now covered by trees, you'll see remains of old-fashioned stadium seating where residents used to enjoy aquacade water shows.)
Beal died not long after I did the interview and ran a three-part story about his life in sports.
Don Terbush would never, ever, offer to sit down and tell a writer stories about his time as sports editor of the Times-Standard. It took me knowing him for decades to learn that he was a champion sprinter...in Compton, Calif....in high school. He was involved in athletics at Humboldt State after he got out of the military. He didn't talk about himself and, I imagine, will never want to talk about himself. In fact, Don doesn't like people who make themselves the star of the story. Nothing made Don cringe like hearing somebody taking credit for, say, making the Humboldt Crabs a nationally-known summer baseball program.
"Louie built the Crabs," Don told me, referring to Lou Bonomini. "If it wasn't for Louie, there'd have been no Crabs...not like they were. What a laugh! (Somebody else) saying he helped Louie build the Crabs."
The late Lou Bonomini wouldn't have promoted himself either.
As written previously, Don probably tolerated working with me...as I tolerated being a kid working for a guy I thought was too old-school for modern newspapering. (I didn't just start being an idiot. I've been an idiot for years!)
Then, a funny thing happened, I was all of a sudden a married man, with two kids who worked as sports editor of the Times-Standard. All of a sudden, I saw Don in a different light. He wasn't just the guy who was the timekeeper at the epic amateur fight cards at Municipal Auditorium or the guy who traveled with Humboldt State College's football teams in their glory years -- including the 1968 Camellia Bowl season when the Lumberjacks beat Fresno State. Don stopped being my boss and the Crabs scorekeeper, announcer and vice-president. Don was suddenly sort of a role model.
Since I was always right and everybody else was wrong, I took the job offer from a Southern California newspaper in the 1980s and left Eureka. Remember, Don passed on job offers to stay in Eureka, keep a low profile and live a quiet, productive life with his wife Tina and three children. After a couple years on what was the comparative newspaper fast track, I had a stack of clips from covering Magic's "Showtime" Lakers and the Los Angeles Rams. I'd covered the Rose Bowl and a Super Bowl -- and stopped thinking it was all that big a deal to stand in line at the Dodger Stadium media buffett behind Vin Scully.
When my kids were in school and I realized I couldn't take a five-mile run without the air quality in SoCal wrecking me for days, I realized...the big-time wasn't what it was made out to be. It hit me that, sure, I was on track to be a beat writer for some team -- just like I'd wanted to be -- but, that beat writers travel and travel would take me away from my kids. How could I coach my kids in youth sports or go to their school functions if I was covering the L.A. Clippers in Detroit in December?
That's when I realized that the guy I thought was wrong turned out to be absolutely right. Don Terbush did what I didn't realize I wanted to do...he put his lifestyle and his family ahead of the need to be in what is perceived as a more glamouros job. I never asked Don where could have worked, but just about any newspaper offers more perceived glamour than the T/S offers, right?
I didn't return to Eureka to work in newspapers, but that's where I wound up. I stumbled, almost literally, back into the sports editor's job. I was happy to have gotten a second chance at getting my priorities straight. I'd never cover the major sports, but I'd never miss a parent-teacher conference either. I'd have to listen to parents mock me for how I did my job, but I still got to coach my kids and their friends. It wasn't exactly as smooth as Don made it look but I did wind up using his career and choices as a model for my own.
It was a revelation when I admitted that, after years of thinking he was old-fashioned and not really interested, I admitted...I'd followed in Don's footsteps because I decided that he made choices that were really wise.
Don put up with all the same headaches other small-market editors face. He just handled it with more dignity than, well, I did. We were generations apart. So, he put friendships with coaches and players first...he got along with everybody I ever saw him deal with. If he didn't get along with them, you wouldn't know it unless he said something well after he'd dealt with folks. Me? I was intent on putting a premium on opinion and more pointed feature stories and ... making myself a target for people who don't like opinions or pointed features.
Don avoided those critical pieces and wrote "Sideline Slants." I used to cringe at the formula he used to write that column, but one day I realized that one of the true highlights of my young life was when I got mentioned in a Sunday "Sideline Slants." So...I forgot my roots. I forgot what was so cool about the Times-Standard. Nobody read my column and thought, "Oh, gosh...Ted Sillanpaa mentioned me!" But, when I was playing briefly on the baseball team at College of the Redwoods and broke my finger, Don mentioned the injury and quoted coach Tom Giacomini about my being sidelined and when I might return. Truly...that was a highlight in my life! I made "Sideline Slants."
Of course, I didn't remember the wonderful place "Sideline Slants" had in Humboldt County until I'd already become a target...often on purpose. My bad! I couldn't go back to write "Sideline Slants: 1997," you know? I had a reputation that, I guess, lots of people hated. But, it was mine and I stuck to it. I secretly wished I had a reputation like the one Don built.
I used to talk to Don when he'd come in to write that fishing column that, by God, cannot be his legacy, you know? He'd ask about my kids. I'd talk and he'd listen. And, eventually, I noticed he wasn't giving me advice...but he was giving me a chance to learn from him if I really paid attention.
And...no...I'm sure Don didn't stop and think, "Ted's really messed up! I'll try to help him out." Don wouldn't impose his beliefs on anybody. But, I know I learned about being a dad and dealing with life and the profession just talking to him when I was, finally, able to hear what other people were saying.
I have little discipline and, sadly, give up easily on tough tasks. Don is disciplined and diligent to the point I used to see him walking the same course...around his neighborhood and along a street that bordered my neighborhood...ever day, at the same time. He never walked faster. He never walked slower. But, by God, Don Terbush always walked. I started to think that just doing it ... everyday...the same way...was really commendable. I admired that in Don.
Don and I weren't close enough for me to know if he was a good, great, average or indifferent father. He'd never talk about that stuff. It was private. But, his daughters Merriedawn and Kathy always spoke highly of him. And, he spoke proudly of his son Don and never said a bad thing about his wife Tina. (And, you'd be surprised how hard it is to spend a full day in a newspaper office without hearing somebody bitch about their spouse.)
My ex-wife did daycare for Don's granddaughter Crystal, who is the same age as my son Trent. I thought that, perhaps, Trent and Crystal would someday date and that Don and I would, perhaps, watch a football game on TV at Thanksgiving or something. I've had some crazy dreams.
Since Don's not going to get a big feature story splashed all over the T/S...because he wouldn't want to sit and talk about himself...I can leave this legacy for him...save him the hassle after causing him so much hassle over the years...
Don Terbush is a good man. He's a fine, fine writer who understood his craft and the business that is now dying. When the business started losing guys like Don, it figured that the business was headed toward its demise. If my sons had, more or less, the same virtues I saw later in life in Don ... I'd be proud of them.
Somebody, maybe the North Coast Journal, should corner Don and talks to some of his peers. His story should be told in a forum much bigger than this little thing. But, in the interim...I just want to say that Don Terbush was a solid man I am proud to have worked for and with. I owe him a debt of gratitude I could never repay...and he probably has no idea he had any impact on me at all.
That's how Don is and will always be...
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