RIP Jay Searcy

Former Philadelphia Inquirer Sports Editor Jay Searcy has died. He was 84. Jay Searcy, former Inquirer sports editor, dies at 84

 

He's from my hometown and was honored at a high school football game I happened to attend about a dozen or so years ago.

First sports editor I ever wrote a letter to (inquiring about an internship while in college). His reply stunned me --- and confused me. "This internship is for college students only. You're obviously beyond that level! Good luck!"

 

Had written to him when two years out of college, having worked one small-daily job and one big-metro part-time post. Couple months later, while on a camping trip for a week, I called back to a roommate to see if I had any job letters or calls. He said, "Yeah, the SE of the Philadelphia paper called and said you should get back to him fast." So I call from that same pay phone and he says, "Send in an updated resume and fresh clips ASAP. I've got something open."

I get home three days later, send the stuff. Couple weeks, then a month, go by. Call him. "Oh yeah, I ended up filling that from inside."

That sort of hurry-up and wait was common when I was looking for opportunities in the relative golden age of newspapering. SEs routinely never called or wrote back, whether to follow through, to tell you to bug off or to let you know a job had been filled by someone other than you. Spent hours in a Kinko's one time, after covering a night game and finally getting home at 3 a.m., because some SE wanted stuff "right away." He never called back, and this was after one of his staffers recommended me.

But I give Searcy credit for this: He did me a solid, passing my name along the Knight-Ridder pipeline and, after two interviews and one copy-editing test (did well but not my career plan) at two of their big metros, I got hired for the prime beat at one of their mid-sized properties. A year later, I was covering a major league team for a city's primary (non-KR) paper.

Funny, but never even talked to the man again. My bad. R.I.P.