Sports Editor, Pocatello Idaho

Nor do I miss it. Was there just shy of five years, and made many close friends, the majority of whom still reside in Pocatello. What I miss is those acquaintances, mostly because I see those people maybe only once every three or so years, and establishments like the Press Box and Buddy's, where I spent many an hour drinking beer and bitching about the ISJ. But the town as a whole and the paper -- not one bit.

That said, the ISJ isn't a bad gig, especially if you're just starting out in the business. You get a chance to cover a lot of cool things -- Idaho State has it moments, and District V is easily the best high school region in the state -- and the work load is relatively light, although no one who works there thinks so at the time. It's a good place to get experience and clips, then get the hell out of.

So Idaho, your persuasion isn't condusive to Press Box patronage? What are you, a Boise State alum?

 

Just not a drinker or smoker. And my wife wouldn't go to a place with smoke in the air -- though the PressBox (and the rest of Poky) is now pretty much smokefree. Plus, the Pressbox was the opposite direction from work and home for me. I live up on the hill near the hospitals.

My wife and I were just too busy with her job, my job and our kids to go out and do much. But Poky was good to us in many ways.

 

Thank you for the trip down memory lane. Yes, I know the ISJ, Buddy's (great salad dressing) and the Press Box. Also, there used to be a great burger joint at the outskirts of town called the Wagon Wheel.

Randy Rehrer, Herb Williams, Brent Koetter are just some of the names from the past.

 

Perhaps, but anybody who takes themselves that seriously falls under the category "kick when down"

 

No one should forget the classic stock car racing Pocatello features on Saturday nights in the summer. An evening of getting dust and rubber blown in your face was far better than one sitting on the desk next to Brundage listening to him tell you how NO ONE put together more bang up agate pages than he did. Yep, Bob, you were overachieving by venturing beyond the agate page.

 

you're a man of conviction lester. i hope i don't piss you off more than the one time i already have.

 

I don't know BS personally. Never worked for, with or against him. But I applied for a job at the ISJ when I graduated college, and he called me personally to tell me that although they had already offered the job to someone else, that he truly appreciated the work I had done in my clippings package.

Never talked to him ever again, but in a frustrating summer after I'd already been turned down for about a bajillion internships and was struggling to find a gig, it really inspired me and helped me keep a positive attitude. If he still reads this, I'll thank him for that.

Like I said, I don't really know what else he's about. But his interaction with me was a lot more stand-up than the treatment I've gotten from some other "professionals" I've worked with. It's kind of sad he had to go down like this.

 

Is it too late to play the Garth Hall card?

 

If you're going to resort to that, Ben There, then I'll have to pull two vintage jokers from the ISJ/ISU deck. How about Jim Boutin and Tom Jewell?

 

Does anyone have an Alfredo Anderson card in their deck?

 

I'll raise you a Shirley Huyett.

 

Ughhh. I was there for that fiasco.

From conference champ with everyone coming back, to a skidmark of a season with players revolting and a firing halfway through her first year in town.

What a mistake that entire deal was.

But nothing tops the ShopKo Five.