The old days of journalism were awesome

The 1977 NCAA Final Four in Atlanta with a manual typewriter and a tape recorder

The call for help came when at the age of 26 I received an assignment that was nothing less than monumental.
The UNLV basketball team was headed for the 1977 NCAA Final Four playoffs in Atlanta, Ga., and the responsibility of covering the event was mine.

Mind you, my biggest assignment in the newspaper business to that point had been high school athletics along with short track auto racing.

The NCAA Final Four was big-time and in fact, was so significant that journalists from all over the country would attend.

The Runnin’ Rebels coached by Jerry Tarkanian had captured the hearts and souls of Las Vegas scoring victories over the likes of teams such as USF and Idaho State en route to the trip to the NCAA Final Four.

The task was daunting especially considering that I was being sent to an event that included some of the finest journalists in the country. I was about to join an elite group in more ways than one.

Among the other teams traveling to Atlanta were the University of North Carolina, North Carolina-Charlotte and Marquette University.

UNLV was the darling of the tournament considering that the team had averaged an unbelievable 107 points per game long before the three-point line was included in college basketball. When the team reported to practice at the Omni Arena, an estimated 10,000 fans showed up to witness a team so exciting that 25-foot jump shots were the norm.

UNLV would lose 84-83 to a Michael O’Koren-led North Carolina team in the first round of the tournament, which was eventually won by the Al McGuire-coached Marquette.

The experience remains one of my favorite times in print journalism for several reasons although I will never forget walking into the UNLV locker room following its loss to North Carolina and seeing the understandable look of despair on the faces of every member of the team.

UNLV guard Reggie Theus saw me standing in the locker room and knowing that I, too, was in an uncomfortable situation, stepped forward to speak about the loss. I could just imagine filing a story without reactions from the losing team and it goes without saying that Theus saved my neck considering that no one else would talk.

However, the real key to the old days of journalism is that major events were covered without the tools that today’s journalists enjoy. While we didn’t even know it, we struggled and seemed to love every single minute of the challenges.

I journeyed to Atlanta with a manual typewriter and a tape recorder along with a good supply of pencils, pens and notebooks and the end result was that the job was completed with the basic essentials.

No cell phone and no internet or email capabilities. None of us enjoyed the amenities of today although we all enjoyed ourselves doing our jobs.

Still, I made deadline even while filing stories by dictating them to editors on the telephone. When I returned to Las Vegas, the bosses congratulated me for a job well done. Truthfully, it almost seems that journalism was enjoyed more when we had less considering how much work we all did in a short period of time without the electronic technology now available.
Frankly, I have heard too many journalists complain about being overworked today and while the profession is certainly facing its own challenges, the business enjoys a much better environment when speaking of the tools available.

There are definite issues as the business continues to figure out how to compete with or against the internet, but the overall rewards in journalism remain. Considering that I wrote my first copy when I was 12, it is evident that I’m addicted to the business.

The bottom line is that journalism is a fascinating profession where the greatest challenges also include an unbelievable level of self-satisfaction especially with the tools that are now available.