From a Scrub's Standpoint

So I'm writing a book. And not just any book, it’s my autobiography.

(This is where many will race into the streets, filled with terror that somehow they will wind up in it. Relax guys and girls, it’ll only hurt for a little bit...)

Of course when I look back over the course of my career, dating back to my salad days as the cub reporter for The Arnold Sentinel while was still in high school, I have written enough to fill many books, maybe a whole library, or so it seems. And you have read some of it, thanks for that.

But this is different.

It feels like I mentioned this project last winter - like most things at (nearly) 66 years of age I can’t remember for sure - but either way if feels like a good time for an update. For several years prior I had floated the idea of something called The 200 Project, where I would contact 200 people or so who came been part of my life, whether for a lifetime or maybe just a short stretch, and ask them to tell me a story about me, them and me, or something related.

That sounded like fun to me but our daughter, Jessie, heard me out on the project and then said, “Dad, don’t do it.” Besides her complete lack of faith in the direction the conversation might go - honey it’s not all gonna be bad - it still appealed to me. I’d get to seeing it through someday.

Then my birthday came along. Last Jan. 1 turned 65 (see the math there, last Jan. 1 I turned 65 and today, Dec. 7, I am nearly 66...gee thanks, Arnold High education!) and our son Shea got me the greatest gift of all time (except for, you know, things like the wife and kids, and stuff like that), a subscription to something called Storyworth, a digital service which helps you create your book.

How it works is, Shea, who is the webmaster/editor for this project, sends me a weekly question through Storyworth and I answer it long form on the template provided. We eased into it, the first questions covering topics like my mom and dad, growing up with my three sisters, family vacations and a little something about how I spent my days as a youth. Eased, perhaps, but some of you know me well enough to know that vacation topic took quite a turn the summer after my senior year in high school. And like Forrest Gump, that’s all I have to say about that. (and like I also say, and have teased about for many years, it’ll be in the book)

As we have moved through the months the topics have broadened out to include chapters on how I met Huskerland Penni - quite a tale, not gonna like - my journalistic professional life (my work at five papers, the ownership of two), and of course, Huskerland Prep Report. Two of the questions Shea asked included having me name some of the favorite photos I have ever taken (Taylor Beck, you were there, so were you, Amber Hegge) and also to name my three favorite Huskerland feature subjects of all time.

Three. Come on son, LOL, I have written over 3,100 of them for Huskerland in print, probably closer to 4,000 when you consider online stuff. That was one of my favorite questions to answer because it required me to go back through that magnificent numerical list of all the player feature stories which appeared in Huskerland Prep Report, including Cambridge QB Ed Thompson at No. 1. But narrowing that down to three was about an impossible task.

So I compromised. After an initial review the number was 57, then 36, then 11 and then four. All of the Huskerland feature stories I have written, all the interviews that went with them, are precious to me but some of these clowns (sorry ladies, to throw you under the bus intended for the guys) are simply unforgettable. I know this, when my Mom died five years ago one of the first people to reach out was former Creighton superstar Bryce Zimmerer, who was still a college kid at the time. Like so many of the kids I have interviewed, Bryce was grown up before his time and I will never forget his kind gesture.

Oh, there’s lots more in there - we are up to 316 pages of copy with photos yet to be placed and a couple of subjects yet to be tended to - but the part of the book that has proven to be the most, um, compelling was one that I added for myself. The last chapter is called They Said It, and it will consist of comments by some of the most towering figures in my checkered past. (Sheriff Steve Cherry, you knew you’d be in there...)

And there are others I have contacted to play our little game - some of them you might know, most you won’t, at least unless you are in my, ahem, tightly guarded inner circle. It’s been fun to reconnect with some longtime friends, some whom I have not spoken with in a long time, as well as some of my Huskerland contemporaries.

Like I have said many times when I write I write mainly for myself and hope somebody likes it, and that has never been more true that with writing this book. Love my son, of course, and never more than for setting me off on this journey, which will soon be completed.