Rick Reilly and Damon Runyon
When we started the Cru Jones Society, Hart, Limon, and I primarily sought to make you laugh and give you a way to waste time at work. That’s still our aim. But we never want to stoop to the level of pandering for a cheap laugh, farting out a simple trite list without context, or only aiming as high as the lowest common denominator. If we don’t make you laugh, at the very least, we want you to feel something after reading one of our articles. And as the last couple of weeks have demonstrated, it’s not always laughs around CJS Headquarters. We take a lot of time, effort, and care in crafting what you read here on CJS and we always try to write something that we’ll be proud of later. With that in mind, I was honored to attend the Damon Runyon Award Dinner hosted by the Denver Press Club Friday night with Lady E.
To quickly explain to those of you who don’t know, Damon Runyon was a playwright most famous for “Guys and Dolls.” From the Denver Press Club’s website: “The Damon Runyon Award honors a person or persons who have made extraordinary contributions to the field of journalism. The honorees are selected with a special eye towards those whose careers have embraced the highest journalistic standards and who embody the colorful, often irreverent and sometimes flamboyant traits so much associated with Runyon and his characters.” Recent award winners include Tim Russert, Bob Costas, George Will, and Ed Bradley. This award is no joke.
This year’s honoree was Rick Reilly, notable from his impressive body of work at Sports Illustrated, and now a member of ESPN: The Magazine and ESPN.com with a new television show called “Homecoming” debuting soon. He began at the Boulder Daily Camera, wrote for the Denver Post, and eventually transitioned to SI. He’s one of the most transcendent sports journalists to ever live, his column lived on the back page of SI for years, and his efforts in humanitarianism are beyond the reach of virtually all other sports journalists combined. His effort to aid malaria in Africa has been truly galvanizing for an entire continent, and his ability to frame sports in a larger context that actually means something to such a broad reach of people is remarkable. He is unquestionably deserving of such high acclaim.
I am lucky enough to work for a public relations firm that is a sponsor of this event (one of about 40 or so), and was invited by my boss to attend along with Lady E. It took me about half a heartbeat to accept, and Friday evening Lady E and I braved the muck, the snow, and the cold to honor Rick Reilly.
I criticized Reilly shortly after he arrived as ESPN because I thought he had gotten a tad sappy and migrated to the all-too-sentimental side of sports like he was dying of terminal cancer or something. But his recent columns and the inclusion of blog postings on ESPN.com have re-invigorated my love of Reilly columns, and I’m reminded of my initial affection for his work. His columns are always tightly written, he’s always got a point, and 95 times out of 100, his work resonates with almost everyone. In short, he’s a brilliant writer.
The event itself was terrific. The food was wonderful, KMGH 7 Anchor Mike Landess bricked beautifully with his introduction, and Reilly told some of the most ribald, wonderfully crass stories I think the newspaper and PR stiffs in the audience have ever heard. He received two standing ovations, and couldn’t have been more gracious in accepting the honor bestowed upon him.
I decided I needed to at least shake his hand and tell him that I appreciate his work, thank him for a job always well done, and wish him continued success. As I looked at the crowd surrounding him, I realized he was signing programs, I figured what the hell, and had mine signed too.
I approached him with my program, he asked my name, I told him. As he begun to sign, I told him a story from several years ago I remembered as I was invited to the dinner. I thought I’d tell it quickly while he was writing so I wouldn’t waste his time, but as I began, he put the program and pen down in front of him, lifted his eyes to meet mine, and actually listened to my story. He could have been a dismissive prick and appeased me with a courteous but disinterested laugh, but he didn’t. He wanted to hear my story. And he wanted to really hear it, so I told it.
In 1994, the Suns were in town to close out the season against the Nuggets. Charles Barkley was shopping in the Tabor Center and Reilly was following him around. I was transfixed on Barkley because although he’s not all that tall (6′ 4″ – short for a power forward), he’s an absolute force to look at. Charles has presence -that intangible it that just captivates your attention and prevents you from looking away. He was politely asked for autographs the whole time I saw him at the mall, but the thing I remember most, and the story I told Reilly, was what happened in the CD store. As Sir Charles had a group around him, he stopped everyone and said, “Hey everyone, you know who this is (pointing to Reilly)? This is Rick Reilly! C’mon, THE Rick Reilly! Why ain’t anyone want his autograph? It’s Rick Reilly, ladies and gentlemen! C’mon now!”
He laughed, asked me incredulously if Charles actually said that, I assured him it did, and he said “Charles is a beaut, isn’t he?” Then he reminded me that his daughter was with him (a mere 4 years-old at the time), and she asked him, “Are you mean?” to which Charles replied, “Not until 7:30 tonight.” Vintage Charles. He then signed my program. It reads,
“To [Dagger],
Why doesn’t anyone want my autograph?
Rick Reilly
And in an unbelievable twist of irony, I came home and Charles Barkley was on The Tonight Show. What are the fucking odds?
Rick Reilly is a true standup gentleman, and I’m honored to have shaken his hand and told him that story from my youth. He deserves all the accolades that come his way, and I wish him nothing but success. And on this night, everyone wanted his autograph. Including yours truly.
19 Apr 2009 E Dagger