Photo: Chuck Pollock (middle) holding court during a Times Herald friends and family reunion in 2021. From left are Paula Snyder, former TH Managing Editor Tom Donahue (in a perfect Buffalo Braves NBA shirt), former TH Managing Editor Pat Vecchio, Pollock, Dr. Jim Snyder and one of the most respected political writers in the nation, Bob McCarthy. Rick Miller photo.
By CHUCK POLLOCK, Wellsville Sun Senior Sports Columnist
The most significant day of my life was Jan. 2, 1973.
That was the date I ended my play-by-play broadcasting career and joined the Olean Times Herald as a sport writer.
It was the toughest decision, at age 27, I’d ever faced.
My goal, as a teeager, was to cover pro sports.
Now I had the opportunity … but with an asterisk.
Bradford High football coach John Durham, told me the TH had an opening and asked if I could type (My answer was a reluctant, ‘Yes’ if you count my right thumb and index finger and left pointer).
THE INTERVIEW was too good to be true.
My responsibility would be covering the Bills home-and-away, the NBA’s Buffalo Braves at home and writing columns about St. Bonaventure basketball and other sports events of interest.
The reason for the opening was that Chuck Ward, the No. 3 sports staffer, was moving to cityside as managing editor.
Fifty-one years later I’m still a one-finger typist — students touring the TH were warned not to follow my example — but I quickly made it work, albeit in an amusing fashion.
IN REFLECTION, it was a Golden Age for sports journalists.
Veteran Bob Davies, my mentor, covered every Bona game, riding with the team as he didn’t drive.
I traveled with the Bills — on the team plane for the first six years before we were mandated to fly commercial — and stayed at the squad’s hotel.
A bonus was that in my 5 1/2 years covering the Braves was that they twice made the NBA playoffs earning me trips to Boston, Philadelphia and Washington for post-season series.
There were also trips to significant Bona road games with Davies.
But after 15 years that idyllic life unexpectedly disappeared.
The TH, owned by Olean’s Fitzpatrick family, sold the paper to the Canadian Thomson Corporation which soon established a Sunday paper under Harry Pappas in 1988.
Seven years later the TH was sold again, this time to American Publishing (aka Hollinger) guided by Dan Ferrier.
Finally, the paper was sold to Bradford Publishing (Community Media Group) with Ward taking over as publisher until he was succeeded by Jim Bonn. That’s five publishers and five managing editors including current ME, Jim Eckstrom.
So, in a span of 12 years, the TH was sold four times each time the chain failed to make a fast buck.
They all realized the best way to save money was to dump personnel … a move that invariably compromised the quality of the product and drew disdain from the public.
Paid travel virtually disappeared.
Next came reducing the number of print editions … or closing.
In the past 20 years, 3,500 local papers have closed nationally and 270,000 journalists are out of work.
Three years ago, the TH stopped its Monday print edition and replaced it with an e-edition.
And the coup de grace came last week when it was announced that the paper would be printed only three days a week: Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, the e-edition available the same days.
Of course, the paper will still be delivered by the U.S. Postal Service which is bad news for sports fans.
For years, the Times Herald was known for its quality sports pages and won dozens of Associated Press Awards. But an abbreviated print schedule undermines that.
An example I use is this: The Bonnies play a noon home game on a Saturday. With no Sunday or Monday paper, SBU fans can read about that game on Tuesday afternoon when the mail person arrives.
No mention has been made of the futures of the staff … are they reduced to 60% pay? How long before the three-day format becomes a weekly?
I’ve been a newspaper junkie since I was in junior high school and they’ve been part of my life ever since.
When Bonn called me in late in March 2017, I had a choice: retire or become a part-time columnist.
Talk about a no-brainer.
But we had an interesting exchange.
He pulled a cell phone from his pocket and allowed, “I get all the news I need right here.”
“Yesterday’s news tomorrow,” I responded, referring to the Times Herald, “That’s why we’re in trouble.”
(Chuck Pollock, a Wellsville Sun senior sports columnist, can be reached at cpollock@wnynet.net.)
Read more from Chuck:
• Was Brady the right choice to coach the Buffalo Bills?
• Buffalo Bills’ running game sparks memories of 50 years ago
• Chuck Pollock’s Top 25 Bills games he’s covered at Highmark Stadium
• Pollock pulls no punches in his St. Bonaventure basketball assessment
