I started out as a sportswriter in 1974, working for the San Marcos Daily Record after graduating from what is now Texas State University. Columns were supposed to have clever titles, so at first my weekly column was called "At Witt's End," and then it changed to "Witt and Wisdom." Sadly, it had too little of both.
I quickly found I was too much of a sports fan to be a good sportswriter. Every time there was a game I wanted to watch, I had to work. I also found that most pro athletes had no interest in talking to you. Even Roger Staubach gave me the brush-off once.The college scene was a little better. New Oklahoma coach Barry Switzer was my first professional interview. He talked for two hours before I finally made up some excuse to get out of there. Today college athletes are like the professionals. Even some heavily recruited high schoolers will big-time you now, too, according to our staff writers.Most of my favorite writing over the years was from sportswriters. I loved Dan Jenkins, Curry Kirkpatrick and Frank Deford of Sports Illustrated (which I've subscribed to since 1960 although now I read it on my iPad) and Jim Murray of the Los Angeles Times. Locally, my favorite was Blackie Sherrod of the Dallas Times Herald.Blackie's best columns weren't when he tackled a single subject. Instead, he would write a piece about a lot of different things -- he called it "Scattershooting, while wondering whatever happened to ..."Here's my version of Scattershooting:Really felt for Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price when she took a tumble on her bicycle and wound up with a broken collarbone and a concussion. That happened to me when I was 8. I was trying to impress girls by riding my Stingray with no hands. I hit a rock and did a face-plant on the blacktop (of course, none of us wore helmets back then. Since Betsy was, she avoided winding up like actor Gary Busey). I have a scar on my scalp to remind me of that day, although I don't remember any pain. The doctor said he was going to sew me up with a "Howdy Doody magic needle" that wouldn't hurt, and darned if he wasn't right ...Sorry to see Jim Spaniolo, president of the University of Texas at Arlington, announce his retirement. Jim transformed UTA in the more than eight years he has been at the helm. I arrived at the Star-Telegram near the end of the Wendell Nedderman reign; Spaniolo has been easily the most successful president I've witnessed in my quarter-century here. College Park District may wind up being Spaniolo's biggest legacy. Maybe someday they will rename it as a tribute to him. Only thing he didn't do was bring back football ...Two stories in the Monday New York Times offered a snapshot of the upheaval taking place in the media world. In one, media columnist David Carr wrote that the velocity of digital transformation is increasing and that there is nothing anybody who is fond of the way things have been for the last 50 years can do about it. Right or wrong, good or bad, this train is not going to be sidetracked or stopped, so everyone better get on board.The other was about legendary investor Warren Buffett buying small and midsize newspapers when everyone is writing the obituary for print. What does he see that others don't? Buffett says he doesn't have any "secret sauce." His theory is that in certain smaller markets where the sense of community is strong and the newspaper has little competition (and the price to buy the paper is low), there is a sustainable business -- but only if the paper figures a way to generate revenue from online and quit giving it away.Buffett announced Friday that's he's buying the Waco Tribune-Herald, where I got my first job in journalism ...Jim Witt is executive editor of the Star-Telegram.817-390-7704Twitter: @jimelvis