Special Edition: Frank Luksa

FRANK LUKSA

1935-2012

I can never remember a time when I didn’t love sports….

I grew up…or should I say…I grew older…in a time before Sports Center ran highlights 24 hours a day. When I was a kid, the Braves weren’t on TBS, the Cubs weren’t on WGN, there was no NFL ticket, or MLB package.  The Rangers home games weren’t televised, and even an occasional Cowboys game would get blacked out…and due to numerous factors (like probation) rarely were my Sooners on TV. I listened to games on the radio, watched coach’s playback shows…and waited patiently for Harold Taft to do the weather so I could catch a 20 second highlight of one of my team during the sports segment of the nightly news.  But when it came to getting my sports fix…there was nothing that could rival the sports section of the newspaper.

I can never remember a time when I didn’t love the sports page…

The sports page was my recap, my highlights, my ritual, my library book…I would read every inch of it.  Pulling off the rubber band, unrolling the paper and pulling out the sports section was as much a thrill to me as running down the hall on Christmas morning.  The sports section was my first habit…one that I've yet to even attempt to kick.  I may or may not have brushed my teeth when I arrived at school each morning, but I can guarantee you that remnants of black newspaper ink could be found somewhere on my fingertips.  

Today is my birthday…so I decided I would treat myself to breakfast at my favorite place this morning….much like I do a couple times a week on days that aren’t my birthday.

Like Norm on Cheers, I enter the café to a series of hellos from my extended breakfast family and with sports page in hand, I take my seat in my customary spot.  “I will have the usual” I state to my waitress C.C. as she approaches, all the while pulling out the sports section.  When she returned moments later, tears were rolling down my face.

I got to say, the news hit me hard. 

I’d never met the man, but felt like I had known him all my life.  He had never spoken a verbal word to me, but I spent most of my life soaking up every possible thing he had to say.  He never personally gave me a single word of advice…but he influenced my perspective, made me think and taught me the ability to laugh at myself.  Yes, the news that Frank Luksa had passed away the night before hit me hard.

I had no idea how lucky I was to get to grow older reading the likes of Bud Shrake, Blackie Sherrod and Frank Luksa.  Those three all wrote for the Herald or Morning News.  Reading the columns of those three and the work of Dan Jenkins, who wrote at the Morning News before my time, are the reason I like to write and whose styles I most try to emulate. 

 “I own the distinction of working for all three metropolitan dailies and helping only one out of business.” –Frank Luksa

To me, Frank Luksa didn’t so much write about sports and he did tell a story.  For over five decades, Luksa wrote for the Herald, the Morning News and Fort Worth Star Telegram…using his wit, color and sarcasm to paint sports pictures I couldn’t get enough of. Luksa had a way of telling it like it was but in a way that seemed gentle, not critical.  As Brad Sham, the radio voice of the Cowboys is quoted as saying “The thing that Frank could do-and it’s somewhat of a lost art these days -- is be critical without being mean.”  But of all his writing flairs, it was Luksa’s self-effacing style that I most try to emulate.

With Bud Shrake having passed away in 2009 and Blackie Sherrod in 2005…Luksa was the last local link to the Dallas sports scene that I grew up in.  I guess that is why news of his death hit me so hard this morning…sometimes the good old days, just simply were...the good old days.  They don’t make many like Frank Luksa anymore, and that’s a shame.

Rest in peace Frank Luksa…thank you for all the highlights, insight, perspective and laughs that you shared with me over the years……please know that you were appreciated…and most of all....that these ink blotched fingertips will miss you.

Just the Opinion of a Lucky Guy Who Got to Read Frank Luksa

The Overweight Armchair Sooner

Buddy Putty