A Blessed life

I don't know how it came about to be the way my life has unfolded to be so involved in sports.  My high school days I loved football but the older I progressed from seventh grade right up to senior year in high school my participation became I was an end at the end of the bench that guarded the water bucket.  I played jv basketball scoring all of seven points in two years.. I was a two year starter on the baseball team as a junior I played right field and my senior season third base.  I don't think the next year after I was gone from any sport at good old Ahoskie High school there was much problem finding a replacement for me.

I took off my high school cap and gown and went right to work at our local radio station as a disc jockey and when September rolled around I was the color man on our radio stations broadcast of Ahoskie High school football.  I was a fixture on Friday night football for the next 22 years.

Our radio station carried University of North Carolina sports and of course that was football and basketball.  The spring of most every year we would have a day where we would invite potential sponsors of Carolina sports to have dinner on the station, take a look at the cost that if you wanted to help sponsor Carolina sports find out how much you were going to have to pay to have your advertising on the Carolina games.

Several times during those years to entice more Carolina people to come and buy advertising we would bring the big guns from Chapel Hill to Ahoskie and they would pitch for us what ever the price was going to be to be on the Carolina games.  When I say big guns Woody Durham from the Carolina Network was most of the time the six shooter who came  to make the pitch.

You must understand for me a Wolfpack faithful having Woody was a hard thing to do the first time I ever met him.  Most trips he would spend three hours or so and it was up to us at the radio station to sign up all those who bought the Carolina package.  So in a way Woody help me with my pay check every week. 

When you  listen to a game and the person doing the talking you know a little bit about them  and to hear Woody say "Touchdown Carolina" I came to appreciate Woody Durham for his ability both as a salesman and broadcaster.  One Saturday afternoon in the 90's my boss at the time a big time Carolina donor  gave me eight basketball tickets on the eighth row from the foul line to midcourt.  Once the game was over we waited for the crowd to disperse before we left and as we walked up the steps Woody was coming down the steps. There was a time when the broadcast booth was at the top of the field level.  Today I think they sit on the floor by the team.

My son Brooks at the time about 10 years old was with me and I said Brooks 'Here comes Mr Woody Durham the voice of the Tar Heels'.  To my amazement Woody shook my sons hand and when he reached to shake mine said " Tony how you been doing".  It  had probably been ten years since I had last seen Woody and to think he remember me a nobody from Ahoskie  impressed me greatly and impressed everyone with me that I knew Woody Durham.

I am sad to hear the news that Woody has a health condition called Primary Progressive Aphasia.  It is  a nerve condition that controls your ability to put words together.  Woody retired as the Voice of the Tar Heels in 2011 still in the prime of his ability as a sports broadcaster.  A person that speaks for a living most of the great ones have a great ability to communicate.  Woody was one of the best.