The manila envelope wasn’t large enough for all the media credentials I have saved over the years.
The bottom of the envelope busted open, so I got an even bigger envelope to store some of the mementoes from my career as a sports writer.
There are press passes to some of the bigger sporting events of the past decade in my top desk drawer, including one NFL Draft, two Heisman Trophy ceremonies, three Daytona 500 races and Super Bowl XXXIX.
The vast majority of my media credential collection has come from working in Northwest Arkansas over the past seven years.
I have visited every football stadium in the Southeastern Conference, or at least I had until Texas A&M and Missouri joined the league. And I’ve covered a basketball game in all but two or three SEC arenas.
But that’s not what I’ll remember most from my time as a sports writer for The Morning News of Northwest Arkansas and now Northwest Arkansas Newspapers.
I wasn’t given a media credential when I walked through the heavily guarded walls of three maximum-security prisons in Arkansas, Missouri and Oklahoma to do a three-part series on the role of sports in prisons.
Instead, I got pat-downs from prison guards checking to make sure I didn’t have any weapons on me.
Blaine and Lori Russell didn’t have to approve me for a press pass before sitting down to discuss the death of their son, former Gravette football player Casey Russell, from an aggressive staph infection.
We met in the break room at Blaine’s job one morning and talked.
Whenever strangers learn that I am — or more accurately was — a sports writer, they often ask which famous athletes I’ve met over the years.
They’re more interested in hearing about my chats with LeBron James and Tiger Woods than they are about my even more memorable talks with Frankie Bishop and Jason Bertschy.
Neither Bishop nor Bertschy is a household name, but sports writing is about telling stories. And frankly, Bishop and Bertschy have stories that are more compelling to me than those of James and Woods.
Seven years after writing about sports in prisons, I still remember the name of the mother whose son was murdered in a bar fi ght by an inmate I spoke to for my article.
“Want to know what it’s like to lose a son?” Bishop asked me over the phone before we talked off -therecord for at least 30 minutes.
I didn’t know who Bertschy was before a few weeks ago. He was just another interview subject, one of thousands I’ve talked to over the years.
But the former Minor League Baseball umpire made a lasting impression as he spoke openly about his battle with a rare form of cancer. He and others like him are the reason I got into sports writing.
It’s tough to say goodbye to the only profession I’ve ever known. Journalism has been great to me over the years, but the time has come for me to bid it farewell as I leave to work as a Senior Editor at Oklahoma State.
While there are dozens of people I’d like to thank — beginning with sports editor Chip Souza for having the faith to hire me — I want to save my last few words at the newspaper for another group.
I’d like to say thank you to every athlete, coach, grieving parent and cancer patient who shared their stories with me during my seven years in Northwest Arkansas.
I hope I did some sense of justice in telling your stories.
ALEX ABRAMS IS THE ASSISTANT
SPORTS EDITOR FOR NWA MEDIA.