No. 271 – Face Up

Performer: Rush

Songwriters: Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, Neil Peart

Original Release: Roll the Bones

Year: 1991

Definitive Version: None.

During my tenure at The Flint Journal, we had four major basketball retirements. Sure, it happens every year that some famous player in some sport hangs ‘em up, but these were absolute icons: Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan and Isiah Thomas. You could argue that that’s an NBA Mt. Rushmore right there, and if you don’t agree about Thomas, keep in mind that The Palace of Auburn Hills sits about 30 miles southeast of Flint.

What made it more remarkable is that I was in charge of the sports desk the night each of them retired over a span of three years. Given the iconic status of all four players, I had to deliver the goods when it came to designing the section front, because, obviously, their announcements were the major story of the night.

I pulled a rock when it was announced (prematurely as it turned out) that Bird was retiring in 1991 due to a back injury suffered the previous year. I went with the news angle—showing a picture of when Bird got hurt. In the morning, my boss, Dave, made me rip up the front and redo it. The story isn’t Bird retires because of a bad back, it’s Bird retires, period, so show him hoisting the championship trophy or smoking Red Auerbach’s cigar or something, you know, iconic.

Well, no one wants to have to rip up a section front at 8 in the morning—something Dave made us do maybe once per year. In November 1991, I got a shot at redemption. While Roll the Bones dominated my CD player, the news broke that Magic Johnson had contracted AIDS and was going to announce his retirement.

I gathered two things from the announcement: First, this was front-page news. It wasn’t just Magic Johnson, Michigan basketball icon, retiring. It was Magic Johnson, Michigan basketball icon, retiring because he had contracted a deadly disease thought to be the exclusive domain of gay men. This wasn’t just a sports story, like Bird, this was News with a capital N. The main story would be on the front page. My coverage would be the impact Magic had in basketball.

Second, and more important, I would have to go in early to begin collecting stories and pictures. Magic’s retirement would dominate the section front as well as take up one full inside page. I had to be ready.

After dutifully watching a few hours of SportsCenter, I headed out about 8. (My shift typically started about midnight.) I grabbed some dinner and swung by the bowling alley where Dan, my second that night (as he was on Bird night), was rolling, along with a few other sports guys in their league.

Bowling is to fall and winter in Flint as softball is to spring and summer—practically required. I didn’t bowl, but I needed to consult with Dan to plot strategy. I knew Dan tended to, shall we say, indulge a bit on bowling nights and arrive pretty late. I told him I had it covered that night, so he didn’t necessarily need to worry about getting in early. He said he would anyway.

Although my lungs were filled with the cigarette smoke that hung in the bowling alley like haze, my brain was alcohol-free when I arrived at The Journal about 10. After gathering stories and grabbing photos off the AP printer, I set about the most time-consuming task—making a chart of Magic’s statistics.

Keep in mind that this was pre-Mac and pre-graphics departments. In those days, if you wanted a chart, you had to do it yourself—and on an ATEX computer, no less. Behind the Sunday editor’s desk in the newsroom was a special monitor that allowed you to print virtual charts without wasting type. Dan, the Sunday editor, showed me how to use it.

Assembling the chart itself was easy. The hard part was getting everything to line up just right with proper spacing between each column. Given the programming rquired, it was a pain-staking process, so no one in sports did ATEX charts, except me. When it was finished, more than an hour later, I was as proud of my Magic Johnson stats chart as I was anything else I had done to that point.

Because Magic was a high-school icon at Lansing Everett, a college icon at Michigan State and a pro icon with the Lakers, I covered all three facets of his career in a photo montage on the front, showing him passing, shooting and directing traffic on the floor. It was a vast improvement on the Bird section front, but it wasn’t quite good enough in the end to garner the praise of my superiors. At least I didn’t have to redo it.

I finally got it right with Jordan. His (first) retirement in 1993 was shocking enough that it was front-page news. Again, I had the perspective story on the section front. This time I kept it simple: a huge color picture of Jordan drenched in champagne holding the NBA championship trophy after his first title with a massive headline that just said: “I did it all.” It was … iconic, and it was nominated for an internal award for page design. (Sports never won.)

The third time was the charm after all.