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Friday, September 3, 2010 | Serving Del Rio and Val Verde County: Since 1929
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Saying good-bye to an old friend
Published September 3, 2009
It is with a heavy heart I write these words you’re reading today.
The man who helped shape my journalism career by convincing the powers that be at the Del Rio News-Herald to take a chance on me has passed on.
Former Del Rio News-Herald Sports Editor Bill Jewell, who served in that role from June 1994 to January 2006, passed away early Wednesday morning after a lengthy illness. I didn’t learn about his passing until after that day’s newspaper was already rolling.
Looking back at my life, there were four men who truly shaped me and helped me become the man I am today.
First and foremost is my father, Lloyd Argabright. Secondly, my Little League baseball coach Sal Padilla. Third is my current boss, Joe San Miguel. And, of course, there was Bill.
Almost 13 years ago Bill sat up in his chair when Mr. San Miguel was giving me the “applicant’s tour” of the News-Herald, when it was still located on South Main Street, and told him to hire me because the News-Herald needed help in sports. With that stamp of approval, I became a part-timer and officially began my News-Herald career on Sept. 16, 1996.
Amazingly enough I first met Bill when he ran a sports card store tucked away near where Mailboxes Etc. used to be and later in the now-defunct shopping center where the IBC Bank now stands. I got to know him a bit better through his work with the Del Rio National Little League. I can’t say I ever thought I’d work with him, but I had to say he was an interesting guy and he got along well with my dad, as the two would share old Air Force stories.
I learned later that as an air traffic controller in the United States Air Force he guided countless hundreds, maybe even thousands, of pilots home after a lengthy mission. He retired as a chief master sergeant and earned the loving moniker of “Chief” from all the folks who knew him from his time at Laughlin.
Once I began working with the newspaper, Bill took me under his wing and taught me everything he knew. He would later admit that it wasn’t much as he was basically thrust into the position and had to learn a lot on the fly.
I learned with Bill. He taught me that people love to see their kids’ names in the paper and that I should always try and credit as many people as possible when things go well. If a kid scored a touchdown, remember it was the offensive line that did the blocking. If a linebacker made a sack, remember the defensive line who occupied the blockers to set the ‘backer loose. They were simple lessons, but I ate it all up.
Soon I was helping Bill out even more as we became the voices of Del Rio sports on KTDR Power 96 FM. We traveled throughout the region, broadcasting football games from cramped press boxes in Uvalde and Eagle Pass and from the friendly confines of the tower that defines Ram Stadium. We covered football, basketball and baseball games. We weren’t John Madden and Al Michaels, or even Joe Buck and Tim McCarver, but it was a kick knowing people were tuned into us to find out how the Rams and Queens were doing.
We were also pulling double duty, as Bill would call in the games to whoever was lucky enough to have to transcribe it back at the office. Often he’d do it as we’d be driving back with me holding the clipboard that held the stats and him making up the story on the fly. That’s how it used to be done, back before laptops and wireless connect cards.
When Bill needed a break, I was taught how to layout pages and began working on weekends. He needed the time off to spend with family or just relax. I didn’t mind, mainly because it meant more hours and more money in the paycheck, and it made me a little more valuable at the office.
As the years passed, Bill’s health began to worsen. He didn’t like to let on because he didn’t want folks to worry. I don’t think he realized just how many people would have been ready to help him if he asked, but it was part of his nature.
Once he bought a home out in Rough Canyon you could tell his days at the newspaper were almost done. It was a long drive into town, and there were a few times that he wound up getting a little too close to the wildlife that lined the roads in those early morning hours.
Sure enough in 2005 he talked it over with the boss and he came to a decision to retire from the newspaper life. He last day was scheduled for January 2006, and that’s when I assumed the mantle of sports editor. My main job was to live up to the tradition he’d established for the sports department.
It wasn’t easy at first. People were used to Bill and the first time I had to tell someone on the phone that he no longer worked here I did so with a tinge of sadness in my voice. Eventually I was able to get the community used to my unique style though some days I wondered if there wasn’t some secret petition out there to bring Bill back.
But Bill would call me from time to time, usually when he had a break from his new job at T-Shirts Etcetera, and assured me I was doing a good job. He would tell me he liked reading my work and liked what I did with certain layouts. Those words meant a lot to me.
When he suffered his heart attack in 2007, it hit home. My dad had heart troubles a few years earlier and had bypass surgery, but he didn’t have a heart attack. He just felt weak and the doctors caught the problem before anything terrible could happen.
I knew what Bill and his family would be going through, but I felt he was strong enough to pull through it. Little did I know that it was really the beginning of the end of Bill’s time with us all.
I last saw Bill a month or so after he returned to Del Rio. He was at La Vida Serena undergoing physical and occupational therapy. He had suffered an infection while in the hospital and had been bedridden for so long he had to learn to use his muscles again.
When I walked into his room, it wasn’t the Bill I was used to seeing. He was 60 or 70 pounds lighter. He sported a slight beard and a rough cough escaped his mouth every couple of minutes. But when he smiled and asked me to have a seat I felt a little better.
We talked for about an hour. I caught him up on the goings on in the local sports world and he just soaked it all up. Before I left he thanked me for the kind words I’d written about him after his heart attack, but asked that I not write about the shape he was in now. He said that if anyone asked about him, I had his permission to tell whoever asked where he was and they would be welcome to visit.
Then I walked out the door and never saw him or heard his voice again.
Friends of Bill would keep me updated as to his status. I learned he had been transferred to Kerrville’s VA hospital and was told that it would be a while before he would be home. Every once in a while I was told his condition hadn’t gotten any better, but he was hanging in there.
Then came the email from his daughter Jamie last week. I think she knew it was only a matter of time and deep down hoped that the outpouring of support from friends and colleagues back home in Del Rio would be enough to keep him hanging on.
But a few short days later he was gone, and we all lost a friend we could just sit around and talk sports with.
Bill leaves behind a terrific wife in Suk Cha, two great kids in Mike and Jamie and a world filled with kids he coached, wrote about or just befriended because they weren’t just Del Rio’s kids but they were all his kids, too.
For every boy and girl who learned a sport under his guidance, for every parent who kept a scrapbook filled with newspaper articles he wrote or photos he printed so their child could remember the joy of youth, for every person he entertained with his stories of life in the Air Force or growing up in Illinois, for every time he told us in the newsroom to “Have a Wolfpack Day” and for every time he uttered the phrase “Aw geez!” when things weren’t going right, for all of those things I will never forget Bill.
I could easily go on and on about Bill and what he meant to all of us, but it’s getting harder to write with tears welling up in my eyes. Instead, I’ll close with these simple words – thank you, Bill.
——
Editor’s Note: Submit your memories of Bill Jewell to sports(at)delrionewsherald.com. A public memorial service for Bill Jewell will be held in Del Rio Sunday, Sept. 6, at 3 p.m. at the Full Gospel Korean Church, 3985 Veterans Blvd. The church is located off U.S. Highway 90 West near Amistad Propane. According to Bill’s son Michael, the memorial will serve as a celebration of Bill’s life and will feature photos and food. If you’d like to contribute or have any questions, please call Mike Jewell at 210-264-1483. If you have any cards or letters you planned on sending to Bill Jewell, please bring them to Sunday’s memorial service.
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