First Interview

Rarely can a writer recall their very first interview. Would that I couldn’t. A friend of mine who was in radio was developing a new 30-second feature called Sport Shots. Knowing I was a big sports fan he suggested I get a recorder and pick off brief interviews with celebrity athletes, the idea being that he would laydown a bunch of my efforts on cassette tapes and market them nationally to radio stations.

I was up for it!

Several weeks later I recorder in hand, I found myself in the interview tent following the first round of The Quail Hollow Open in Charlotte North Carolina. George Archer, who was in the lead by several strokes was going over the round for the press, hole by hole. When he was finished, he said that he had to go out to the practice tee to work on his driver.

I, the one and only, followed him to the practice range. As his caddy placed a ball on a tee for him, I remembered what he’d said back in the tent, and piped up, “Excuse me George what are you planning to do with that driver!”

He looked at me, totally unaware that I’d followed him to the range, and said, “Well, if I get lucky, I might just hit this f-ing little white ball with it!”

That one did NOT make it as a Sports Shots radio moments.