Roger Grossman
News Now Warsaw
I have been keeping a secret from you all.
That goes against my nature. I am in the information distribution business. I gather information, organize it in a format that works for you all, and then get it to you.
And in the process, others like me in the same line of work try to achieve that as quickly as possible.
Just imagine what it’s been like for me keeping a secret for the last six months.
It’s been incredibly difficult.
Six months ago was July, and on a sunny, breezy Northern Indiana afternoon, I was sitting in a lawn chair in my driveway watching cars drive back and forth across my street. It was a little too windy to go fishing that day, so I was just chilling out at home. My son was working on his basketball moves, my wife was working on her flowers, my daughter was in the house reading, and my black lab was on the other end of the leash I was holding.
My phone rang.
I saw that the caller ID said it was Chuck Freeby from Sports Michiana. I get calls from Chuck from time to time, but never in July. For what felt like five minutes (but was really only five seconds), I speculated in my head what he might be calling me about.
I snapped out of that and answered the phone.
What he told me would change my life forever.
He was calling me to tell me that I was going to be inducted into the Indiana Sportswriters and Sportscasters Hall of Fame.
I heard all the words, but I most certainly didn’t comprehend what he was saying.
When it finally sank in, he was talking about me. Me!
I am not a member of this organization because I felt like the people whom I knew were already in it were a way bigger deal than me. They were famous people—some of them were people I aspired to be like in a younger life.
Chuck was telling me on the phone that summer afternoon that I was about to become a peer of theirs.
After giving me the information about when and where the ceremony would take place, he gave me the haunting instructions that no one but my wife could know until the announcement was made in January.
The most exciting news of my professional life and I couldn’t tell anyone?
Nope … no one.
Last Thursday, when the press release was sent out from the ISSA, I was still in so much disbelief and surprise that I opened it right away, looking for my name to see if it was really on there, or if it was all just a dream.
I scrolled down, and there it was…this was really happening.
There isn’t enough space in a thousand newspapers to express my feelings. Joy. Gratitude. Reflection.
Thank you to all of you who have reached out in the days since the announcement. It’s a statewide award, and so people from all over Indiana have sent me congratulatory messages.
We’ll talk more about this in early April.
With the space I have left, I want to circle back to my first year here at WRSW and share my thoughts on the passing of Ted Huber last week.
Huber was the varsity football coach at Warsaw for seven seasons—from 1988 to 1994.
That means he was the football coach here when I started back in 1991.
We didn’t hit it off right away. He was focused on trying to win football games and I was a 23-year-old kid trying to figure out how being a high school football commentator worked in the real world. There are things college radio can’t train you for, and those were the things I was trying to navigate.
It wasn’t that Coach Huber was hard to work with, it was that I was inexperienced.
I moved on to broadcasting Tippecanoe Valley games in 1994, and Coach Huber moved on as well.
A few years later, our paths crossed again. He saw me first and walked quickly over to say ‘hello’. He smiled when he asked how I was doing and if the people at Valley were taking good care of me (which they were, of course).
From then on, every time we were in the same room, we sought each other out.
His career in coaching is legendary: He is in the Bremen High School Hall of Fame, the Ball State Athletics Hall of Fame, the Indiana Football Hall of Fame and the National High School Athletic Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
He is beloved by and will be missed by many — and I am included in that group.
Sunday, his family will say their final “goodbyes.” Today, I say mine.
Goodbye, Coach Huber, and thank you.
