Frank Jolley retires Friday from Daily Commercial
Saying goodbye.
It’s something we all have to do at some point in our lives, even though it’s something few of us are ever comfortable doing.
That’s where I’m at today. After 40-plus years of stringing words together for a living, I’m packing away my pen and notebook.
My final day at the Daily Commercial is Friday. After that, I’ll return to the ranks of rabid fandom and loving sports for the excitement that accompanies waking up on game day.
For me, sports is a passion. In fact, I can’t remember when it wasn’t.
My love affair with sports began as youngster, when my dad would take me to Tinker Field in Orlando to watch the Minnesota Twins go through spring training. I’d sit with him in the grandstands — being exposed to the nectar that is ballpark food — and be regaled with stories about Willie Mays, Ted Williams and Mickey Mantle.
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Trips to the ballpark a favorite pastime as a kid and a reporter
It was love at first sight and didn’t take long — one or two trips to the ballpark — to realize I wanted to be a professional athlete. Like most kids, however, it didn’t take long to realize I had no future as a player, no matter how much I practiced.
That’s when fate stepped in.
Around that same time, I developed an interest in writing and sports writing in particular. I’d spend my days seated in front of a manual typewriter, watching games on television and writing a gamer — a game story — based on the style and formats I discovered in our morning newspaper.
Eventually, I joined my high school paper as a sports writer and that got me on the sidelines for football games and a seat at the scorer’s table at basketball games. It was like walking the Golden Road and sitting on the most regal of thrones.
After graduating from high school — West Orange in Winter Garden in 1977 — I joined the U.S. Army and eventually attended the Defense Information School at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Ind. DINFOS, as it was called, was geared toward providing graduates with the basics of the business.
I graduated from DINFOS in Oct. 1980 and was assigned to The Stripe newspaper at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. There, fate struck again when I had the great fortune of working for an incredibly gifted and talented reporter and editor, Terri Moon, now Terri Moon Cronk.
Terri won countless awards for her own work but was always approachable and willing to help. Perhaps she saw more in me than I saw because she refused to let me settle for being a barely functional reporter, even when that was good enough for me.
Following my stint in the nation’s capital, I was sent to the Republic of Panama, where I wrote about myriad military activities around the Panama Canal. During my two years on the isthmus, I also traveled to places like Costa Rica, Honduras, Suriname and even back to the U.S. for various brigade functions.
I closed out my military journalism career in 1986 with a two-year stay at Fort Sheridan, Ind., about 40 miles north of Chicago.
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After my discharge, I worked as a proofreader and a couple of newspapers — one in a suburb north of Chicago and a multi-newspaper group in Seminole County. I also worked in a video production house writing scripts, including one for the 1992 UCF football highlight film.
Cherished my time in Lake and Sumter counties
However, the past 19 years in Lake and Sumter counties with the Daily Commercial have been the most fulfilling of my career.
During my time here, I’ve followed multiple teams to state champi
onship games in baseball, basketball, football, and softball. I also worked a World Series (Philadelphia and Tampa Bay in 2008), a Super Bowl (Arizona and Pittsburgh in Tampa in 2009), multiple Daytona 500s, and the NBA Finals (Orlando and the Los Angeles Lakers in 2009).
Even with those choice assignments, I always got more pleasure from being at games involving teams from Lake and Sumter counties.
My favorite story — and I think my best work — was penned during my time here. It was about Stuart Cottrell, a former Eustis High School multi-sport standout in the 1960s, and coincided with the release of the movie, “We Are Marshall.”
I still have a copy of that newspaper; however, due to countless format changes, it is not available in a digital format to which we can link.
For those who might not remember, the movie traced the rebirth of the Marshall University football team following a 1970 plane crash that killed 75 souls, including nearly every member of program.
Among those who perished in the worst sports-related air tragedy in U.S. history was Stuart Cottrell.
I spoke with Cottrell’s brother and sisters, along with childhood friends, and coaches from his playing days at Eustis. Stuart was still so respected — more than 40 years after he last donned a Panthers uniform — that even his opponents spoke of his accomplishments with reverence.
Clearly, Stuart’s legacy had not been diminished over time; if anything, it had grown even more legendary.
Stuart, suffice to say, your memory will never be forgotten.
Rest In Peace.
I watched the Leesburg boys basketball teams dominate on the hardwood. I was courtside when the Yellow Jackets won Class 6A state championships in 2017 and 2018; in fact, that 2017-18 group, which finished with a 30-1 record never lost to an FHSAA opponent, is likely the greatest public school boys team ever to come out of Lake and Sumter counties.
At the same, the Wildwood girls team was dominating the hardwood, with Class 1A state titles and also won state titles in 2017 and 2018. Led by Kari Niblack — the greatest girls basketball player in Lake and Sumter history — the Wildcats reached the state finals three times between 2015 and 2018.
I was privileged to spend glorious afternoon chasing Arnold Palmer and Gary Player at a “Shoot Your Age” tournament in The Villages. Afterward, I got a few minutes with Palmer and Player to talk about their play.
Without a doubt, that was as close to royalty as I’ve ever gotten.
There was a trip to New York City in 2015 when Montverde Academy won its third straight mythical national championship in boys basketball. I’ve been to Fort Myers for state baseball and to Dodgertown — now known at the Jackie Robinson Training Complex — in Vero Beach and Clermont for state softball.
I’ve made countless treks to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg when local high school standouts showed up with the their Major League teams to play the Tampa Bay Rays.
And I also was at Pat Thomas Stadium-Buddy Lowe Field the night the Leesburg Lightning was born in 2006. That’s when Florida Collegiate Summer League President Sara Whiting stopped a showcase game between Altamonte Springs and Winter Park long enough to officially invite Leesburg to join the league.
I still enjoy this little gig of mine. Hell, I get paid to go to games.
But, like everyone else, journalists have a prime — that period of life when you’re producing your best work. And over the past couple of years, it’s become clear to me that I’ve passed mine.
To be clear, I have not been asked or forced — by anyone at the Daily Commercial or the Gannett network — to step aside.
This is my decision and I’m comfortable with it.
I’ll miss it.
You can’t do something for this long and walk away without feeling something.
But, it’s time to go.
It’s time to say goodbye.
