Did I ever tell you how I got my first Gainesville Sun byline?
I reported bright and early on a Monday morning for my first day as higher education reporter.
Fresh off a year at the Ft. Lauderdale Sun Sentinel, where I mostly wrote stories about building code violations in the city of Tamarac.
It was great to be back in GNV. Where scarcely a year earlier I had graduated from the J School.
First order of business was to check in at Tigert Hall…I would say to introduce myself. But having been editor of the Alligator upon graduation, I already knew most of the players: President Robert Q. Marston, spokesman Hugh Cunningham, VP Bill Elmore and so on.
Which is how I came to…well…stealth my way onto the front-page within hours of reporting for duty.
Long story short, I was just about to walk into Hugh Cunningham’s office to say “hi” when something stopped me cold at the door.
That something being a conversation Hugh was engaged in with an Alligator reporter.
About allegations that some UF departments may have been using the Division of Sponsored Research to “launder” unspent budget dollars so they wouldn’t have to be returned to the state.
What can I say. I listened. Quietly, intently.
And then I turned around and hustled back to The Sun. Where I proceeded to make a bunch of phone calls.
I was able to scoop my old student paper because, at the time, the Sun was still an afternoon publication.
Eavesdropping my way onto the front page may sound a little underhanded. But what can I say? Reporting is a cutthroat business. Ask any politician.
Point being that within hours of clocking in, I scored my first Sun byline.
Right above the masthead.
On Monday, June 28th, 1976.
I only tell this very old story because, this week, my decades-long GNV Sun excellent adventure came full circle.
The Sun asked me to write a story about the death of Rob Oglesby. The genial former managing editor who dragged the paper out of the old hot type press-and-typewriter era and into the digital age.
Rob was a colleague, a mentor and a friend. And I was honored to be asked to write about his passing.
And, as it happened, the Sun’s publication of my piece about Rob turned out to be a milestone for me.
It marked 50 years of Ron Cunningham bylines in The Gainesville Sun.
A half century.
From higher education reporter.
To Tallahassee Bureau Chief.
To 30 years as Editorial Page Editor.
And then on into a post-retirement stint as columnist, theater critic, feature writer, freelance reporter and – hell – chief bottle washer if that’s what was needed.
And listen, hopefully The Sun and I are still not done with each other.
Because I love this town.
And its newspaper.
And I still love stringing words together for fun and profit.
To borrow my favorite Steve McQueen quote (from Papillon):
“I’m still here…(expletive deleted)!”
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