Bruce Keenan, my boss when I was a part-time sportswriter at The Herald-News and completing my studies at Seton Hall University, was one of the most fascinating characters I’ve met in my life.
His first words to me, when I reported to work one winter evening in 1976 and introduced myself to him as he sat with a toothpick in his mouth and a yardstick protruding from the back of his shirt, were simple and direct: “Sit down.”
Yet, there was little simple about Bruce, I learned during my two years at the Passaic, NJ daily newspaper.
He was only in his mid-30s at the time, but he looked 15-20 years older despite not seeming to have a hard life. If anything, he was hard on life.
Bruce grew up in East Orange, NJ at a time when it changed from a largely white middle-class Newark suburb to mostly a community of African-Americans, whom he sometimes referred to as “rug heads.” He played basketball at Clifford J. Scott High School and went on to Bethany College, where he was as a sports editor for the Class of 1964 yearbook. After finishing military service (something he never talked about), he joined The Herald-News and established his credentials as a sportswriter chronicling the New York Mets miracle run to a World Series title in 1969.
By the time I joined The Herald-News in 1976, Bruce was editing the work of the newspaper’s sportswriters and collaborating with the backroom typesetters on the sports section’s layout. The yardstick he kept with him at all times, along with the lined papers that sat on his desk and the leather athletic shoes he wore on his feet, helped him accomplish that. The booze he liked to drink too often, unfortunately, did not.
When Bruce had one or two too many drinks, sometimes on dinner break when he was scheduled to work late, sometimes before he even got to the office, his staff would typically cover for him. One of the senior members would ensure the edits and layouts were properly done. The rest of us would turn it up a notch so that we could go home on time and with the sports section in good shape. If necessary, one of us would drive him home. It was my first lesson on the importance of taking good care of your boss.
Fortunately, Bruce usually took his job seriously and came to the office – almost always by foot – sober. He would often keep himself away from his local favorite bar (conveniently located halfway between his office and home) by bringing in a salad – “rabbit food,” he called it. After all the sports articles had been written, accounted for in the page layouts, and turned over to the typesetters, he would dismiss us and, shortly afterwards, unless he was “on the wagon,” finish his night by stopping at the bar on his way home.
To some, Bruce was a lot like Oscar Madison, the divorced sportswriter half of The Odd Couple. Bruce never married, though. And, he was a lot more interesting than the Oscar Madison character portrayed on the stage and screen.
For one thing, Bruce was not very predictable. Sometimes he was chatty and sociable and easily amused. Other times he was quiet and brooding.
He liked Bob Dylan, Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson, and would sometimes blurt out a lyric from one of their songs. He said he disliked punk rock. When I went with him to CBGB in New York City one night, however, he felt completely in his element – and had a better time there a few months later during my farewell outing than most of the other, younger sportswriters.
Bruce could be generous, taking the staff out to dinner occasionally, although he basically was very thrifty and Spartan himself. He disliked cheapskates, referring to them as “five-and-dimers.”
He once moved out of his Clifton apartment when the landlord asked him to paint it. “I said ‘no,’” Bruce explained. “I’m not Picasso.”
Bruce appeared to have few friends outside of his favorite bar, but always seemed pleased by visits to the office from the Fairleigh Dickinson University sports information director, a former Herald-News sportswriter who a few years later would become the publicist of the New York Mets. Not surprisingly, the annual FDU sports banquet was Bruce’s favorite social event.
The only person Bruce seemed to spend any time with outside the office or bar was his mom (he never mentioned his father). Driving to visit her in East Orange appeared the only reason he had a car, a non-descript Renault that, like Bruce, seemed older than its years. To his credit, Bruce understood the perils of drinking and driving better than most contemporaries, and his car usually stayed parked in The Herald-News lot on Main Avenue while he walked to and from work.
I last saw Bruce about a dozen years after leaving The Herald-News, while running errands in downtown Clifton. He looked terrible, and the appearance of this big 50-year-old man going on 75 nearly frightened my young son.
It seemed all the sportswriters from my days at The Herald-News lost touch with Bruce as we moved on with our careers, and that was probably okay with him. Bruce seemed just fine with being left alone. He began his rest in peace on July 26, 1996, four months after turning 54.
I always felt one of my rewards for working at The Herald-News was having a boss like Bruce. I realized early in my career there are lessons about life, good and bad, that can’t necessarily be learned from written or spoken words but, rather, by simple observation and reflection. Perhaps that’s why Bruce told me to sit down when we first met.
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Monday, August 8, 2011
The sportswriters
I’ve had the fortune of being in the right place at the right time during much of my life, especially in my professional career. This was never more true than the two years I spent working part-time as a sportswriter for The Herald-News in Passaic, NJ, while finishing my studies at Seton Hall University.
It was a time of technological transition in the newspaper industry. When I began at The Herald-News, articles were still composed on typewriters. By the time I left, we were inputting our stories on computer-like machines called video display terminals, or “tubes” as we called them.
During my time there, The Herald-News changed from a traditional broadsheet format, complete with an American flag in a top corner, to a radical easier-to-read horizontal-format design with lots of green color. Unlike computer technology, however, this change didn’t prove beneficial, and the newspaper reverted to a more traditional layout before merging with The News of Paterson in 1987 and, eventually, The Record of Bergen County.
Technology and design changes aside, what made my timing particularly good at “the product,” as we called it, was the interesting and gifted array of staffers I had the good fortune of working with. To an aspiring journalist, a paying gig at The Herald-News was a dream come true. The evening in January 1976 that I reported to work at the since-demolished Main Avenue office was one of the best in my life, despite a rather inauspicious start.
“Hi, I’m Charley Bruns,” I announced to my new boss as I held out my hand for him to shake. He looked up at me, tooth pick in his mouth and yardstick protruding from the back of his shirt, and replied, with some annoyance in his voice, “Sit down.” Fortunately, it got better when I proved that I belonged on his talented team.
Mike Moretti, a fellow Bloomfield resident and Seton Hall guy, recommended me to his bosses. A rising star and a cool cat among New Jersey sportswriters, Mike could make anything interesting to read. His written words had style, and years later he was described as “perhaps the most lovable sportswriter in the state” and, after a long career of contributing articles to The Star-Ledger about volleyball, bowling, track and field, girls lacrosse and sports memorabilia, “the utility man of the sportswriting set, the jack-of-all-trades.”
Equally talented and stylish with his written words was Hank Gola, on the verge of graduating Montclair State and launching a successful career which would land him at The Daily News of New York, where he covers the New York Giants and has been recognized as “by far and away the best golf writer of all the greater-NYC papers combined.”
When it came to sports knowledge, no one could top Jim Dente, who covered the New York Yankees when the Bronx Bombers of Reggie Jackson and Billy Martin regained the headlines and won a few championships. Jim’s probably working as hard as ever today as sports editor of The New Jersey Herald of Sussex County, and no doubt could still teach anyone more than a few things about sports and journalism.
Greg Schmalz also had an encyclopedic knowledge of sports, and would freely share it with a broadcaster-quality voice that years later helped him land assignments with ABC Radio. As The Herald-News reporter who travelled with New York Jets, Greg claimed to be pals with Joe Namath and even shared the legendary quarterback’s phone number, “212.555.1212,” with this gullible college kid.
When I started with The Herald-News, the biggest personality on the staff was Eric Mortenson, whose pen name was Kurt Ericson. A larger than life figure, Eric was the director of the Verona Recreation Center for 30 years while working part-time as a sportswriter.
Mark Everson and Jack Bell joined the sports department shortly after I began with The Herald-News. Mark’s baptism of fire was covering the New York Rangers, an assignment he took to so well that The New York Post hired him to do it for them years later. Today, he reports on the New Jersey Devils for the Post.
Jack had just graduated from the University of Wisconsin and, after a stint on the news desk, began covering the Cosmos with a knowledge of soccer that few American sportswriters could match. For the past 20 years, Jack has been a staff editor at The New York Times while continuing to write about soccer in blogs and columns.
Randy Lange and Pete Brophy also joined The Herald-News while I was there. Randy went on to cover the New York Jets for a dozen years, and today is editor-in-chief of newyorkjets.com as well as the team’s director of publications. I believe Pete, formerly The Press of Atlantic City digital editor, is now the newspaper’s local content editor.
Back in the day when women sportswriters were virtually unheard of, The Herald-News had Carol Sakowitz, who went on to write for various other newspapers and now may be the same Carol who is in Florida with The Charlotte Sun and Weekly Herald.
Two high school kids also launched their careers with The Herald-News during my time there. Barry Gramlich was a stylish teenager who went on to The Record of Bergen County, where he has been an editor and writer for 25 years. John Kobylt eventually found a niche in broadcasting and today is hugely successful in The John and Ken Show, a southern California program which is one of the most influential and listened to local talk radio shows in the United States.
Interestingly, the two college students who worked part-time in the sports department did not pursue sportswriting careers after graduating. While I used the wisdom gained from my experience at The Herald-News to launch a corporate communications career, Bill Mezzomo decided to go to Rutgers University School of Law and practice law in New Jersey. He is currently an associate with a Morristown law firm.
Not everyone who worked in The Herald-News sports department was a young stud, however. The eldest member of the staff was John Hayes, a former sportswriter with the Philadelphia Daily News. John was winding down his career in the mid-1970s and rarely had an assignment out of the office – but he was the only one of us guys who sported a goatee and an earring.
And then there was Bruce Keenan, our boss, The Boss before Bruce Springsteen laid claim to the title. He was the man who greeted me that January 1976 evening with a bit of indifference and skepticism. Bruce remains one of the most fascinating characters I’ve met in my life. Ah, but he’s the subject of another blog post.
It was a time of technological transition in the newspaper industry. When I began at The Herald-News, articles were still composed on typewriters. By the time I left, we were inputting our stories on computer-like machines called video display terminals, or “tubes” as we called them.
During my time there, The Herald-News changed from a traditional broadsheet format, complete with an American flag in a top corner, to a radical easier-to-read horizontal-format design with lots of green color. Unlike computer technology, however, this change didn’t prove beneficial, and the newspaper reverted to a more traditional layout before merging with The News of Paterson in 1987 and, eventually, The Record of Bergen County.
Technology and design changes aside, what made my timing particularly good at “the product,” as we called it, was the interesting and gifted array of staffers I had the good fortune of working with. To an aspiring journalist, a paying gig at The Herald-News was a dream come true. The evening in January 1976 that I reported to work at the since-demolished Main Avenue office was one of the best in my life, despite a rather inauspicious start.
“Hi, I’m Charley Bruns,” I announced to my new boss as I held out my hand for him to shake. He looked up at me, tooth pick in his mouth and yardstick protruding from the back of his shirt, and replied, with some annoyance in his voice, “Sit down.” Fortunately, it got better when I proved that I belonged on his talented team.
Mike Moretti, a fellow Bloomfield resident and Seton Hall guy, recommended me to his bosses. A rising star and a cool cat among New Jersey sportswriters, Mike could make anything interesting to read. His written words had style, and years later he was described as “perhaps the most lovable sportswriter in the state” and, after a long career of contributing articles to The Star-Ledger about volleyball, bowling, track and field, girls lacrosse and sports memorabilia, “the utility man of the sportswriting set, the jack-of-all-trades.”
Equally talented and stylish with his written words was Hank Gola, on the verge of graduating Montclair State and launching a successful career which would land him at The Daily News of New York, where he covers the New York Giants and has been recognized as “by far and away the best golf writer of all the greater-NYC papers combined.”
When it came to sports knowledge, no one could top Jim Dente, who covered the New York Yankees when the Bronx Bombers of Reggie Jackson and Billy Martin regained the headlines and won a few championships. Jim’s probably working as hard as ever today as sports editor of The New Jersey Herald of Sussex County, and no doubt could still teach anyone more than a few things about sports and journalism.
Greg Schmalz also had an encyclopedic knowledge of sports, and would freely share it with a broadcaster-quality voice that years later helped him land assignments with ABC Radio. As The Herald-News reporter who travelled with New York Jets, Greg claimed to be pals with Joe Namath and even shared the legendary quarterback’s phone number, “212.555.1212,” with this gullible college kid.
When I started with The Herald-News, the biggest personality on the staff was Eric Mortenson, whose pen name was Kurt Ericson. A larger than life figure, Eric was the director of the Verona Recreation Center for 30 years while working part-time as a sportswriter.
Mark Everson and Jack Bell joined the sports department shortly after I began with The Herald-News. Mark’s baptism of fire was covering the New York Rangers, an assignment he took to so well that The New York Post hired him to do it for them years later. Today, he reports on the New Jersey Devils for the Post.
Jack had just graduated from the University of Wisconsin and, after a stint on the news desk, began covering the Cosmos with a knowledge of soccer that few American sportswriters could match. For the past 20 years, Jack has been a staff editor at The New York Times while continuing to write about soccer in blogs and columns.
Randy Lange and Pete Brophy also joined The Herald-News while I was there. Randy went on to cover the New York Jets for a dozen years, and today is editor-in-chief of newyorkjets.com as well as the team’s director of publications. I believe Pete, formerly The Press of Atlantic City digital editor, is now the newspaper’s local content editor.
Back in the day when women sportswriters were virtually unheard of, The Herald-News had Carol Sakowitz, who went on to write for various other newspapers and now may be the same Carol who is in Florida with The Charlotte Sun and Weekly Herald.
Two high school kids also launched their careers with The Herald-News during my time there. Barry Gramlich was a stylish teenager who went on to The Record of Bergen County, where he has been an editor and writer for 25 years. John Kobylt eventually found a niche in broadcasting and today is hugely successful in The John and Ken Show, a southern California program which is one of the most influential and listened to local talk radio shows in the United States.
Interestingly, the two college students who worked part-time in the sports department did not pursue sportswriting careers after graduating. While I used the wisdom gained from my experience at The Herald-News to launch a corporate communications career, Bill Mezzomo decided to go to Rutgers University School of Law and practice law in New Jersey. He is currently an associate with a Morristown law firm.
Not everyone who worked in The Herald-News sports department was a young stud, however. The eldest member of the staff was John Hayes, a former sportswriter with the Philadelphia Daily News. John was winding down his career in the mid-1970s and rarely had an assignment out of the office – but he was the only one of us guys who sported a goatee and an earring.
And then there was Bruce Keenan, our boss, The Boss before Bruce Springsteen laid claim to the title. He was the man who greeted me that January 1976 evening with a bit of indifference and skepticism. Bruce remains one of the most fascinating characters I’ve met in my life. Ah, but he’s the subject of another blog post.
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