Experience of being a young sportswriter was worth every penny

I became a member of the Fourth Estate when I was 15.

It was the summer of 1960 and I was a rising junior at Costa Mesa High School. During my sophomore year, I served as sports editor of the school’s mimeographed, twice-monthly student newspaper, The Hitching Post.

In June, I rode my bike to the Globe-Herald (a predecessor to the Daily Pilot) offices at the corner of Bay and Thurin streets in Costa Mesa. I had an appointment with the sports editor, Rich Martin.

I told Martin I wanted to be a sportswriter.

He hired me to cover summer municipal league softball games at Lions Park, and my high school’s junior varsity and B football, basketball and baseball games during the school year.

I was offered, and gratefully accepted, a salary of 15 cents a column inch. That’s 15 cents for every column inch of written material published.

For instance, a rather substantial 10-inch story on Mesa’s B football victory over Bolsa Grande High would take a couple of hours to watch, and then a couple of hours to write and edit. That would earn me a slick $1.50, or nearly 40 cents an hour. I wasn’t getting rich, but I loved it.

I was officially “Jim Carnett, Prep Reporter.” I’d cover a B game on Thursday afternoon, then ride my bike to the Pilot to write my story.

Martin was sports editor for my first year or so. Then came Bill Doner, one of the most imaginative writers and editors I’ve ever known. I loved the guy. He taught me how to ignore distractions, shut out the rest of the world and write on deadline.

Eighteen months after my high school graduation, in February 1964, I joined the U.S. Army. I attended the Army Information School at Fort Slocum, N.Y., and became an information specialist. I was sports editor for a year of a weekly Army newspaper in Korea, writing preview and game stories. I also had a weekly column.

After my discharge in the spring of 1967, I returned home and ended up at Bay and Thurin again, trying to land a writing job. Martin and Doner were gone. Glenn White was now sports editor.

I went back to school and worked for White for the next several years as a stringer, covering high school football and basketball games. I kept bugging White for a desk and full-time assignment, but nothing materialized.

I graduated from Orange Coast College and transferred to Cal State Fullerton as a communications major.

White finally called. He said he had a desk for me and offered me a job.

I squirmed for a moment, then turned him down.

“What?!” White exploded. (He had a temper.) “You’ve been waiting all this time for a desk and now you turn it down?”

But I was preparing to transfer to Fullerton. I was having a great time in college and knew that if I dropped out I’d likely never return. It was the smartest decision of my life.

I continued as a stringer with the Pilot and got to know such great Pilot sportswriters as Craig Sheff, Roger Carlson, Howard Handy and Don Key.

Oh yeah, about Don Key.

It was a completely bogus name, a play on the word “donkey.” White liked to have bylines on all game stories, so Don Key — and several others — materialized in White’s clever imagination. It wasn’t unusual for the sports desk to receive phone calls for these fictional characters.

I graduated from Fullerton, worked for a time for an advertising agency, then was hired as Orange Coast College’s public information director. I remained there for 37 years. As part of my media duties, I regularly interacted with the Pilot’s staff. For many years, I continued to cover weekend games as a stringer.

I worked for Sheff and later Carlson. What consummate pros.

I also got to know lots of talented Pilot newsies like Tom Murphine, Chuck Loos, Bob Barker, Tom Titus, Jackie Hyman, Steve Marble, Russ Loar, Steve Mitchell, Alan Dirkin, Lee Payne and Pat O’Donnell. What a crowd.

It was the best newsroom in the land.

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JIM CARNETT, who lives in Costa Mesa, worked for Orange Coast College for 37 years.