RAYMO’S RAMBLINGS I HAVE A FRIEND
I HAVE A FRIEND
As most of you know I cover high school sports in the area for KLQP radio in Madison. With that job, I have come to know many people in the Q92 listening area over the years, coaches, players, parents, grandparents, AD’s and other school officials, janitors, ticket takers, concession stand workers, referee’s, and other media people covering the high school games.
I have talked with many newspaper people, and other radio sports broadcasters and I have gotten to be pretty good friends with most of the them, there seems to be quite the turnover in the newspaper business with sports reporters, more than radio sportscasters. However, there is one guy I have become a very close friend with over the years and that is the Minneota Newspaper editor Byron Higgin. Byron turned 70 years young this past week, and I had the chance to stop in his office and wish him a happy birthday.
Byron is very much loved in Minneota, and as you might expect for a small town newspaper editor, Byron does everything! He not only covers Minneota sports, but he covers just about everything else that happens in Minneota, city council meetings, school board meetings, he writes his own column, actually two columns a week in his weekly newspaper. Byron has been in the newspaper business all his life, his father ran a newspaper in the small town of Cosmos and he learned the trade from him and others. Byron loves what he does, he has a passion for telling stories and putting them on paper. He is one gifted human being.
I always tell Byron he takes great pictures, he takes great pride in the pictures he puts in his newspaper, he told me he looks for the emotions in a picture and over the years he has captured many outstanding pictures that have won him many state wide awards. Something unique about the Minneota Mascot is that most of the pictures are printed in color!
Byron and I actually got to know each other better at all the state tournaments that the Minneota high school teams have participated in over the last 8 years. We have spent a lot of time at Target Center, the Excel Energy Center, Metrodome and TCF Bank Stadium just visiting and sharing stories. Creating great memories and celebrating together when Minneota has won state championships.
The best times with Byron however are over lunch when we talk about other things than sports, like our families, our faith, or our struggles that we both have with our weight, and just in general about enjoying life to the fullest. Both of us love telling stories and each time we are together we have so much fun just sharing events that have happened to us, or giving opinions on things. Most of all, we love to laugh and have a good time!! That is what friends do. And I thank God for a friend like Byron!
