Remembering Eddie Smith

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November 7, 2009

Anonymous The Meridian Star Sat Nov 07, 2009, 11:10 PM CST

I loved Eddie Smith from the time I arrived sometime in 1973 from Tupelo to become sports editor of The Meridian Star.

There was some sort of business connection in those days between The Star and WMOX, the radio station run by Eddie. I guess the Skewes family owned both of the operations, or maybe not. Perhaps I just thought we were “family.”

At any rate, Eddie and I became fast friends. He would talk about me and my Star sports staff on his morning talk show, Two for the Road, in the days when there were not many radio talk shows. Or, not many that were as good as Eddie’s.

I recall one time when one of the sportswriters on my staff at The Star was a guy named Bob Wagner, who was a recent graduate of the renowned journalism school at the University of Missouri. I have no idea now how Wagner came to become a member of our staff. I guess anytime we received a resume from someone who had graduated from that esteemed “j-school,” we took it seriously.

Anyway, one Monday after Wagner had covered a game involving a loss by the New Orleans Saints, he really dogged them in the afternoon edition of the newspaper. He said they were a joke and one of the worst teams in the history of professional football. I think he suggested that the Saints leave New Orleans, perhaps for Toledo, Ohio or Lincoln, Nebraska. Anything to relieve Meridian-area fans of the misery they were invoking on everybody.

Some Saints fan called in the Tuesday morning show and told Eddie, “Is there any way we can get up a crowd to run Bob Wagner out of Meridian on a rail – and put Mac Gordon on there with him for hiring Wagner?” Eddie laughed a big laugh and responded, “Hell, I’ll buy the tickets!”

Eddie didn’t mean it, of course, He seemed to love everybody over at The Star, and we loved him back.

I guess I covered the Masters golf tournament at least three times during my stay in Meridian – at a time when The Star was the only Mississippi newspaper that believed the Masters was important enough to its readers to send someone over there. (Thanks to ex-sports editors Carl Walters, Bob Hartley, Dick Smith, Steamboat Fulton, Billy ‘Sunshine’ Rainey, Ray Narro and Orley Hood for pioneering that coveted trip.) With Meridian’s status as the leading “golf town” in the state, that was understandable. Of course, whoever The Star sent to Augusta, they went with Eddie and his entourage which always included Don Gordon (no relation to me) and his son-in-law.

We always rented a house from someone in Augusta. For a week’s stay, we paid an exorbitant amount of money, but the newspaper and the radio station believed it a worthy expense. The Star’s writers would send back two or three stories a day, and Eddie would have several daily reports about the tournament on WMOX. We usually had a small-time poker game at night and it wasn’t unusual that a pro golfer entered in the tournament played with us. I distinctly recall a guy who had won the old Magnolia (now Viking) Classic played poker almost all night with us, and shot even par 72 the next day on the Masters course.

Eddie was known to all of the Masters entrants because he had been over there so many times. He was very close to Arnold Palmer and whenever Arnie would miss the cut, he would give Eddie a few tickets to the weekend’s rounds, and Eddie would hold them for Meridian golf fans to arrive.

Eddie earned many fans of his own on “Two for the Road.” His love for Meridian showed each day, whether he was praising or criticizing the “Queen City” and its leaders.

In my estimation, no “media person” ever loved Meridian, or promoted Meridian more, than my friend Eddie Smith. He was even friends with Bob Wagner.

He was the genuine article, and Meridian was a better community because of Eddie.

Mac Gordon

Flowood

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