Monday, December 14, 2009

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The Guardian's sports focus during 165 years By FRED STURRUP ~ NG Associate Editor ~ frederick@nasguard.com: During the 165 years of The Nassau Guardian's existence, the newspaper has been vital in the role of connecting readers with various matters in the country and the state of the world. The excellent overall coverage of Guardian journalists through the years was quite comprehensive as our files reflect. The Guardian's focus on sports is a great part of its legacy. It has to be acknowledged though that the country, residents of New Providence in particular, did not begin to develop a real deep interest in sports until the 1930s. Around that time, a few disciplines started to adopt an organized perspective. Certainly a big part of the mix back then in carrying news of the sporting activities to its readers, was The Nassau Guardian. By the early 1950s, sports coverage figured prominently in the day-to-day news format at The Nassau Guardian. From that point to this huge milestone 165th anniversary (November 23) the Guardian sports pages have been a must-read for the nation and in recent times, through technology, the world. There have been a lot of players in the game since the era of focused sports coverage began in The Bahamas. In these instances, a few names are always forgotten and left out, but I do recall many of them, either sports journalists, or those who assisted in providing the sports information for our reporters. I will start with Addington 'Ding' Cambridge, the first noted sports reporter here at The Nassau Guardian, in my view. In those early days during the 1950s, contributors were important. On the staff were people like Hubert Wong, Leon Turnquest, John Dorsett and Stanford Walker. Back shop workers, two of them (Turnquest and Walker) would eventually move to the city desk and Turnquest actually became the second prominent sports editor. Before him, the sports editor's role was firmly established by Rex Shepherd. Leroy Pratt worked under Shepherd around the time I began my internship at The Nassau Guardian. I would later shift from being a general news novice reporter to the sports department. Turnquest succeeded Shepherd as sports editor and he and I worked very well together, breaking new grounds, one of them, establishing the first signature sports column, this very one, Sports Scope. I succeeded Turnquest as sports editor. Earle Alleyne was masterful as a cricket columnist and an anonymous "Peepsight" provided color and direct horse racing information. Chris Symonette covered sports and general news before he moved exclusively to the city desk. Wenty Ford, during the off seasons from professional baseball would comfortably cover sports for The Nassau Guardian. When he retired, he came on board full time. Martin Lundy, the nation's long-time Director of Sports, spent some time here at The Nassau Guardian, covering baseball, basketball, softball and horse racing. Behind him, came Darrell Miller, Godfrey 'Goofy' Brown, and Martin Albury who succeeded me as sports editor. Tony Capron, who did it all here at The Nassau Guardian (camera room technician, photographer, general news reporter, city desk, editorial management) was in the picture as sports editor for a bit. Devon Francis, Shavaughn (Gordon) Moss, Sheldon Longley, Dahalia Smith, and Kelsie Johnson joined the ranks. Francis and Moss became sports editors as well. Presently, Longley holds that post, inheriting a rich tradition. I've returned and in one of my areas, made Sports Scope a constant again. Sports coverage has indeed been a great tradition of The Nassau Guardian and today, all those aforementioned and the few I'm certain I missed, are saluted for the part they played in making The Nassau Guardian the giant media institution it is in The Bahamas and the wider Caribbean region. The period of 165 years of vibrancy is truly awesome. Friday, November 20, 2009