I’ve always believed that anyone who lives and works in El Paso should contribute in other ways than their job to 
their hometown.
That includes members of the media.
I have tried to live up to that belief. I’ve helped start several organizations and have served on so many boards that I like to kid that I’ve got splinters in my behind.
Three past examples of those who became an integral part of El Paso and helped it grow are El Paso Herald-Post sports editor Bob Ingram, El Paso Times sports editor Chuck Whitlock and KTSM sportscaster John Phelan. They’re deceased now but they set the standard for what I’m talking about.
I call them The Titans of the El Paso Sports Media.
They were everywhere helping, encouraging, suggesting and attending meetings that made things happen in the city, like the building of the Sun Bowl, the growth of UTEP, keeping professional baseball alive, helping build organizations like the El Paso Athletic Hall of Fame.
ADD A NEW name to that list of Titans: Former KTSM-TV sports director Fred Albers.
Like the other Titans he wasn’t just great at his craft but he got deeply involved in the community. It seems like every meeting I attended, every board I sat on, every organizational program I was in on, there he was. And what a presence he made. One could feel his genius fill the room. He was articulate, knowledgeable and full of ideas.
Albers, a native of St. Louis and a journalism graduate of the University of Missouri, came to El Paso in 1980 as a sportscaster at KVIA-TV. He was an immediate hit with his strong, clear, insightful delivery and in 1992 he became sports director at KTSM-TV.
HOW GOOD a sportscaster was he? So good that a few years ago he put El Paso on the world map by becoming a play by play announcer for the Professional Golf Association (PGA) Tour Network on Sirius XM radio. He became one of the sport’s best-known announcers, traveling throughout the world while still working as KTSM-TV sport director.
The PGA position eventually cost him his job at KTSM-TV. His PGA work took him away from El Paso as much as 25 weeks out of the year. There was a change of ownership at KTSM-TV recently and his absence was just too much. The station let him go last month.
Albers took the decision well. “I understand,” he says without rancor.
HIS ABSENCE will leave quite a hole in local TV sportscasting but not to worry. Albers is well paid by his PGA job and says he will continue to make El Paso his home. “I love El Paso and its people,” he says. “I’ll keep doing PGA radio and maybe I can find an administrative job at some local station when I’m not on the PGA Tour.”
If I owned a local station, I’d jump at hiring him.
Until then, we can keep enjoying Albers’ great PGA coverage on Sirius Radio station 202.
And keep enjoying just having him, his wife Kristi and their son living here.
Kristi, like Fred, is an icon in El Paso sports. She’s the only El Paso woman to win an LPGA Tour event and started the First Tee program for El Paso youths.
One can only wish them the best.
TRIVIA QUESTION: Can you name the player who won the Jim Thorpe Trophy as the NFL Most Valuable Player three years in a row? Answer at end of column.
HAVE YOU purchased your tickets to the induction banquet of the El Paso Athletic Hall of Fame? It’ll be held April 29 in the Signature Room at Sunland Park Racetrack and Casino.
Don’t be left out. It’s going to be a dandy event with seven outstanding El Pasoans honored.
For tickets, call 915-490-8156.
ANSWER to trivia question: Earl Campbell of Houston in 1978, 1979 and 1980-.