by Ray Sanchez 11.15.21
I’ve encountered some strange, almost weird things, in my life as a sports writer. For example:
- When I was in the Army during World War II, I was assigned to watch an enemy plane that had landed in enemy territory. I was a recent recruit in the Army and scared out of my wits. But luckily, the American Army plane soon came to pick me up.
- Another occasion when I was in the Army I was assigned to go to parachute school. I got to jump from a platform with straps on me. It was the first step of parachute jumping. I don’t want to go through that again. The straps actually hurt.
- I don’t think the Army knew what to do with me. I had ROTC in high school. I was immediately assigned to interview for Army officer. It was the first time I encountered racism in the Army. The Army officer who interviewed me was a white Southerner and he quickly crossed me off. I could have been an officer and risen in the ranks.
- One of the weirdest things I encountered was a soldier who used to urinate at night regardless of where he was. One night he urinated in a person’s face. The next day at breakfast time the soldier he had urinated on his rifle “accidently” went off and hit him in the leg.
- I also remember when a tough sergeant (I was just a private at the time) asked me to drive a tank up a steep incline to a garage. I had only driven a car once before so I was scared. But I managed to obey the sergeant’s orders. Whew!
- But going on to much more mundane things, I heard that a golfer (Bill Nary, I’ll never forget his name) had set a number for fewer putts. That was in the 1950s. El Paso actually held two PGA tournaments in the Sun City. I went to interview him. But all he could say “But I missed a I missed a six-foot putt I should have made.” I laughed ‘til I cried. I thought here’s a guy who set a putting record and isn’t satisfied. (The record has since been broken).
- Another incident in which I laughed ‘til I cried was interviewing Lee Trevino. I used to tip him 25 cents to shine my shoes. (That was big money then). But after he won the U.S. Open we were having a celebration in the clubhouse. He up and told me, “But the price for shining your shoes has gone up.” I didn’t ask how much.
- And to boot, I remember when a group of women used to hang a panty every time they won a race. It was all in fun.