Posted: May 1, 2007

Athletics: On the loss of Ron Reid

"Off The Record" By Jill M. Geer It is the first week of the Visa Championship Series, and in my columns I have been charged with the task of trying to be entertaining as I provide an inside look at our sport. Today, however, it is sadness that is the overriding feeling as I look back on the 2007 Penn Relays. The reason is because on the final day of the Relays, Saturday, April 28, the sport lost one of its most enduring characters: Philadelphia Inquirer sports writer Ron Reid. The Inquirer wrote an obituary of Ron that captures, as much as you can in a family newspaper that doesn't allow certain uproarious, if off-color quotes, the wit and larger-than-life, one-of-a-kind personality that was Ron Reid: Philly.com. Within USA Track & Field's communications department, there are certain writers who have sort of a special status - a status that involves the staff periodically recalling stories about or by the writers. Ron Reid was foremost among them. Media Information Manager Tom Surber has worked for USATF for 20 years, and worked with Ron for most of that time. Whenever Tom or I would mention Ron's name, we always did it was great theatricality, trying to imitate Reid's booming, basso profundo voice. "Ron Reid" was always intoned in a deep voice, and with two different notes ... think foghorn ala' Scooby Doo... "Rooooooon Reeeeiiiiiiiiid!" Ron retired a few years ago, but he never truly retired, at least not when it comes to track and field, which the Inquirer noted was his true love. He would still come to meets and work in the press box. Indeed, I feel quite certain that Ron would have been granted credentials into any press box he wished, for as long as he lived, because any press box was made a funnier, more interesting place by Ron's presence. Loud one-liners that left everyone in stitches was his calling card, as was a vocabulary that could rival William F. Buckley's. Ron was exactly twice my age when he died on Saturday, and all I can say is that I loved the guy. I loved seeing him, talking with him, working with him. His death makes me unbearably sad, especially as I think of his wife and his grandchildren missing him - what a fun grandpa he must have been. I, and many, many, many others in the sports journalism world, will miss him terribly. There will never be another Rooooooon Reeeeiiiiiiiiid.