AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is a story I wrote a couple of years ago about a very special and unusual scholarship for a football player at Elon. It was first published in the Magazine of Elon in 2019. Ryan Whitehead, pictured above with many of the donors of to the Mark Foley Scholarship, is now an … Continue reading Elon friends remember Mark Foley with lasting gift
Uncategorized
Graham ‘looks a lot like Mississippi in the ’60s’
A couple of weeks ago I received a message via social media from a friend who lives in another county. He was curious about what’s going on in Graham, the county seat of Alamance County. At the time only 48 hours had passed following another tense Saturday of protests, counter-protests, shouting and arrests in a … Continue reading Graham ‘looks a lot like Mississippi in the ’60s’
A team by any other name, please
This is a column I wrote in 2013 about the nickname of the pro football team in Washington. There have been calls to change the name over the years and now it looks like it just might happen or at least the owner seems closer than ever before. That is a positive thing. Overlook the … Continue reading A team by any other name, please
A crazy week in Alamance County
The past 10-plus days in Alamance County have produced the greatest amount of sadness, frustration, agitation, outright anger, half-truths, gaffes, misstatements, fabrications, miscalculations, social action, political action, protests, vigils, walks, marches, racism and antiracism that I can remember over such a short period of time in this community --- a place I've lived for 21 … Continue reading A crazy week in Alamance County
Understanding bias, privilege and what really matters
When nationally syndicated newspaper columnist Leonard Pitts spoke at Elon in September of 2015 as part of a lecture series featuring Pulitzer Prize winners, it was only a few months after the massacre of nine African-Americans by a white supremacist during Bible study at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. It touched … Continue reading Understanding bias, privilege and what really matters
Blanche Moore: Not the biggest story but the toughest I was involved in
Last fall I sat down with two Elon students for coffee at The Oak House, a popular spot downtown across from the main campus for coffee by day and something a little more potent at night. I was meeting them as part of their newspaper internship with the Burlington Times-News. Elon's School of Communications requires … Continue reading Blanche Moore: Not the biggest story but the toughest I was involved in
Just a phase: What’s reopening and how in downtown Burlington
A few hours after North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper unfurled the new and slightly confusing "Safer at Home" phase two plan for reopening the state during the COVID-19 pandemic, restaurants and other impacted businesses in Alamance County began their own rollouts for how to serve customers safely in the weeks and months ahead. And it's … Continue reading Just a phase: What’s reopening and how in downtown Burlington
A prediction that was eerily accurate
Several years ago, just about a year before we got married, Roselee created a really cool gift for me. It was a bound booklet of nearly two years worth of my columns published in the Jacksonville Daily News when I was managing editor there. It took a lot of work to put it together. She … Continue reading A prediction that was eerily accurate
From the Wayback Machine: Tribute to a true sports writing legend
The other day I wrote about the sad departure of Burlington Times-News sports editor Bob Sutton after 25 years due to corporate layoffs related to the merger of GateHouse Media and Gannett. I noted then that I had worked with the best sports editor in the newspaper's history -- the late Bill Hunter -- and … Continue reading From the Wayback Machine: Tribute to a true sports writing legend
Adjusting to our new abnormal normal
Sunday morning was the first time I woke up unsure of what day it might be. Saturday, perhaps? Didn't seem like Saturday. Then again, what does Saturday feel like anymore? Monday? Nah, it was too late in the day to be Monday -- 9 a.m. is past my normal 8:30 a.m. weekday telephone meeting with … Continue reading Adjusting to our new abnormal normal
Madison's Avenue 