Sioux City loses an icon, and a sportswriting role model

I was sitting in my son’s living room in Waukee Sunday afternoon, watching my 9-month-old granddaughter crawl and stand up alongside furniture, constantly exploring her new world that’s filled with wonder and discovery.

Then the reality of the circle of life hit me.

I scrolled through social media for a bit and stopped at something that hit me in the chest like a sledgehammer. Longtime Sioux City Journal sports editor Terry Hersom died that day from a massive heart attack. He was in Chicago to see the Bears play. As a fan, with his wife, not as a sportswriter.

That’s something Terry was trying to do more, now that he was retired since 2015. (Well, sort of retired. He still did a weekly column and covered the local professional baseball team, the Sioux City Explorers, for the Journal’s sports staff. That kind of retirement ring a bell?)

Terry was just ahead of me in both age and newspaper experience. He died at 71, which is way too early for someone who worked so hard for so long. He deserved more time to enjoy life.

Terry was sports editor at the Journal from 1977 until he retired nearly 40 years later. In northwest Iowa, there were two sportswriting legends — Terry Hersom in Sioux City and Bob Brown in Fort Dodge.

I got to work for Brown for a short time in my hometown before going off to college in Iowa City. I never worked with Terry, but sat alongside him at several state tournaments and in the same committee room at many Iowa Newspaper Association all-state selection meetings.

They were usually held on a Sunday morning, after a busy night of state tournament coverage, and yet Terry was always there. Sometimes it meant driving down from Sioux City specifically for that meeting. A lot of people from the far corners of the state didn’t do that, but Terry was the ultimate professional when it came to getting recognition for the athletes he covered.

Of course, if you were anything less than professional in working at those meetings, Terry could tell you directly in what some might describe as a gruff manner. I know as a young, beginning sportswriter I tried not to get on the bad side of Terry. One way to do that was to come in with an exaggerated amount of nominees from “your” team, especially if that team was not among the state’s best.

More than once I saw Terry set things straight with a new sports writer who came in thinking he could nominate six kids from a 3-6 team. Terry knew this honor was reserved for the best of the best, and there wasn’t any time to waste on talking about kids who hadn’t earned their way into the discussion.

As a young writer I learned a lot about professionalism from the likes of Terry Hersom and Bob Brown. Now, it seems, young people leave the News Advertiser and occasionally thank me for helping them learn. I don’t really think I do much other than try to set a tone of going the extra mile.

That’s what Terry did. He was known as a tireless researcher. His work behind the scenes before he even arrived at the game provided him the knowledge and supporting material to write a magnificent report under tight deadline constraints.

Longtime southwest Iowa prep sports writer Kevin White, now an employee at St. Albert Catholic High School in Council Bluffs, posted this about having Terry Hersom as a colleague:

“Terry Hersom taught me to write with authority. More important, he taught me that to write with authority, you have to earn that authority, through preparation and knowledge. It was an honor to represent western Iowa athletes with you, Terry. Rest in Peace.”

In this business, you see average sports sections, outstanding sports sections and junky ones that tell you someone just mailed it in and doesn’t really care. Terry cared, more than just about anyone I came across in my own 40 years on the job.

Longtime Journal co-worker Barry Poe said Terry often pored over statistics for hours to provide his staff the material they needed to do the kind of thorough job he wanted from them.

“He used to tell me to always care about what I was writing because somebody was going to cut the story out of the paper and keep it for their scrapbook,” Poe wrote in a column about Terry this week.

So, Sunday afternoon as I was trying to process the loss of a longtime friend and colleague in my business, I watched my granddaughter play and silently wondered who her mentors might be someday.

In whatever she chooses to do, I hope she has a true professional to learn from like Terry Hersom. I know her grandpa was better for having met him, and observing him at work.

I’ll be near Sioux City this weekend covering a local high school product, Blake Sevier of Orient-Macksburg, playing for No. 2-ranked Northwestern College against No. 3-ranked Morningside in a giant NAIA clash in Orange City.

I know some people may think it’s crazy to drive six hours round trip to cover one person for three hours. But, I know Terry would look at me over those reading glasses of his and nod in approval.

It’s something he would have done.

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Contact the writer:

Email: malachy.lp@gmail.com

Twitter: @larrypeterson