Randy Smith: It's Hard To Be Humble

They say you know you're old when you start being inducted into numerous Halls of Fame. And I guess they, whomever they may be, were correct. I have never thought of myself as a Hall of Famer.   My reasoning has always been why should you do your job and then be honored for doing your job? When I was asked to turn in a resume detailing my career, I was hesitant to do so. I had not done anything special except go to work everyday and do the best job I could do. When I was selected to the Greater Chattanooga Area Sports Hall of Fame in 2003, I thought, this is nice. I really appreciated the induction but never really thought about joining another Hall. Occasionally I would be approached about sending my resume for this Hall of Fame or that Hall of Fame. I always put it on the back burner and seldom would send it in.

Back in December, I was asked to send my resume to the Tennessee Journalism Hall of Fame. It's the same Hall that my friends Bob Johnson and Darrell Patterson were inducted in a few years ago. I sent the resume and forgot about it. Oh, I would think about it some but never really expected to be chosen. I received a letter from the board on Tuesday congratulating me on my selection for the class of 2018. I stood and read the letter again just to make sure I wasn't dreaming. It said the same thing the second time I read it, so I figured out I wasn't dreaming.  I sat on my couch and stared at the letter for a while, then shared the wonderful news with my Facebook friends. More than 400 of them commented about the news and all had wonderful things to say. 

When you think about it, this particular Hall of Fame is really special to me. It is housed in the Communications building at Middle Tennessee State University, my alma mater. I didn't major in Communications because I attended MTSU before that was even a major. In fact when I entered MTSU, I was planning to be a teacher and a coach. I majored in Health, Physical Education and Recreation. One of my PE. instructors told me I could do anything I wanted to do and brought up Lindsay Nelson as someone to look up to, because like myself, he was a native Tennessean. So the journey began. I had already done a little radio my senior year of high school at WENO and I was hired as the Sports Director at WMOT-FM, the campus radio station. To make a long story short, I held that position for three years until I graduated.

Broadcasting was in my blood by then and there was no turning back. I met my first real mentor in 1972 when I assisted the late Monte Hale in setting up the first Blue Raider radio network. I did color on the MTSU football and basketball broadcasts and would go on to do high school play-by-play for Monte's station WGNS. Forty-six years later, I am being inducted into the same Hall of Fame that Monte Hale was inducted in a few years ago. 

I had three real mentors in my career, spanning more than 45 years. Mont Hale, Bill Nash and John Ward. We lost John Ward two weeks ago at the age of 88 and it's a bit ironic that when the third of my three mentors passes away, I am inducted into a state-wide Hall of Fame.

I have no idea what I will say when I am introduced next month. I feel like the late Yogi Berra who once received an award and said, "I'd like to thank everybody that made this necessary."  Or I could also quote John Ward who received a life-long achievement award from the Natural Gas Company and said, " This honor is special to me, because it is special to you." I hope I make sense and I hope I don't forget to thank someone special to me. 

Being a Hall of Famer doesn't change your life. As I try to keep things in perspective, I remind myself that a lot of people liked my work and that allowed me to do my job for many, many years. Having the opportunity to entertain and inform my viewers, listeners and readers is what I am most proud of. Thanks to all of you for allowing me to go to work every day and do my job!