Tag Archives: Frank Boggs

Bush leaguers, parting shots, fresh starts

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Topeka Metro News
May 3, 2002

I suppose I should begin by commenting on events leading up to my untimely death on the city’s unofficial newspaper, So here is my report: I was being measured for a muzzle and a leash, so I quit. Period. End of report.

Actually, what happened merely interrupted what already has been a long journey. Old columnists are like old ballplayers, always thinking they have a good year or two left in them, and always wanting to prove it. They can’t wait to go to the mound one more time to show ‘em the curveball still works.

That’s the way it is with me. I’m not out to match the record of Zula Bennington Green, who, as Peggy of the Flint Hills, wrote columns well into her 90s. But I still feel the urge, so when the Topeka Metro News expressed an interest in running a combination of my old and new columns, I said, “give me the ball,” or fighting words to that effect. We’ll see what happens.

I feel I don’t go into this new game without credentials. After all, I was voted Topeka’s favorite columnist for 39 straight years, a record matched only by Porubsky’s chili, and by Baby Dolls, as Topeka’s “best place to spend a rainy afternoon.” Or a sunny one.

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Boggs and Hentzen and stories of the game

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Topeka Capital-Journal
July 26, 1991

Before Frank Boggs retired, every newspaper columnist in the country who knew of him envied him If for no other reason than the fact he wrote seven columns a week and usually was two or three weeks ahead. He could turn on the creative tap and write a week’s worth of stuff in one sitting.

Old timers here will remember him as a member of the Capital-Journal sports staff in the 1950s. He moved on to sports jobs in places like Dallas and San Diego, but then became a newspaper executive who wrote columns as sort of a hobby.

He wound up his career where it started, in Oklahoma City, and he seemed to run things with one hand and write columns with the other. While most columnists sweat blood and wring their hands in despair, Boggs would run them off the assembly line without even a furrowed brow. And, what really burned up his colleagues was that the columns not only were numerous, but also good.

Boggs was in town this week, visiting Bob Hentzen. We played golf Tuesday, and then young insurance mogul Matt McFarland chauffeured us to a Royals game. It was a nice, long day, really spoiled only by having to sit through a sloppy 8-7 contest that lasted more than three hours.

We swapped a lot of stories, and along the way Boggs talked about the fine art of writing a column. He said he actually studied the subject, and said one of the best tips came from Russell Baker, the outstanding humor columnist for the New York Times. Continue reading →

Kansas Newspapermen Linked by Sports

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Topeka Capital-Journal
Dec. 15, 1999

There were a couple of send-off parties earlier this month for Mark Nusbaum and his family, wishing them well in Lubbock, Texas, where he is the new publisher of the uniquely named Avalanche-Journal. I remember it as the only newspaper I ever saw printed blue raindrops on the front page of the weather report.

Nusbaum is a local boy who made good. He started at the Topeka Capital-Journal as a copy boy, almost as low on the totem pole as a local retiree columnist, and he was executive editor when he left.

He became a sportswriter, and as he moved up, he worked on both the news and business sides of the paper. He became a good newspaperman, well qualified to go off at the tender age of 44 and take over a big daily.

When he told his wife he was surprised by how well he got along with the key players on his new team in Lubbock, a West Texas city of 186,000, she said it was because he had enough redneck in him to make it work. It wasn’t the answer he was expecting, but he agrees. Continue reading →