A thanks to The Star, Kansas City and KU for a great six-plus years

As I write this, I am sitting on an airplane 35,000 feet in the air, on my way to cover my last assignment for The Kansas City Star. As if you haven’t been able to tell by my writing over the last six-plus years, I am a guy who is in touch with his emotions, and this thought has me pretty stirred up at the moment.

I was hired at The Star to cover high-school sports right out of college because former Star assistant sports editor Mike Fitzgerald and current editor Mike Fannin wanted to take a chance on a naïve kid with a Sociology degree and a dream to write great stories. To say that The Star has followed through on its promise is the ultimate understatement.

I’ve gotten to work with and learn from some of the best writers in the country – those who are now gone (Wright Thompson, Joe Posnanski, Jason Whitlock, Jeff Passan, Liz Merrill, Jason King, Bill Reiter) and those who still remain and still routinely put out one of the best sports sections in America. I’ve gotten to eat breakfast on the clubhouse veranda at the Masters as the early-morning sun glistens off the dew at the first tee. I’ve gotten to follow Tiger step for step as he won the 2008 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines on one good knee. I’ve gotten to cover the World Series, the Final Four, the Orange Bowl, pinch-me moments for this sports-obsessed guy from Shreveport, Louisiana.

I owe so many people for the opportunities I’ve been given, and I’ll be honest: I didn’t really realize how lucky I was when I was awarded the Kansas beat in Feb. 2007. Maybe it was my Big Ten pedigree (I’m a Michigan grad), maybe I was just young and dumb. Yes, it was probably the latter. But the first time I covered a game at Allen Fieldhouse – it was Bob Huggins’ lone trip as Kansas State coach – I got chills watching the pregame video, and to this day I still get chills. I don’t get them like a fan gets them. I am not a fan of KU – a fact that many Jayhawks probably resent but also a fact that I think makes me capable of doing my job better. So why do I get chills during the pregame video? Because I’m a sports fan, and in 29 years of seeing everything from Fenway Park to the Rose Bowl, nothing has topped a game at Allen Fieldhouse. And I’ve gotten to see more games there than anybody who doesn’t bleed crimson and blue deserves.

Kansas is a special place, and I hope that sentiment has come across enough times in my writing, even though I’ve had to cover plenty of negative stories in Lawrence the last five years. I did not get into this business to cover $2 million ticket scandals, fights and arrests, but I owe it to my employers and my readers to lift the curtain that covers big-time college sports. I got into this business to ride around Oklahoma City with Darnell Jackson’s mother, the now-tragically-deceased Shawn, as she introduced me to the people who made Darnell into the man he is. I got into this business to see Kansas take a 40-12 lead over Roy and Carolina and to look over at Bob Davis, who could do nothing but smile, laugh and shake his head. I got into this business to meet Tyshawn Taylor and the Morris twins while they were still high-school seniors living in tough areas of Jersey and Philly, respectively, and introduce their lives to KU fans before anybody else. I got into this business to watch a guy like Sherron Collins evolve from a surly sophomore into a senior who couldn’t stop talking on Senior Night at Allen. You get the point.

I am thankful to all of my editors at The Star for making me better. I am thankful to Bill Self for always shooting me straight and writing so many stories for me with his thoughtful answers to not-as-thoughtful questions; to Mark Mangino for all of the unintentional comedy; to KU’s sports information staff who always did what it could to get me the access I needed to write the kind of stories that I feel readers want.

I am leaving The Star and Kansas City not because I couldn’t be happy here forever but because I’m only 29 and ready for a new challenge. I’m going to write sports features and enterprise stories for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, which will introduce me to an entire new landscape.

One thing I know for sure is that whoever The Star hires to replace me will have one of the best beats in sports journalism. The Star sports section is in great hands with Jeff Rosen and Chris Fickett. And Kansas fans, especially the ones I interact with on Twitter, are passionate, hilarious and intelligent. I’ll miss you guys, but hopefully you’ll still follow me because you can bet that I’m going to follow KU sports and deliver my thoughts on them long into the future.

To The Star, Kansas City and KU, thanks one last time for making this an unforgettable period of my life.

- Brady