This is a column that is a little bit overdue, but I had a hard time trying to gather all my thoughts last week about Greg Hall.
For those who follow me on social media, or any media member pretty much, the news of the sudden passing of Greg was a stunner to many of us.
I learned a lot about Greg over the past few weeks reading comments and posts about his background. Honestly, there were a lot of things that I learned about him. I didn’t know he worked for a handful of publications or his moniker ‘Husker Greg’ was as memorable to many as his work in taking photos.
I only knew Greg from Twitter at first. When I moved to St. Joseph in 2011, I somehow saw one of his posts and started to follow him. At the time he had a blog called ‘Off The Couch’ and he gave his thoughts on many of the local sporting teams. Most of his views were similar to mine.
Cody Thorn
I remember I felt like I was someone special one of the times when he used my tweet about the Chiefs. That was back in the day when Todd Haley had pretty much given up trying to be a good coach and the tickets to get in were down to $4. There were thousands of tickets on secondary markets for less than $10 so I made a note of that and he saw it.
When I started to write more in 2014, I got to meet Greg finally face-to-face at a track meet. Over the years, I would often see Greg at either a track meet or cross country event.
I ran into him at least a dozen times this past cross country season. He was a legend when it came to taking photos of the running sports. Both of those sports sometimes aren’t in the same limelight as say football, basketball or baseball.
Greg’s photos were majestic and I often loved how he always got the emotion after a race. Meanwhile, when I tried to get a photo of an emotional finish, its out of focus or I get the fifth-place finisher crossing the line and the focal point is out of focus.
There were a couple of things that he did that always caught my eye and even some I tried to use here. He always took photos of the runners at the start of the running boxes in cross country. Every single one of them. I remember watching him this year at the Tim Nixon Invitational in Liberty and he worked his way from left to right during the boys race.
But that race will also be one of the lasting memories I have of Greg.
On the way to the meet, I turned by Price Chopper and was heading to Liberty North when I started hearing a noise. By the time I turned to get close to the parking, my tire gave out.
It was 10 minutes before race time. By the time I pulled over and ran — as best as I can for being fat and out of shape — I missed the entire girls varsity race. Platte County ran in that race and Taylor Giger, at the time, had won the race.
I saw Greg near the starting line for the boys and asked him what happened in the girls race. I told him that I missed it and why. He said, ‘don’t worry, I’ll send you photos.’
Later that night, he sent me a dozen photos for free and said just give credit to a website our buddy Scott Englert runs.
I last saw Greg at the state cross country meet in November and we spent about 10 minutes talking before the races started and then stood next to each other at the finish line. He was great at posting photos after the races that included everyone and his ‘all-hair team’ is known throughout the state.
I went to work on Friday, Jan. 3 and pulled up Twitter.
One of the very first tweets I saw was by Scott, who posted that Greg had died.
I was shocked. Stunned. Blown away. Numb. I’m sure there were many more ways to describe how I felt.
I didn’t want to work. Then, I started to see the impact of Greg in the lives of many. Almost every team I cover here at the paper had a post about Greg sharing memories and condolences. Runner after runner and then parents all shared thoughts of Greg. He was loved and admired by so many people.
He was always someone I looked forward to seeing at a track meet or cross country meet. If he was there, you knew you picked the right one to go to.
We talked often about life or teams or athletes. I remember in the spring of 2018, we were at the finish line together at the state track meet in Jefferson City.
That was the time when the MSHSAA official told us we couldn’t be there — but we could —but she kept telling us we would get hurt. We have both shot photos at the finish line.
There was even a point where she reached down and grabbed the back of my shirt and pulled me back to get out of the way. Greg and I were very vocal about letting us do our jobs. Finally she relented a bit.
But, shortly after my buddy, David, wrote a story about MSHSAA in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that was something all of us wanted to do. Not long after, Greg got on and shared some of his views too.
For a short recap, a runner from Chillicothe crossed the finish line after winning a state championship. He ran straight to one of the photographers and jumped into his arms to celebrate — it was his grandfather, Butch Shaffer, who shoots for the paper in Chillicothe.
Then, MSHSAA officials scolded Butch for touching an athlete and all hell broke loose.
A great moment between family member ruined by workers who don’t know the importance of the race or the participants.
Many writers and photographers got onto social media to share complaints about how things are done. There are some who believe MSHSAA actively tries to make it harder for papers to cover events but that is another subject.
But Greg was one who got on and told his views. Greg was a straight shooter and told his thoughts. That was something you had to admire about him. He always knew what to say and he, in a way, gave the thoughts that many of us agreed with but sometimes didn’t say.
There are a lot more memories I could share about him but maybe for other columns.
Greg was a great guy. A great friend. A great photographer. A great writer. He was someone many of us looked up to in this business.
Going to meets won’t be the same without seeing him. I haven’t quite wrapped my head around that but I’m sure come March or April it may really hit me. The day I found out he died, I went to cover a Platte County basketball doubleheader and made a few tweets about an ‘all-hair team’ just to honor his memory a little bit.
I’ll miss him. And luckily, I got to the end of this portion before I started to tear up.
ALL-NFL
And now times for some random stuff I see that I wanted to touch on, starting with the National Football League released its All-Time Team to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the league.
Five Kansas City players made the all-time team for their play in Kansas City. That group included linebacker Bobby Bell, defensive lineman Junios ‘Buck’ Buchanan, tight end Tony Gonzalez, kicker Jan Stenerud and linebacker Willie Lanier.
There were also a number of other finalists for the All-Time Team that donned the red-and-white. That list included offensive tackle Willie Roaf, quarterback Joe Montana, guard Will Shields, center Mike Webster and defensive lineman Curly Culp.
I will say I was a little shocked that neither Derrick Thomas or Marcus Allen didn’t make the cut on the teams. Thomas probably didn’t make the cut due to how tragically his career ended. Allen had a respectable career with the Raiders and had some serviceable years with the Chiefs. Of course, the purpose of lists is to get conversation going and this is something that definitely does.
EX-CHIEFS IN TROUBLE
While listening to a podcast a few weeks ago, a story about former NFL players who tried to defraud the league’s health care program for former players got caught.
There is a group of 10 former players who are facing federal charges now and one of them already pleaded guilty — former Chiefs wide receiver Joe Horn.
Also in the list of those charged is former Chiefs kick returner/wide receiver Tamarick Vanover, who played with the Chiefs from 1995 to 1999. His tenure in KC overlapped with Horn, who was there from 1996 to 1999 before heading to New Orleans and becoming a star.
Another player charged is former Nebraska running back Correll Buckhalter, while running back Clinton Portis is arguably the biggest name of the 10. MSNBC reported he filed for bankruptcy in 2015 despite making more than $43M playing.
The group of charges all submitted fake invoices for medial equipment which they never purchased. All told, $3.4 million was paid to the players out of a fund that reimburses former NFL players for out-of-pocket health care expenses.
The players submitted $3.9M in reimbursements according to prosecutors.
Horn pleaded guilty to the charges within weeks of the indictment, pleading guilty to conspiring to commit health care fraud. Court documents showed he received $149,775 for fake invoices in 2018.
Horn admitted to paying Vanover and Reche Caldwell for helping him submit the fake claims.
He faces up to 10 years in jail and a fine of up to $250,000. He will be sentenced on April 24.
CASE RESOLVED
Last year I wrote about a case in south Kansas City that caught my eye. DeAndre Simms was facing an involuntary manslaughter charge for his actions in Nov. 2018, when he shot and killed someone who was stealing his car. The charge came because he was in no immediate danger of his life from the thief
He shot and killed the man before he could drive away with the vehicle. Simms avoided jail time in the case, instead getting placed on five years of probation in Jackson County.
I remember writing I was shocked he was even charged and got a lot of pointed comments on social media. It was good to see some different perspectives on what other people thought about this case.
At the end, I’m glad things unfolded the way they did for him. Simms was the one that called the cops and told them what happened. In his mind he did what he thought was right and shot a ‘bad guy’ and he was the one that was charged.