A front and back wooden cover, hinged together, filled with sports clippings of my wrestling teammates and me from my high school years.
I was honored to receive this handmade, oversized scrapbook from an incredible woman in my hometown named Mary Hannover, who collected the photos and stories from our local newspaper and gave me this as a gift my senior year. I wasn’t the only person she did this for, but she made me feel like I was. In fact, she prepared scrapbooks like this for many athletes in many sports through the years at Algona High School. Some people called her the “Mother of the Bulldogs” for her contributions to the local booster club and the athletes it served. Mary understood the lasting memories from scrapbook journalism, and so did the numerous athletes who received her wonderful gifts.
I don’t dig through that scrapbook often, but when I do, I smile as I think of Mary and how she helped preserve these memories. Of course, she wouldn’t have been able to put many items in the scrapbook if the sportswriters for the local newspaper hadn’t covered those sporting events and published the results. But they did, and they did it quite well. It was something we took for granted at the time.
Today, as many newspapers struggle with declining subscriptions and advertising revenue — coupled with sharp increases in printing and postage costs — the coverage of local sports has decreased. That’s unfortunate, as preserving those memories has a value that many young people won’t have the opportunity to understand. Digital photos and online stories are great, but they just can’t replace the look, feel and nostalgia of a scrapbook full of news clippings.
In the old days, taking sports photos was a task for the very few who had the proper equipment to get good shots, along with a darkroom, chemicals and equipment to develop film and make prints. Today, that has changed, as technology has improved to the point where most anyone with an iPhone can be capable of taking at least a respectable photo — if they shoot enough and have a good Photoshop editor. (An editor I used to work with once told me to take 20 photos, and he might be able to use one of them. I was offended at the time.) Meanwhile, the truly great sports shots still come from the truly great sports photographers.
The decrease of high school sports coverage is depressing to me, as the schools deserve the coverage. The communities deserve it. The parents deserve it. The coaches deserve it. And, most of all, the athletes deserve it. The lesson? Support your local newspapers and encourage them to make sports coverage a priority.
Have a terrific Tuesday, and thanks for reading.
Shane Goodman
President and Publisher
Big Green Umbrella Media
shane@dmcityview.com
515-953-4822, ext. 305 | 
