I was a freshman in college and writing for The Signal at Georgia State when he and Charlie Roberts asked me to cover high school and college sports for The Atlanta Constitution.  I was shocked.  I also thought they had given me a job as a real sportswriter.  I later learned I was only one of many "stringers" they used to cover unimportant local games.  It wasn't much, but my mom got to see my name on the byline of sports stories every weekend for several years.