EDITOR’S NOTE
O
ne underrated aspect of my job as Alaska Sporting Journal editor has been getting to know the men and women who have provided most of the content that celebrates the outdoors in Alaska. As we start a new year I’m grateful for all of them, past and present. Most of the writers and I only keep track of each other via email, and when you’re messaging back and forth about topics, photos, caption info and story tweaks, it’s great to also get to know each other from a personal standpoint. I’ve chatted with writers about our families, our dogs, our favorite vacation memories and other topics. This might be just me, but it’s nice to know a little more about one another. Paul Atkins, one of a handful of correspondents who’s been with me almost since the beginning of my tenure at ASJ, and I have more in common than just a love of the outdoors and adventure (though I don’t have a fraction of the experience Paul does in the field, so I try to mostly stay out of his way when it comes to his story ideas). We also admire each other’s passion for college football – specifically rooting for our college alma maters. Paul is an Oklahoma State alum and is back where he grew up in Oklahoma (see his story on page 20) after spending 20plus years as a teacher and adventure seeker in Kotzebue, Alaska. I graduated with a journalism degree from Fresno State in my home state of California. And our love for Paul’s Cowboys and my Bulldogs in football has included attending multiple games over the years. “Since I was a kid I wanted to go to Oklahoma State, and I got there through my ability to judge livestock, where I ended up on the OSU Livestock Team,” said Atkins, who was named an All-American during his stint on the team. “It was during those days in the late 1980s that I got to spend Saturday afternoons sitting on those hard aluminum bleachers in the student section watching the likes of (running backs) Thurman Thomas and Barry Sanders with a little Mike Gundy (a quarterback and now the Cowboys’ current coach) thrown in. Those were wonderful times.” For me, a lifelong sports fan, I too spent
Correspondent Paul Atkins (top, right), with his son Eli celebrating at the 2021 Oklahoma StateOklahoma game), and the editor (at a Fresno State game earlier this season at Oregon) have a shared love of college football and their respective alma maters. (PAUL D. ATKINS/CHRIS COCOLES)
fall Saturday nights at Fresno State’s Bulldog Stadium with my friends. My heroes back then in the late 1980s to early ‘90s were future NFL players like Trent Dilfer, Lorenzo Neal and Marquez Pope. Paul and I both had chances to see our teams in person this year (both Oklahoma State and Fresno State had really good to great seasons and made bowl games). For Paul it was even more special, as Oklahoma State had a chance to clinch a spot in the Big 12 Conference championship game against its archrival Oklahoma in a rivalry game known simply as Bedlam. Atkins’ teenaged son Eli joined him for that November game in Stillwater, Oklahoma. The Cowboys won
and students stormed the field after the clock hit zero while father and son took a selfie of the beautiful chaos. “After Eli was born and throughout his childhood living in Alaska, I would tell him the tales of what I experienced and what I saw at OSU, and that someday he and I would go and experience it together,” Paul told me. “It took 19 years but we got there, and to experience what we did at Bedlam this year was more than expected, almost scripted to what a dream is supposed to be.” “I will cherish that night until the end of my days.” Here’s to more stadiums for us to celebrate in. -Chris Cocoles
aksportingjournal.com | JANUARY 2022
ALASKA SPORTING JOURNAL
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