This Friday night is the third week of the 2025 football season for the Buffaloes of Floyd County High School and the other schools of Southwestern Virginia and the Commonwealth.
For much of the last 20 previous seasons, I have been on the sidelines with my cameras, capturing the action for The Floyd Press and other media outlets.
No longer. Because of a tsunami of health problems, I am unable to do what I love: Photograph sports, news and features as a photojournalist, a profession that began 66 years ago in dark woods in Prince Edward County, VA, capturing images of a clandestine cross burning and meeting of the Ku Klux Klan. It my first published news image and I was 11 years old.
When we moved to Floyd County to escape the problems of the rampant racism of Prince Edward County, Floyd Press editor and owner Pete Hallman, reviewed my photo folder and hired me to work for the paper while attending Floyd County High School, where I became the student photographer until graduation in 1965. A scholarship from University of Virginia allowed me to take classes at the then Roanoke Center and work for The Roanoke Times from 1965 through 1969, when daily Alton Evening Telegraph in the St. Louis metro area hired me as a reporter and photographer.
After 12 years at the Telegraph, we moved to the nation’s capital where I served a brief time as a Congressional communications and political operative for Congress, I returned to journalism as a contract photographer for The Washington Post and news services like Associated Press and AFP. They sent me around the world, covering trouble spots and wars in the Middle East, including Iraq, Iran, Israel and Afghanistan. I also covered the terror attacks against the Pentagon.
Wife Amy pursued her career as an actress and director of theater productions during our 23 years working out of Washington, DC, before deciding to retire in 2004 and moved to Floyd County to help my mother deal with declining health.
I thought my photojournalism days were over, but Wanda Combs, editor of The Floyd Press asked me to take photos of school athletic events for the paper and cover courts and the Board of Supervisors . I also was called into help cover the Virginia Tech massacre of students and teachers for Washington-based media, along with other things.
In more than a half-century of news photography, I had covered some professional sports, including the St. Louis Cardinals for the Telegraph and the Washington Redskins while in Washington.
But 21 years of shooting sports at Floyd County High School turned into a delight and an incredible fun and accomplishment. I have shot thousands of photos of student games, along with hours of video. When copies of images are requested, they are given without cost. I owe the students a lot for their comments and support over the years and they have provided great photo opportunities. My thanks to them.
Sadly, it appears to be over, at least for me, because of age and declining health. Doctors ordered me to stop trying to cover sports because I can no longer stand without assistance (canes or crutches) and the stamina to do so is waning.
A photo of a Klan meeting when I was 11 started a career that lasted 66 years. I will miss the career. Sadly, the Klan still exists in two counties that border us.
