It seems like someone who I have hunted or fished with over the past 40 years, now, they’re passing away every week or so. Most recently it was former Indiana basketball coach Bobby Knight, and it brought back an old memory.

It’s only natural one forms opinions of people they’ve never met based on that person’s portrayal in the media. Reporters are guilty of that, too. I never gave much thought to Bobby Knight back in the day because anything he did didn’t really affect me. I had seen his chair-throwing antics. I saw the way he treated reporters. I assumed he was a jerk.

I was surprised years ago when Humminbird PR director Larry Colombo called me to tell me he had a story for me. He explained he and Knight were longtime friends and said Knight was coming to Alabama to turkey hunt. He wanted to know if I wanted to tag along and do a story.

I was apprehensive. I had recently been burned by a similar story. A man I knew with a hunting club in south Alabama had called me with a story idea. He told me Hank Williams. Jr. was there deer hunting. He told me to come on down and to act like I had just shown up. He said it would be a good story.

I hesitated. Alabama had gotten a rare snowfall. The roads were treacherous. I decided to go. I got my stuff together and left home at about 10 p.m. It was a scary drive at first, but the roads cleared as I drove south. I got to the club and went to sleep. I awoke the next morning and came to breakfast. There, I met Hank Williams, Jr., and I told him who I was and that I wanted to do a story on him hunting.