|
Ray
Rocene
1894 – 1968
Inducted
June 21, 1980
To many sports enthusiasts in Missoula, Mont., he was that
man with a fast, funny shuffle, a cigar and a black, snap-brim
hat
that almost touched his ears. To others he was “The Jabster,” a
newsman who for decades had written the “Sports Jab” column
in the Missoulian, or “The Scoop,” a writer who
attended every local athletic event.
To his peers he was simply Ray Rocene, recognized long before
his death on Dec. 30, 1968, as the dean of Montana sportswriters.
Rocene devoted 55 of his 74 years to a Montana newspaper
and to Montana athletic events. If he did not arrive at the
Missoulian
by 7 a.m., he considered himself late for work. Rarely would
he leave before the paper was put to bed. Home, according
to his widow,
was where he ate and slept.
John Hutchens described Rocene as “the wonder of our paper,
this lean, intense, fast-working man who drummed at his typewriter
like a frenzied pianist and on any given day wrote half a dozen
stories besides assembling the sports section and turning out his ‘Sport
Jabs.’” Rocene also covered the Forest Service and
the railroad, beats he reported, in Hutchens’ estimation,
with “unfailing skill and speed.”
Reynold Thure Rocene was born Sept. 1, 1894, in Norrkoping,
Sweden. His father died before Rocene was 5. At age 7, with
his mother,
he came to Little Falls, Minn., where an uncle lived. In
the summer of 1910, two months before his 16th birthday,
he headed for Missoula
to join two brothers. He worked in a bakery, then for the
Northwest Paper Co. In 1912 he took a job in the mailing
department of the
Missoula Sentinel, an evening paper, and in 1913 began his
career with the Missoulian.
The highlight of Rocene’s early years in sports reporting
was July 4, 1923. The place: Shelby, Mont. The event: the heavyweight
championship between titleholder Jack Dempsey and challenger
Tommy Gibbons. Neither the 28-year-old Rocene nor the little
oil and
cow town had ever experienced anything so spectacular.
Rocene interviewed Gibbons after the bout and wrote a colorful,
22-inch story published July 8. He said the fight “was very
likely the Treasure State’s last championship bout,” explaining
that nobody had gained financially. Thirty-seven years later, Rocene
was ringside in Bozeman covering the Gene Fullmer – Joey
Giardello middleweight title fight.
Among the reasons for Rocene’s success as a sportswriter
were his memory and his range of interests. Although he had dozens
of scrapbooks about Missoula and western Montana athletics and
nine filing cabinets of sports material, Rocene remembered key
dates and events. “He had an absolutely unbelievable memory,” said
Ray Loman, a friend of Rocene’s and publisher of the
Ronan (Mont.) Pioneer.
In 1957, during the annual letterman’s dinner sponsored by
the Missoula Chamber of Commerce, he became the first recipient
of a sportsman-of-the-year plaque known as the Rocene Award. In
1960 he was selected by the Montana Sportswriters and Sportscasters
as “the best man in the field.” Other honors included
a conservation award in 1965 from the Bureau of Sport Fisheries
and Wildlife Region One and a wildlife service plaque in 1966 from
the Western Montana Fish and Game Association.
A Missoulian editorial
soon after Rocene’s death said: “His column appeared
for more than 51 years. But that is not the record to cite. The
record is the man – the brilliant, honest, devoted man.
That man who was Ray T. Rocene.”
Return
to Hall of Fame main page
Return
to UM School of Journalism
|
