Colleagues remember Wolcott as ace sports writer, better friend

Sep. 14—mark.scheer@lockportjournal.com

He once interviewed the last man to stand on the moon.

He got a chance to ask O.J. Simpson if he was ever in a snowball fight.

He got kissed by Morganna the Kissing Bandit.

Over the course of his 46-year career in newspapering, veteran newsman Bill Wolcott interviewed a lot of interesting people and witnessed many memorable events and moments.

In his farewell column announcing his retirement in 2014, he wondered how a guy like him — the middle child among eight born in Buffalo "on the outer edge of the Great Depression and just 16 days after Pearl Harbor" — got so lucky as to end up "in the middle of the news" surrounded by so many "dedicated, smart and honest" people.

"A wag at work found a story on the Internet listing the top 10 worst careers. Journalism was rated No. 1 — that is, the worst," Wolcott wrote. "Maybe those who were polled were just counting money, which reporters don't make, and the uneven hours that reporters do work. Newspaper people, however, don't make those very important things a priority.

They do it because ... well, you'll have to ask them. Everyone has a story."

Ask just about anyone who spent time with him during his 37 years working as a sports writer and columnist for the Niagara Gazette and, later, a nine-year stint as a reporter with the Lockport Union-Sun & Journal, and many of them will tell you Wolcott's story extended beyond his ability to write compelling copy or come up with a snappy headline.

To them, Wolcott was not only a gifted writer and reporter, he was also a valued co-worker and a good friend.

"I feel so privileged to have been his friend and colleague," said Karen Carr Keefe, who worked with Wolcott both as opinion page editor for the Gazette and later as managing editor of the US&J. "He was talented, kind, thoughtful, funny and full of wonderful anecdotes and sayings. One in a million! He will be missed."

In tributes posted to Facebook this week, several of his former colleagues recalled Wolcott's unique sense of humor.

He often answered the sports department telephone with the greeting: "USA Today. Niagara Gazette forever."

When interviews dragged on too long, he occasionally stuck the telephone receiver in a desk drawer.

On Fridays, while submitting his timecard, Wolcott often sent inter-office messages to fellow employees that read: "Time slips away." It was confirmation of a simple weekly office chore with a subtle nod to the brevity of life.

"I'm so sorry to hear this sad news," wrote former Gazette reporter Valerie Pillo. "It was a privilege to know him and work with him. He was so talented and funny and such a kind person. He had nicknames for many of us. He called me Brenda Star and we used to get a good laugh at the cartoon. He was so well respected among his fellow colleagues and friends and within the community. He really was one in a million and will be missed."

Wolcott was a graduate of Bishop Timon High School and the University of Buffalo. He served in the U.S. Air Force from 1961 to 1965. While in the Air Force, he toured six countries using a book that offered tips on traveling in Europe on $5 a day as his guide.

His reporting career began in 1967 when he got a job with the sports department at what was then known as the Niagara Falls Gazette.

He started covering the Buffalo Bills when Jack Kemp was still the team's quarterback. He would go on to cover all four of the team's Super Bowl losses in the 1990s.

In 1970, when the Buffalo Sabres officially became part of the NHL, Wolcott covered the team's first game as well as their unsuccessful runs to the Stanley Cup playoffs in 1975 and 1999.

One of the proudest moments of his reporting career came in 1972 when he traveled to Russia to cover the Canada Cup — the first-ever meeting between the NHL's best and elite hockey players from the U.S.S.R. He covered the event for the Niagara Gazette and Gannett News Service and one of his training camp photos from Toronto appeared in several newspapers, including the New York Times.

In addition to covering hundreds of high school sports games in and around Niagara Falls and across Niagara County, Wolcott provided extensive coverage of Niagara University men's basketball, writing stories about the team and its players during the coaching tenures of Jim Maloney, Frank Layden, Dan Raskin, Pete Lonergan, Andy Walker, Jack Armstrong and Joe Mihalich.

Throughout his career, Wolcott earned many reporting awards from Gannett and the Associated Press.

For two decades, he also served as an adjunct professor at Buffalo State College and Niagara University where he was also the moderator of the university's newspaper, The Index.

While his writing and reporting credentials put him a class above many of his colleagues, former Gazette sports writer Dave Staba said Wolcott was always modest about his accomplishments. Staba said Wolcott was also very gracious in offering professional advice and support to younger staff members.

While many news veterans develop a hard edge to them after years on the job, Staba said Wolcott wasn't one of them.

"He was like an old-time newspaper guy but somehow never got cynical," Staba said.

After his position was cut during a round of layoffs at the Gazette, Wolcott returned to work as a reporter with the Union Sun & Journal in 2003, covering local government and community news until his retirement in 2013.

Wolcott's wife, Maria, whom Wolcott often referred to as "my bride," said Bill was the type of person who did a lot of nice things for people in a quiet way. She recalled how he developed a friendship with legendary baseball pitcher Sal Maglie, whom Wolcott often visited in the nursing home right up until the former pitcher's death in 1992.

Maria described her husband as a man of faith who believed in God, his family, his community and his country.

"His character, I think, is the thing that is really the most important thing about him," she said. "He did the right thing very quietly. He did so many works of mercy that I'm finding out about now."

"He was a very humble and quiet man," she added. "He had a tremendous sense of humor."

Maria Wolcott said her husband died peacefully in their home, surrounded by his children and grandchildren.

"He was loved. He knew he was loved," she said.

In addition to his wife, Wolcott is survived by three children, Sarah Elizabeth Nelson, Gregary D. Wolcott and Heather Anne Hoffman, and 10 grandchildren.

Visitation will be held from 4 to 7 p.m. Thursday and Friday at Lane Funeral Home, 8622 Buffalo Ave., Niagara Falls. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Saturday at St. Vincent de Paul Parish, 1055 N. Military Road, Niagara Falls.