That Day Dan Hicks Talked To This Reporter

So I met sports broadcaster Dan Hicks out behind the 18th hole at Shinnecock Hills on Thursday of the US Open in 2004. I had my 9-month in one of those Baby Bjorn's on my back and a vintage mello yellow soda can in my hand. He gave me 2 minutes for a story I was writing for the paper, covering Tim Petrovic who had played golf at the University of Hartford where my dad worked. I was more fan than reporter in that moment - any advice for this young reporter, I asked Hicks….It's funny, I don't remember who won that week, the temps that day or how I got home on a quarter gallon tank, but I will never forget what Hicks said. "Don't be afraid to give a little of yourself, you can be funny without being flip, but don't be the story - just be human, be yourself in what you say and what you write and people will relate. They already see," he said. "They already know. They just need to feel."  I can still hear Dan saying this as I read it from my old stenopad, just like I can still hear him call Tiger's putt to win the Open in '08 and Michael Phelps gold medal races that same summer. That's sort of how I feel about the state of how we behave in the world - whether we are in line at the coffee shop, a street corner, elevator, or the doctor's office. Be human, give a little of yourself and maybe just maybe that lifts someone up, at least for a few minutes. Kind of the way Hicks did for me that day at Shinnecock.