Watching HBO's "The Newsroom" got me thinking about a chance encounter I had long ago with a guy who would soon be one of CNN's first anchors.

On the night the U.S. Olympic hockey team beat the Soviets in 1980, I was in a Tucson bar with some friends from work. We wound up sitting with this local TV anchorman named Lou Waters. He was there with some woman. I didn't know him before and never saw him again after that night.

He told us he was moving to Atlanta to join some sort of cable news network. I can't remember what any of us said in response to that. But being print people (known to be experts on the future of the media) we probably thought "That'll never work."

CNN is struggling today. But for a long time, the network was flying high.

For Lou Waters, the timing was perfect.

A couple of years later, I became slightly acquainted with a woman who would become his CNN co-anchor for years -- Natalie Allen.

But that's another thrilling story.

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