Blanchette right on mark

The subjects of this letter are two sportswriters. Merle Derrick and John Blanchette. Derrick, because (in part through my father who was a career Spokane Chronicle editor) he was a life-long acquaintance, and Blanchette, because I finally need to admit, that he is as good a sports columnist as we’ve had here in my lifetime.

I had three categories of contact with Derrick. First, I babysat for the Derricks in the early 50s (they had a TV and we didn’t); my dad got me paired up with Merle a time or two to attend sports events Merle was covering; and, finally, there were several more recent years where Merle and I served on a small committee to help select GSL scholar-athlete award winners.

John’s article (June 19) on Merle Derrick was a wonderful, right-on column, which surely captured the essence of that old school, ink-stained wretch. Merle was highly opinionated and a quintessential curmudgeon – characteristics he managed to screen out from his reporting of sports events.

Huskies and Cougars alike over the years have loved to take pokes at Blanchette. “Surely Blanchette is biased in favor of the Cougars. I beg your pardon, Blanchette is clearly biased in favor of the Huskies.” The fact is, instead of being biased, Blanchette over the years merely spins out brilliant and humorous phrases. His predecessor, Harry Missildine, irritated more Huskies and Cougars than Blanchette could in two lifetimes.

At any rate, John, thank you for the poignant column on Merle Derrick, who was surely a Spokane “institution” throughout my lifetime.

Dave Broom

Spokane