I am not sure if I met Richard Oliver while I was working at the San Antonio Express News from 2003 to 2007 or at a high school football game.
I worked in Customer Service and he was a writer at the newspaper.
I was the statistician for the Texas Sports Radio Network, and Richard was doing radio with Gary DeLaune (play-by-play) and Walter Stoops (statistician). His crew and mine often worked the same games.
How did you get started as a writer?
After my first semester at Texas A&M, I decided to follow my passion for writing. I switched majors, leaving behind my dreams of being a meteorologist and instead pursued a career as a journalist.
What was your first gig as a writer?
I went to work almost immediately for the Texas A&M student newspaper, The Battalion. It was a wonderful experience, including time as sports editor of the publication. I covered A&M athletics during a great transitional period, including the introduction of Jackie Sherrill as the head coach of the football program. What followed was controversy, an upgrade of the program – and a whole lot of wins. A fun time.
How did you get the Newsday job in New York, NY?
I had captured a couple of top national writing awards in Corpus Christi at the Caller-Times as a writer. The Sports Editor of Newsday was a judge for the contest. He reached out to me and hired me, and it was quite the move from South Texas up to Long Island. But it turned out to be the greatest move I’d ever made, personally and professionally. As a family, we loved New York.
The best part of being a beat writer and covering the New York Jets football team was how much better it made me as a reporter. Butting heads every day with the likes of the New York Post, the New York Daily News, the New York Times, the Associated Press, the Newark Star-Ledger, and so many others honed my skills. And, coincidentally, traveling with all those guys was a blast.
For a good part of my time covering the team, the quarterback was Vinny Testaverde and he was a wonderful interview. I loved him. Always introspective, available and approachable.
For a great quote, we usually went to wide receiver Keyshawn Johnson. He was a hoot.
How do you get the job at the Express News in San Antonio, TX?
I joined the Express-News in 2000 as the Deputy Sports Editor, becoming Sports Editor in 2002. It was an eventful time that included the evolution of the Spurs into a dynastic franchise, the first NCAA Women’s Final Four held at the Alamodome and the spotlight on some incredible writers on a very talented staff. (A few of them still remain there.)
I became a Senior Writer around 2006, and that was the best move of my career. Working with some tremendous editors who followed me, I covered some of sports’ most significant events, traveled extensively and got to bring home the action and profiles from so many notable places.
How did you get started on television and radio?
My first gig was In Corpus Christi. Boxing promoter Lester Bedford hired me to do analysis on several of his cards on what was then Home Sports Entertainment in the early 1980s. It was outstanding fun, and I was hooked.
I began doing TV work as an aside back in my days at the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, and then elevated to aggressive TV and radio work as a pro football beat writer in New York when I worked for Newsday from 1996-2000. The Newsday experience was especially valuable because that paper recognized the value of having its writers serve as experts along a strata of platforms. Our contributions as “experts” elevated the paper’s status as the place to go for headline analysis.
Once I got to San Antonio, I was conditioned to do broadcasting and arrived at a wonderful time for it. I was hired to do pregame and postgame work for Spurs telecasts, and tackled plenty of other broadcast opportunities. As an example, from 2009 to the present, I have done part-time work for Quarter Moon Productions on various sports programming. Today, that includes doing Sports Weekly on KCWX each Saturday with Chuck Miketinac, Don Harris and Aerin Carreno and Sports Nation Overtime on Sunday nights with David Chancellor and Don Harris. Really fun programs with fun people.
Tell me about some memorable games?
The Spurs’ championship clincher in 2014 stands out for me. Andrew Monaco and I had a fantastic time recounting that result in the postgame broadcast.
I also covered the 2006 Masters (won by Phil Mickelson), the 2004 Daytona 500 (won by Dale Earnhardt Jr.) and four Super Bowls (for Newsday, including John Elway the Broncos winning twice in the late 1990s).
Tell me about some memorable athletes?
Nolan Ryan, always so professional and stand-up, win or lose, was my favorite to cover. In fact, my son is named Ryan because of my respect for the player.
Additionally, I loved watching Manu Ginobili so much during his career that my son and I made the trek to Springfield, MA to watch him be inducted a couple of years back.
I loved watching Sean Elliott play, and loved him even more when I ended up doing Spurs games along with him for nearly a dozen years.
Any embarrassing moments as a broadcaster?
Back around 1990, I was hired to do play-by-play on a professional bowling event in Corpus Christi. While I had the legendary Dick Weber as my partner, it was the most difficult thing I’d done to that point. Trying to insert excitement into a bowling event was a challenge to say the least.
Also, on a few early occasions doing the Spurs pregame telecasts, the noise at the AT&T Center (now the Frost Bank Center) got so loud that I couldn’t hear the questions from the host up in Dallas. I learned to put a plug in one ear and the IFB fitted snugly in the other ear so I could follow along.
What prompted you to change careers?
Around 2013, I made the move to the city’s Convention & Visitors Bureau because, frankly, my very news-savvy kids were no longer getting their information from the newspaper. Circulation was diving, social media was offering a smorgasbord of content, and I recognized that there was very little future for an old dinosaur journalist like me.
What does Richard do for fun?
It’s all about family now. All my three kids are in town or close, and we’re now awaiting our sixth grandchild. Watching the evolution of my family brings me immense joy, every day.
Have you ever thought about writing a book?
I have an idea for a book, and am already scripting it out. Now, if I ever write it is another question entirely.