By Thomas Corhern, TTU Sports Information
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – For decades, Frank Layne told the story of Tennessee Tech Athletics as the sports editor and beat writer for the Cookeville Herald-Citizen. A legendary local writer, the Golden Eagles meant the world to Layne.
The veteran sports writer passed away on Friday.
Former Tech head baseball coach David Mays was quoted in 2010: "Frank was always one of my favorite people. He was always so good about covering local sports, especially Tennessee Tech. He always made sure everything was covered well. He was a fan all the way, was enthusiastic about what he was covering and was always such a gentleman. I always loved how truthful he was in everything he wrote."
The late Angelo Volpe, a beloved Tennessee Tech president, stated in 2010: "I have always respected Frank Layne's reporting. He was always fair and accurate. Frank would not hesitate to criticize when the situation warranted it. On the other hand, he was also quick to praise Tennessee Tech and its athletics programs when the situation warranted that."
Growing up in rural Chatteroy, West Virginia, Layne's love of sports was cultivated by listening to Major League Baseball broadcasts on the radio as a kid, then playing high school football. After a brief stint in Chattanooga with Combustion Engineering Inc., Layne found his way to Cookeville and enrolled at Tennessee Tech.
In his college days, Layne was an equipment manager for the Golden Eagle football and baseball teams, but also other odd jobs – including selling subscriptions to the Putnam County Herald.
Layne cut his teeth as a reporter for the Tennessee Tech Oracle, the campus' student newspaper. He earned his degree from Tech in December 1961, then became the City of Cookeville's first full-time recreation director.
After jobs in Jacksonville, Fla., and Paterson, N.J., Layne returned to Cookeville to spend two more years as the rec director before working as a credit manager for Thomas Industries near Sparta. It was then that then-managing editor of the Cookeville Herald-Citizen, Doyle Howard, asked Layne to take on the sports role at the paper.
It was the start of a 30-year career covering local sports, including Tennessee Tech. Under his watch, the paper started primarily with coverage of football, basketball and baseball in Cookeville and Putnam County, but the number of sports – and the coverage area – as the paper extended its reach into the Upper Cumberland region as well as what was then 12 teams sponsored by the Tech Athletics department.
Layne, on the eve of his retirement in 2000, estimated that at its peak, the Herald-Citizen covered nearly 300 teams and more than 3,000 individual participants.
But nothing was as dear to his heart as Tennessee Tech Athletics, covering countless events as the changing landscape of sports extended the possibilities to more and more student-athletes, regardless of race or gender. The miles logged in traveling around the country to cover the Golden Eagles were countless, but Layne was always enthusiastic.
"Frank always worked hard to find the story," said former Tech head men's basketball coach Frank Harrell in 2010. "Nothing meant more to him than going on those trips to 'Death Valley' (Eastern Kentucky and Morehead State) and other places like Murray State. The thing that stood out was that he was a friend of the program and he really loved Tennessee Tech Athletics and the Ohio Valley Conference."
His experience covering Tech and the Ohio Valley Conference was vast, leading him to be the lone media representative in the league's 40th anniversary committee in 1988 among a 15-member panel of administrators, coaches and sports information directors.
In 2000, Layne retired from the Herald-Citizen. Ten years later, he was honored by the Ohio Valley Conference with its inaugural Media Lifetime Achievement Award, recognizing the contributions he had in covering the league and its membership.
Layne was quoted then: "I never thought about being recognized for doing your job. I always felt it was more than a job but a part of me, and I tried to make my coverage that way. I thoroughly enjoyed my years of association with the OVC and the places I got to see that I may have never gone to on my own."
