Bubba

Sgt. Tom "Bubba" Quinn at the AFTV-22 sports desk. (Don Dale photo)

Nobody didn't like Sgt. Tom "Bubba" Quinn. I think the nickname was one we gave him, but I'm not sure. Tom didn't care. Of all the AFTV-22 staff, Tom was the most easy-going, the most even-tempered. He was dependable. Reliable. Steady.

The only time I ever saw Tom rattled -- seriously rattled -- was one evening when I was anchoring the news and he was sitting next to me, waiting for me to hand off to him for sports. The anchor desk that night was right below the large overhead mirror we had been using for the tabletop Fußball tournament on "Catch 22." Just as I was reading the weather forecast, the mirror slipped loose from its moorings and fell -- shattering in an explosion of sound on the desk in front of Tom. If Tom had been leaning forward to read his sports copy on the air, he probably would have been badly injured.

The crash scared the daylights out of both us, although neither of us was hurt. We both froze for an instant. The director hastily faded to black and punched up the newscast logo. I rolled my chair back from the desk and walked to the control room, where I burned off adrenaline by pacing back and forth. Tom slowly stood up, never saying a word, and walked out of the studio's back door. We found him sitting in the base library, badly shaken.

Another memorable on-air moment came when Tom was ending his sportscast with a funny short about an Atlanta Braves home game: The Braves' Indian-chief mascot had accidentally set fire to his teepee while attempting to send smoke signals. Tom had read the story in advance, but he didn't read it out loud until he was on the air. He hadn't given much thought to the mascot's name, thinking it was just a nonsense word. But when he heard himself saying "Chief Noc-a-Homa" aloud on his sportscast, he realized what it meant and cracked himself up. He simply could not stop giggling. He tried valiantly to continue, but with tears of laughter running down his cheeks, he finally gave up. Watching Tom break up tickled me so much that I had to work hard myself to hold it together. The director cut to me and I managed to sign off the newscast.

In Tom's defense, it must be noted that he was not the first to be taken in by the chief's name. American network sportscaster Curt Gowdy also missed the point completely the first time he said the mascot's name on the air. Gowdy pronounced it as though it rhymed with "Yokohama," the Japanese port city.

At least Tom nailed the pronunciation, even if he didn't get the pun until late in the game.