And as 2020 draws to an end….
A message from Gordon Pang, posted to the Honolulu Star-Bulletin Alumni Group on Facebook:
I’m sorry everyone … more bad news from this awful, awful year. Former Star-Bulletin reporter Pat Bigold died Christmas eve. My personal take: If you asked me for a list of the most fearless reporters I knew personally, Pat would be the first person on my list. He didn’t care who he messed with – EVER – regardless of the consequences.
Pat and I were part of the small group of Star-Bulletin staffers who received our walking papers when the old SB became part of David Black’s newspaper chain in March 2001.
We were in very good company! Dave Shapiro in front. Then, left to right, myself, Diane Chang, Harold Morse, Pat Bigold, Bill Kwon, Trini Peltier, and Carl Zimmerman.
I last talked to Pat not too long before Hawaii’s August primary election. I called him after recalling his critical reporting during the period Keith Amemiya had taken over as executive director of the Hawaii High School Athletic Association. Amemiya’s entry into the Honolulu mayoral race made his observations relevant once again for anyone trying to review the candidate’s track record.
Pat didn’t pull any punches in reporting on Amemiya’s selection in June 1998, and remained critical of Amemiya’s penchant for secrecy as he settled into the role.
Keith Amemiya, a 32-year-old attorney with no experience in athletic administration or coaching, is the surprise choice for executive director of the Hawaii High School Athletic Association.
HHSAA president Anthony Ramos said Amemiya, son of former state attorney general Ron Amemiya, emerged from a field of 17 candidates as the unanimous choice of the executive board.
Ramos defended his decision to maintain secrecy throughout the selection process and to bar the media from attending the meeting at which the executive board voted to install Amemiya.
“This is the same as a private company,” he said. “We don’t take any public funds.”
Asked to disclose the names of the other three finalists for the quasi-public job which pays about $65,000 a year, Ramos refused.
Fearless. Yes, sir, that was Bigold.
Here’s a column that appeared in the Star-Bulletin on Tuesday, October 31, 2000I t’s the kind of writing that pushed the boundaries of what a sports reporter could say in print, but he was spot on. It’s the way I’ll remember him.
THE WAY I SEE ITBy Pat BigoldSt. Louis football team: No mercy
BRAVO, St. Louis School football coaching staff. I admire I enjoy seeing them succeed at the college and NFL But I abhor the way you continue to stomp on the dignity No one can tell me that the 84-0 hit-and-run humiliation Don’t give me the old alibi that you can’t tell your kids Nor do I want to hear about how you only threw two passes If mercy isn’t asked, mercy should be offered when you’ve Most of all, don’t blame it on your own kids. You run the Your players graduate but you perpetuate the bullying There were 77 points on the scoreboard after two quarters You’re not just crushing a program when you do this. Kids who are playing football in high school because they Well, it was until they played you. I wonder how many I wonder how many other kids who thought about coming out The kids on the zero end of the 84-0 score will be I can imagine how the parents who had to watch you grind These are kids who dream of gridiron glory just like your In Damien’s case, they are kids who don’t even have a But how emphatically must you remind them of that? I can only say I’m glad that I’m not a parent who had to And I’m glad I’m not one of the players who found out
Pat Bigold has been writing at daily and weekly |
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Great buncha’ folks in that photo.
The example of Bigold writing is guts n’ glory gone from print media landscape thanks to consolidation and advertising whoring.
Auwe such a good journalist