Bill Crook brought joy into my life

Bill Crook, my best friend, passed away Monday. I have known Bill since we were kids, but over the years we became close friends.

Don Estep, Bill Crook and Dale Johnson before a televised Corbin Redhounds football game in 1990.

When I first started dating my wife Judy, we would go out with Bill and his wife, Sharon. That continued for many years after our marriage.

Recently I wrote about being on Bill’s softball team and how he recruited a UK basketball player to play for us. Bill was an avid softball player and players throughout the state knew him. In 2001 he was installed in the American Association Softball Hall of Fame.

About 40 years ago he and I became very close friends when he asked me if he could help me and Dale Johnson with the telecast of Corbin football on cable TV.

Corbin was playing Lexington Lafayette in Lexington and Bill and Sharon were making their entrance when he said, “You want some help with the game?” I said yes, and invited him to climb on the roof of the press box for the telecast. So, Bill climbs the ladder and when he gets up there he’s down on his hands and knees, scared to death of the height. That’s when the fun started. We started laughing and didn’t stop laughing and having fun at his antics for over a decade of doing the games.

He became my sidekick on the football and basketball games. Those years were so enjoyable that now I think back often and laugh at some of the things Bill would say.

There was a football game against Scott County when he got me laughing so hard I couldn’t say a word for the entire third quarter. It was a good thing we had video.

For about 30 years we went to lunch together four or five days a week. The phone would ring at my office and Bill would say, “Dapper I’ll be down to pick you up in a few minutes.” He was the only person who called me Dapper, a name I used in my early radio days.

For many years the two of us went to the state basketball tournaments together. I can’t describe how much fun it was. There were six of us, two friends from west Kentucky and Bill’s two sons, Scott and Jeff.

Bill Crook brought a joy to my life like none other. We were like brothers. He was a talented writer, too. Bill had spent months researching Corbin sports. He had written it in long hand and it was a large volume of writing. We talked about making it into a book but never got around to it. However, when I became publisher of this newspaper I got permission from Bill to publish a weekly column from his collection. His column appeared in the very first edition of Corbin! This Week on August 12, 1987. His writing helped our new newspapers get off to a successful start.

As Corbin football gets closer to celebrating its 100th anniversary we are publishing columns he wrote as part of the celebration.

Bill was such an avid Redhound fan that when Parkinson’s disease disabled him and Bill and Sharon moved to Lexington to be near their children, Sharon would drive Bill to Berea so he could listen to the Redhound games on the radio.

I could write a book about our friendship. Until Parkinson’s disease took control of his life we saw each other about every day.

Bill had many friends and each will miss him greatly. To his wife Sharon and children Scott, Jeff and Mindy, plus his grandchildren, we share your sorrow for his passing. But I am forever grateful for having him as a friend. R.I.P. my friend.

• Finally, this Thursday my wife and I will celebrate our 59th wedding anniversary. I first saw Judy Holman at radio station WCTT, where I worked. She was with a group of girls from school. While looking through the control room glass into a studio, she caught my eye.

I asked my nephew, David Witt who knew her, who she was and I got up the nerve to ask her for a date.

That was the best move I ever made. She has made my life the best it could be. Thanks and Happy Anniversary!