RIP Earl Golding, outdoors columnist

I did not know him personally, but I'm sure some of you on here have. Just wanted to pass along the news and my condolences.
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Longtime Waco outdoors columnist Earl Golding dies at 81

WACO, Texas (AP) — Earl Golding, whose hunting and fishing columns for the Waco Tribune-Herald inspired the Texas State Bass Tournament, has died. He was 81.
His death on Sunday was confirmed Tuesday by the Wilkirson-Hatch-Bailey Funeral Home.
Golding began his career at the Tribune-Herald as a sports reporter in 1949. A year later he began covering the outdoors beat, including Texas’ growing hunting and fishing scenes, according to the newspaper.
In 1955, Golding came up with the idea for a newspaper-sponsored fishing tournament to determine the best bass fisherman in the state. The event became the Texas State Bass Tournament, and Golding was inducted into the tournament’s hall of fame in 1998.
In the early 1970s, his hunting and fishing columns began running seven days a week in the Tribune-Herald, an arrangement that lasted for nearly 20 years. He retired in 1999 after 50 years at the newspaper, although he continued on a part-time basis writing a Sunday column for several more years.
“Some of my co-workers insist my job is a 12-month vacation,” he said in 1999. “I’ve never argued the point.”
Former colleagues and friends praised Golding as engaging and humorous.
“Everyone he met was a friend,” former Tribune-Herald sports reporter Hollis Biddle said. “If you knew him five minutes, it was like you both grew up together.”

 

Earl was a good guy. Back in the day, his columns were very, very popular in this part of the country.