RIP Dan Cook

[GuessWho]

He was a legend in the Southwest as a columnist in San Antonio.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/stories/MYSA.dancook.35e7cb48.html

 

[Some Guy]

It is difficult to overstate how popular this guy was in South Texas, as both a columnist and a broadcaster. The word "legend" is thrown around all too often ... but in this case it's apropos.

RIP, Mr. Cook.

 

[GuessWho]

There are a million stories about Cook, including one where he solved a notorious crime back in the 50s, I think, that had the FBI baffled, and even captured the criminal. I wish I could remember the details.

Anyway, he was a classic, old-school, Front-Page throwback, and a tough son of a *****. As I recall, when he was in his 60s he owned a bar in San Antonio for awhile and served as his own bouncer, and literally threw out his share of troublemakers. You didn't **** with Dan Cook.

 

[Editude]

The Express-News has an all-sports high school competition each year (points for playoff wins, etc.) that it calls the Dan Cook Cup. One of the local TV stations, KENS (for Express-News Service) was in the E-N building for years so Cook could do the TV reports as well as write columns.

 

[SockPuppet]

If a movie was to be made about Dan Cook and if Lee Marvin were still alive, Lee Marvin would be the right choice to play Dan Cook.

 

[kleeda]

I got to edit Dan's last column and it was a privelege. He was always worth reading. He, Blackie Sherrod and Dan Jenkins were the holy trinity of Texas sportswriting when they were all active. It was a happy time.

 

[Football_Bat]

Dan Cook invented sports in San Antonio, years before the Spurs came along.

 

[Stone Cane]

sounds like my kinda guy

RIP

 

[cvincent40]

I had the privilege of working with Dan at the San Antonio Express-News a from 1963 until 1969 when I was a very young sportswriter. He made the distinction that the staff worked "with" him and not for him. He was a major factor in influencing me professionally and to some extent personally, though I could never keep up with his lifestyle. We spent many a night at the old San Antonio Press Club on the river, drinking, playing cards and just having a ball. We spent a lot of time, too, at the old "after hours" places in downtown SA, the Commanders Room and the Navy Club. Unfortunately, we did not see a lot of each other as the years passed but I will make the drive to San Antonio on Monday for the visitation. When folks die, a lot of things are said and some of them are even true, of Dan no one who knew him will ever doubt that he was one-of-a-kind . . . he lived 81 years and every one of them he truly lived to their fullest.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

This thread has made me wish very much I had known Dan Cook. Those of you who wished to pay tribute to his life are doing a damn fine job.

 

[henryhenry]

he sounds like someone out of a runyon story.
almost mythical.

 

[GuessWho]

Some good Cook stories in this column:

http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/stories/MYSA070508.1C.dancook.robinson.39e861c.html

 

[Songbird]

Some good Cook stories in this column:

http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/stories/MYSA070508.1C.dancook.robinson.39e861c.html

Loved this one ...

At the 1978 Super Bowl in New Orleans, Dan had played poker in the press hospitality room each night and had lost three-straight nights. Around 3 a.m., as we were walking down Bourbon Street, we saw two homeless men up ahead asking for money.

“I can't believe I'm so broke I don't even have money to give them,” Dan said. “I must be getting old. This never would've happened to me when I was younger. I would've found a way to make some quick money.”

The naïve one, I asked, “What could you possibly do to make money at 3 a.m., 500 miles away from home?”

He stopped, looked up and down the French Quarter, and then pulled me through toe-to-toe Super Bowl fans to the entrance of the Old Absinthe House Bar. It was standing-room only, with live jazz music blaring inside, with a few hundred people crowded around the entrance. There was no cover charge.

Dan pushed me through the doorway, and he stopped right in the middle of it.

“You stand here and keep an eye out for management or security,” he said.

He then turned sideways and loudly announced to those near the entrance, “Welcome to the Old Absinthe House. The cover charge is just $5!”

One by one for 10 or 15 minutes, he stood there collecting $5 per head as more tourists squeezed into the bar.

“Dan, watch out, here comes a security guard,” I warned.

He grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the bar and through the crowd outside. Once we were a block away, he counted $235, walked over to the two homeless guys we had seen earlier, and gave it to them.

“That's one way you can make money if you need it bad enough,” he said.

 

[Some Guy]

Some good Cook stories in this column:

http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/stories/MYSA070508.1C.dancook.robinson.39e861c.html

Nearly posted that today. Good stuff.

 

[Andy _ Kent]

Some good Cook stories in this column:

http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/stories/MYSA070508.1C.dancook.robinson.39e861c.html

That was an outstanding article about clearly an outstanding man.

 

[kleeda]

And don't forget, his is credited in Bartlett's with "The opera ain't over 'til the fat lady sings."

 

[Joe Williams]

And don't forget, his is credited in Bartlett's with "The opera ain't over 'til the fat lady sings."

Here I always had thought **** Motta said that. In fact, an online teaser headline about a Texas sports personality who said "...fat lady sings" made me think, until I clicked, that it was in fact Motta who died.

 

[Football_Bat]

And don't forget, his is credited in Bartlett's with "The opera ain't over 'til the fat lady sings."

Here I always had thought **** Motta said that. In fact, an online teaser headline about a Texas sports personality who said "...fat lady sings" made me think, until I clicked, that it was in fact Motta who died.

I first remember that quote reading it in a paperback book about the T. Cullen Davis murders, but never knew who invented it.

 

[Montezuma's Revenge]

I keep wanting this to be RIP, Dane Cook.