Northeast Texas Lost A Good One

The Ark-La-Tex area lost a pioneer in sports writing. Johnny Green was the Sports Director of the Texarkana Gazette for most of his career, and according to the Texarkana Gazette lead a salty crew of veteran sportswriters that covered Texarkana and the region and collected a multitude of awards. The main team he covered was Texas High, but any coach in Northeast Texas wasn’t surprised if he showed up in their field house or called on the phone. When I first called him in 1968 to help predict Friday football winners, I was intimidated. It wasn’t long we became the best of friends. Johnny Green died Tuesday in Texarkana’s hospital at the age of 76.