For more than two decades, hardly a Saturday or Sunday went by when David McNabb’s byline didn’t appear in The Dallas Morning News. When the biggest high school games were played, McNabb wasn’t far away.
McNabb was a sports writing staple who gave fair coverage to kids in the Metroplex. One former colleague called him “the godfather of high school sports coverage in Texas.” McNabb also worked at Rivals.com and most recently as a sports reporter for WFAA-TV in Dallas.
David McNabb passed away at his home Sunday evening after a brief battle with cancer. He was 60.
David’s wife, Lisbeth, penned the following comments that were published on WFAA’s website:
“With our sons, Darby, Max and Ben, I share a note with grief and sadness.
David McNabb died last night. 2.26.17. 60 years of age.
A month ago he went from a few weeks of sick, kidney infection, to emergency room, to a scan that told us he had cancer masses from colon to liver. Terminal Cancer. The last few weeks we had hospice and David in our home.”
McNabb was a treasure on the high school beat. It seemed he knew the names of every coach in every sport and details of each school’s history. No game was too small for him, and he covered every event as if it were the most important thing in town.
He once said in a journalism class at nearby Richland College, “For those kids and their parents, that game is the Super Bowl to them and they expect that kind of coverage.”
In 2008 he won the Putt Powell Award for State Sports Writer of the Year by the Texas High School Coaches Association.
In the 1980’s, McNabb covered the college beat and often competed against Marjorie Lewis, who wrote for the paper in Fort Worth.
“David and I started out as competitors. I was at the Star-Telegram and he at The Morning News. We covered small colleges and our paths crossed weekly,” said Lewis, who went on to become the first female beat writer to cover the Dallas Cowboys. “When I was moved up to the Cowboys beat, David sent me a letter of congratulations. Competitors didn’t do that, so I was overwhelmed. He was a good man.”
Lewis later became the faculty adviser for journalism at Richland College, and she hired McNabb to teach newspaper writing for beginning journalists.
Brandon George, one of the current Cowboys beat writers at The Morning News, remembers how McNabb helped guide him any way possible.
“When I started covering high school sports full-time at The Dallas Morning News in 2001, David McNabb helped me anyway he could and was always gracious,” George said. “David was the godfather of high school sports coverage in Texas, but he was just as well-respected in prep circles for being an all-around good guy.:
“He never seemed to have a bad day and always treated others with great respect. As much as his work paved the way for a young writer to follow, his every-day attitude and zest for life left an even bigger legacy.”
His work ethic and all-around good guy persona were just part of McNabb, who was a walking encyclopedia of Metroplex, and statewide, sports information.
“David was the most knowledgeable and well-connected high school sports reporter I ever worked with,” said Dennis Hall, a former preps editor at The Morning News.
“He knew everybody. He knew about trends before they became trends. And he knew which coach was going to get which job before the interview process was even complete.”
David Hinojosa, who currently covers preps at the San Antonio Express-News, worked with McNabb a decade ago. When Hinojosa lost his job at The Morning News because of attrition and layoffs in 2008, he contacted McNabb to seek advice on teaching and PR possibilities.
Hinojosa and McNabb met in Frisco to discuss jobs and opportunities.
“We spoke for about two hours. He gave me a list of websites for jobs and offered me advice on how to market myself as a freelance writer,” Hinojosa said. “It was a new world to me. David didn’t have to take the time to do that, but he did. David covered the SMU recruiting scandal that led to the Death Penalty in the 1980’s. He could have big-timed any of us who worked high schools at the DMN, but he never did. That spoke volumes about his character. He had no ego. He was always willing to help. We all lost a great man. Godspeed, David.”
I, for one, took David McNabb’s journalism class at Richland College in 1999. I learned a lot from him and tried to soak up any nuggets of information the teacher could pass along. He must’ve liked me because he called me one day and asked if I could cover a W.T. White baseball playoff game. I was a JUCO student and this was my first real assignment that paid money, and it got my portfolio started.
Three years later I was blessed to land an internship covering high school sports at The Morning News, and I worked alongside David. Even though I still viewed him as my former professor, he viewed me as a fellow writer. Little would he know, he helped launch my career by virtue of his kindness and giving me a little shove.
Social media lit up Sunday evening when news first broke that McNabb was in hospice care. On Monday we all learned that he passed the night before.
There aren’t enough words that can truly encapsulate his career, or how good-natured McNabb was. He was known as a top professional in his craft. He was a loving husband and father.
But for those of us who got to know him and work alongside of him, he was a great friend. And we’ll miss him.
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