quotes via March 14
story on Keith, written by Berry Tramel, Daily Oklahoman Staff Writer
LAS CRUCES, N.M. — Veteran Las Cruces sports writer Johnny "Ranger" Keith, a former sports information director and revered mentor at numerous Division I institutions, died Monday (March 16) at his home. Keith, 78, had been suffering from health problems for the past few years.
Known for his witty commentary and wry sense of humor, Keith formerly worked in the media relations department at the University of Oklahoma and later was an SID at the University of New Mexico and Texas A&M. Keith served as OU's sports information director from 1969-79 and was the son of legendary Sooner SID Harold Keith.
“Dang, this makes me sad,” said Bill Hancock, now executive director of college football's BCS and previously director of the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament.
“I owe my career to Johnny. He plucked me out of a lineup of hippies at the (OU) j-school in 1970 and made me a student assistant. Then the next year, after my junior year in college, he made me full-time assistant SID.”
Most recently he was a sports writer for the
Las Cruces Bulletin. Before that, he was a writer for the
Las Cruces Sun-News dating back to the mid-1990s before leaving in 2003.
His son, Duke, is a radio personality at KLAQ-FM (95.5) in El Paso.
“Johnny was the most all-around talented person I've ever known,” Hancock said. “Writer, musician, artist, athlete. And he was great with people. Everybody liked Johnny Keith.”
Keith's funeral will be Saturday, March 19 at 10 a.m., at St. Andrews Episcopal Church, 518 N. Alameda Blvd. in Las Cruces. There will be a reception following at The Game Sports Bar & Grill, 2605 S. Espina.
In lieu of flowers, people may send donations to the El Caldito Soup Kitchen, c/o St. Andrews Episcopal Church, 518 N. Alameda Blvd., Las Cruces, NM 88005
Ex-Lobo SID John Keith Dies at Age 78
by Rick Wright, Albuquerque Journal staff writer
Friends describe John Keith, better known to many as “Ranger,” as friendly, charming, talented and fun-loving.
But, they say, those same words don’t do him justice.
“Ranger was a character, and there’s a shortage of those,” said Dennis Latta, former Journal sports editor and former executive director of the New Mexico Sports Authority.
“I would say this in a very complimentary way, that the mold was broken; they threw it away,” said Greg Remington, who succeeded Keith as director of sports information at the University of New Mexico.
Keith, former UNM SID and later an award-winning Las Cruces sports writer, died in Las Cruces on Monday at age 78. Funeral services are pending.
Keith came to Albuquerque in the fall of 1979 from Oklahoma, where he’d followed his father, Harold, into sports information.
“I think he’d been out of the business for a year after Oklahoma,” said Remington, who was hired by Keith as an assistant at UNM in 1983. “Somebody told him, ‘You should go to New Mexico because it’s quiet, laid-back.’”
Some two months after Keith arrived, the Lobogate scandal broke; so much for quiet and laid-back. But Remington said Keith, who had to put out major fires involving football coach Barry Switzer at Oklahoma, excelled at crisis management.
“He could talk to the (school) president or the coach, and it seemed like they would always listen and say, ‘Yeah, that’s a pretty good idea.’” Remington said. “Maybe that’s because he had a lot of practice at Oklahoma.”
Ranger, it seemed, never met a stranger. Keith’s way of putting people at ease, Remington said, was a major contribution to his former assistant’s career.
“I never considered myself really shy or anything,” Remington said. “But when I first got here, just watching his ability to interact with people no matter their stature or level really helped me professionally.”
Keith’s talents weren’t limited to writing and diplomacy; he was a skilled cartoonist and an accomplished musician. He played the banjo at High Noon Restaurant & Saloon in Old Town and on the road whenever he could.
“I would have been very happy,” Remington said, “to have just 20 percent of the talent he had.”
Remington recalled watching Keith play with a band one summer in a Denver bar.
“It was unbelievable,” he said. “People were standing on the tables, cheering.”
Several of Keith’s cartoons, illustrating upcoming Lobo football games, appeared in the Journal in the 1980s.
The gregarious, fun-loving Keith didn’t just like to have a good time, Latta said; he often instigated them.
Latta recalled being with Keith and the late Frank Maestas, a Journal sports writer, at a bar-restaurant in Lincoln, Neb., after a New Mexico-Nebraska football game in 1985.
“Ranger convinced the waitress,” Latta said, “that Frank was the governor of New Mexico, I was his bodyguard and Ranger was his personal secretary.”
Service at the restaurant improved dramatically.
After leaving UNM in 1987, Keith worked in sports information for Texas A&M and the Houston Oilers before settling in Las Cruces. He worked as a sports columnist for the
Las Cruces Sun-News, then as sports editor of the
Las Cruces Bulletin, a weekly newspaper.
Last year, he won a New Mexico Press Association award for sports columns.
Keith came honestly by his writing talent. His father, a pioneer in college sports information, also was a Newberry Medal-winning author.
Keith’s son, Duke, is a popular radio personality in El Paso.