Saturday, June 4, 2011

Congrats Tom on 40 great years

Rocky Mount native Tom Suiter may have retired from everyday sports reporting for WRAL-TV5 in Raleigh, but he is still putting in time at its Western Boulevard studios.

This past Thursday, Suiter celebrated his 40th anniversary at the station. This coming on the heels of fellow WRAL personality and meteorologist Greg Fishel spending the past month relishing in his 30th year at the station.

I had the chance to talk to Tom during the 2008 GlaxoSmithKline Invitational basketball tournament for about 20 minutes and he imparted to me that he was just tired .. period. He was ready for retirement, but he said the station was still wooing him to at least host Football Friday and continue his presentations of his Extra Effort Award for high school athletes.

At that time, he was indecisive. But lucky for us all, he stayed on for those special projects - including marking his 30th season of Football Friday last fall.

Congrats on 40 wonderful years, Tom! Can't believe that early interview with coaching legend John Wooden at then-Campbell College was that long ago!

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