Going to the memorial service on Friday for co-worker Greg Clark, who passed away on March 4, seemed simple enough.

Now, as I sit here coughing, congested and trying keep up with my runny nose, I’m pretty certain I am not going to make it.

“Clarkie,” as he was referred to by many of his fans, and I were work-place friends, but not really drinking buddies. He preferred Schnapps, peppermint I believe, while I was just a beer guy.

However, with his passing I realize we shared a common bond.

Little more than 10 years ago, I was on the edge of where he is today, but I was called back. I guess you could say it wasn’t time for my ticket to be punched.

There was a point, however, when I was pretty certain I was on my final count down, so I couldn’t help but wonder if Clarkie knew that his time on this planet was slipping away day-by-day.

I thought maybe his last couple of columns may have something between the lines, but there wasn’t anything. They were all typical Clarkie – upbeat, full of wit and his unique – yet sometimes confusing – style of humor.

Greg began writing for The Era Sports Department in the early 1980s. He was open to anything I asked him to take on. Little did I know of the challenges I was about to face.

Following are several of the more memorable situations Clarkie presented us with over the years.

One of his early assignments was writing a weekly NFL picks column.

I didn’t realize it at the time, but he was not a fan of the Buffalo Bills. In fact, whether the Bills had won or lost the week before, he always blasted them in the upcoming column.

This went on for some time, or, at least until I got tired of the Letters to the Sports Editor and the memos and notes from fans in the company.

I pleaded with him to only crucify the Bills when they lost. No luck!

There was only one thing I could do. It was time for a change.

I told him he was being switched to the weekly college football picks column. What could possibly go wrong there?

It would take a while but I soon found out.

After writing the college picks column for some time, Clarkie asked if he could use a picture to highlight his weekly prognostications.

I OK’d the request. It seemed reasonable at the time and what harm could it do.

Now, I should point out that one of the college teams Clarkie was not fond of was Notre Dame. He has always been a diehard, true blue Syracuse fan.

Anyway, on this particular week, and it was several years ago, he decided to set his sights on Notre Dame and just happened to find a picture of the Pope.

In his story he hinted that the Pontiff may be in South Bend that weekend to give the Irish some spiritual assistance.

Somehow it got past Joe and I. The next day the phones were ringing off the hook. Everyone wanted to know how the Pope had gotten in the country and to South Bend, and how did we know about it. Thank goodness email had not been invented yet.

When he wasn’t writing his picks column, he loved covering high school football, basketball and baseball games.

His football game stories were very entertaining, and his basketball games as well, until he went a little too far out of the box.

In a basketball game between Bradford and St. Marys, it just so happened the Dutch had a player named Lopaka Hoohuli whose family was Hawaiian.

At some point in his account of the game, Clarkie decided to refer to the basketball as the “pineapple.” In fact, it may have appeared more than once.

Again, he had slipped one by us.

Needless to say many St. Marys fans were not pleased with his style of humor. The phones were busy then, too, and I’m pretty sure we had some subscriptions canceled.

During the District 9 playoffs I got the opportunity to talk to the young man and assured him that it was nothing personal. If I remember correctly, he seemed to think it was amusing. Whew, dodged a bullet there!

Now we come to baseball.

Clarkie’s high school coverage and accounts were pretty standard fare for him, although he did enjoy referring to a hard hit ball as on its way to a nearby town.

There was one a zinger we missed but it appeared in an American Legion game report between Bradford and Kane.

Kane’s pitchers struggled the entire contest. They couldn’t find the plate and when they did Bradford connected.

In Clarkie’s colorful description of Kane’s mound woes he pointed out that their pitchers would have had trouble tearing a piece of tissue paper.

The next day, it drew a speedy and sometimes unpleasant response. Again, I think it may have cost us some subscriptions.

Finally, and I almost forgot this one – the game of cricket. I don’t know how he got started on it, but I suspect it filled his column space when nothing else was going on. I do know it left some of his readers scratching their heads, including me.

I’m pretty certain Wikipedia was behind it.

Through the years it’s been an adventure working with Clarkie, but well worth it and I discovered a lot of good places to eat – another one of his favorite things to do on the road.

He will be missed by all of us, but he went down fighting right to the end!