I was a sports columnist in Jacksonville, Florida, when I accepted a similar job at the Knoxville News Sentinel in the summer of 1987. A man who worked in the production department of the Jacksonville paper seemed more excited than I was. We worked in different areas of the paper, so it was hardly surprising we had never spoken before. But when he heard I was leavcing for Knoxville, he reacted as though we had suddenly become best friends.

He was an East Tennessee native who spoke of Knoxville as though he were auditioning for a job at the chamber of commerce. “Knoxville is a great sports town,” he told me. “You will never want to leave.”