Alan Ford is retiring after 39 years as one of the leading reporters in the state on high school athletics — and many other levels of sports — while at The Shelby Star./FACEBOOK PHOTO
BEST WISHES
HobbsDailyReport.com owner and founder Chris Hobbs — who has worked with Ford in all of his 39 years at The Star and for 44 years in the region– sends my old pal a hearty “congrats” and best wishes for many joyful days without deadlines or weekend shifts… wondering, though, what life now as the only 30-plus year dinosaur will be like?
HobbsDailyReport.com
SHELBY — Congratulations are in order for Alan Ford — sports editor of The Shelby Daily Star for the past 39 years — as he heads into retirement. He was honored on Thursday by his colleagues as he finishes his final week in a long journalism career.
Ford came to The Star in the late 1970s and was instrumental in high school sports coverage not only in Cleveland County but throughout Western North Carolina because of his willingness to work closely with other newspapers that covered high schools playing the schools in his region. As a result, Ford’s work also touched thousands of student-athletes throughout the Western half of the state and statewide as well.
A North Carolina graduate, Ford is a Cabarrus County native whose later father, Bill, was a high school coach.