Sharpe leaves lasting legacy
Beloit native Jay Heidrick, a former K-State basketball player, reflects on the impact of former Kansas State and Nebraska play-by-play broadcaster Greg Sharpe, who lost his battle with cancer just days ago.
In the fall of 1997, I arrived at Kansas State University as a junior college transfer to join the team as a walk-on. Shortly after arriving, I was fortunate to meet Greg Sharpe, the Voice of the Cats.
I had long listened to Greg as he used his voice and mind to paint the Kansas prairie purple during his broadcasts. Whether you were sitting in a tractor or in rush hour traffic, Greg’s voice permeated your radio and brought to life some of the greatest moments in Kansas State sports history. He didn’t need catchphrases or gimmicks. His energy, passion and love for Kansas State was his calling card, and he displayed it every chance he got.
To me, he became so much more. I was blessed to get to know Greg as he travelled with us on road trips. I soon learned that his uncanny ability to understand and translate fast moving and complicated events transcended beyond sports. We spent many hours on buses, planes and in hotels talking about sports and life. Like many 20 year olds, I was far too ignorant to understand the wisdom of the words that were always eloquently spoken by a man who genuinely cared about me and my teammates. While he was there for work, it was never his job to invest in all of us like he did.
As I have gotten older, I appreciate the wisdom of this wise and kind man who helped all of us do something that is exceptionally hard. For all of the glory that accompanies playing high level college sports, people don’t understand the physical, mental and emotional toll the demands place on your body and mind. Greg did. He not only understood it, but he helped us embrace it. If he saw you were struggling, he sought you out. It may be just a few words or a long conversation, but he always made sure you knew he was there. He invested in all of us, when all of us needed someone to do it.
It’s fitting that I’m typing this from the lobby of a hotel traveling with my daughter and her college team. As I watch my daughter and her teammates incur the same pressures and challenges that the public never sees, I can only think, “I wish they could talk to Greg.”
Rest well friend. It is well deserved. Although God called you you home far too early, when I look up into a brilliant Kansas sunset doused in brilliant purple as another day comes to an end, I know it will be you making us remember that no matter how bad or good the day, there is always more meaning to what we do. And that will be a reminder of not only what you did for so many of us, but the work we all can still do for others. You epitomize my favorite saying that the best things we get from sports have nothing to do with sports. Because as good as you were at calling sports, the best part of you that you provided me and countless others, had nothing to do with sports.