The new office of the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association sits in a low-slung warehouse off North Lee Street.
With its metal awning out front, the place still has an industrial feel to it.
At one time, this section of North Lee Street was home to wholesale grocery warehouses. This particular building was later part of a cut-and-sew operation which made children’s underwear.
Now part of it has been fashioned into 1,900 square feet of office/conference space for the NSSA, best described as the little organization that could.
Over the past 50 years, the NSSA grew from Salisbury restaurateur Pete DiMizio’s idea to give some of his sports reporter buddies their due into a organization that annually honors the best in the business ó state and national winners.
It was the NSSA that brought celebrities such as Bob Hope, Flip Wilson and Mickey Mantle to Salisbury.
It was the NSSA that has made Salisbury a familiar place for such sports journalist luminaries as Chris Berman, Bob Costas, Rick Reilly, Jim Nantz and Peter Gammons.
Dave Goren, the NSSA’s new executive director, is a perfect fit for the organization.
He took the job Sept. 1, and NSSA President Bob Setzer describes him as a self-starter who hit the ground running. Goren, who had 24 years of experience in newspaper, radio and television sports, is well- connected, especially through his long stint as sports director at WXII in Winston-Salem.
He knows a lot of sports people in North Carolina and, as a Syracuse University graduate, has blood-brother links to some of the best sports broadcasters in the country.
“He was the right guy for the job,” Setzer said.
Goren loves the new digs at 325 N. Lee St. He sees the day when this developing “Railwalk” arts and business district will be attracting regular visitors who just might want to stop in at the NSSA Hall of Fame.
For now, the new NSSA office does not include the Hall of Fame, which has been relegated to a hallway at the Holiday Inn. There’s something wrong, Goren believes, when part of your Hall of Fame is situated over bathroom entrances at a hotel.
To celebrate its new office, the NSSA held a reception Tuesday evening in adjoining warehouse space. Goren is not against the idea of the Hall of Fame’s being located in that same area, but leasing the space from Rowan Investments would be an additional expense.
Setzer said his board continues to discuss its options. The warehouse office actually could turn out to be a transitional home. The NSSA still owns, for example, some land on East Innes Street between Community Bank of Rowan and the railroad tracks.
Goren has brought a few items out of storage for display purposes at the new office. It’s cool to see things connected to the likes of Jim Murray, Ernie Harwell, Blackie Sherrod, Will Grimsley, Dave Anderson and Don Dumphy.
The office lobby also has the busts of Ray Scott, Grantland Rice and Furman Bisher, and visitors also can walk by the autographed sneakers of Ralph Sampson, one of those wild sports jackets of Lindsey Nelson’s, a miniature football signed by Berman and a T-shirt and bumper sticker celebrating the brilliance of Harwell.
Goren’s path to the NSSA job has been interesting. Two months after being laid off as sports director at WXII, where he had been for 20 years, Goren learned that his peers had voted him N.C. Sportscaster of the Year.
It meant he would be coming to Salisbury in the spring. At the banquet, Setzer encouraged Goren to apply for the NSSA job. He made the cut of finalists and won out.
Goren, 49, takes to heart something he recently read in Jim Nantz’s book, a copy of which went to all the NSSA winners in the spring. Nantz said among the broadcasting fraternity, winning the NSSA award means more than a television Emmy.
The NSSA had 678 members when Goren took the job in September, and he has set a goal of doubling that membership.
He also wants the Rowan County community more involved in NSSA through things such as charity basketball games and golf tournaments. Goren took a friend’s suggestion and put together a 26-member NSSA Honorary Board that includes some of the biggest names in N.C. sports. (See accompanying story on 2A.)
The organization also has launched a new Web site.
Just keeping the NSSA alive has meant countless, unpaid hours from many people in Salisbury. Through the years, the NSSA office itself has bounced around town like a ping-pong ball.
Ask Barbara Lockert, who has worked on NSSA’s behalf since 1969 and was a paid employee for the organization from 1978 to just recently.
“After so long, you can’t help but say ‘we,'” she said, apologizing for describing how “we” moved from place to place around town, leading up to Tuesday’s open house and reception. “It’s hard to break old habits.”
Goren has an able assistant in Cassandra Barrier, Lockert’s daughter, who says she has been “an NSSA brat” since she was 6 years old.
“He has some neat ideas that we’re excited about,” Barrier says.
Notice again her use of the word “we.” Indeed, old habits such as the NSSA are hard to break ó and “we” never should.
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On the Web:
http://www.nssahalloffame.com