Jim Thomas did it all in his 48

Post-Dispatch sportswriter Jim Thomas is in the pressbox at Enterprise Center on Wednesday, April 12, 2023, for the final Blues home game before his retirement after 48 years at the paper.

Jim Thomas covers Blues hockey for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

When I was maybe 10, I used to pull a wooden newspaper cart — with metal wheels and handle — up and down the streets of south St. Louis selling the Post-Dispatch and Globe-Democrat newspapers.

The weekday Post cost 7 cents; the Sunday edition 25. We’d get 1½ cents for each weekday paper sold; 5 cents for each Sunday paper. I’ve always loved the smell of newsprint.

In college at George Washington University, I remember opening the textbook in my first journalism class and there it was under the heading: Top newspapers in the United States. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch was listed in the top 10. My hometown paper! I was so proud.

Just a few years later, I found myself working as a copyboy for the Post-Dispatch and then sportswriter. Dec. 3, 1975, was my start date. I will be on the payroll for several more weeks with some vacation and comp time, but May 5, 2023, was my last day working.

Some days it seems like four lifetimes ago that I started at the P-D, sometimes it seems like 10 minutes. From typewriters to laptops to the internet and social media. My three sons have asked if I started out chiseling on stone tablets. (Smart alecks! They got their sarcasm from their mother.)

It took me 7½ years to earn a college degree in political science. Not journalism. It's a long story — I won't bore you with the details. But a guy who idolized Woodward and Bernstein and wanted to write politics and government found himself covering Duchesne Pioneers vs. St. Charles Pirates football games in the late '70s and many other high school sports in St. Charles as a stringer — $25 a story, which was even better than selling Sunday copies of the Post-Dispatch.

Stephen Wade, still working today for The Associated Press in Tokyo, gave me my start at the St. Charles Post — then a wraparound supplement to the Post-Dispatch. When he got transferred suddenly to the main P-D sports department I was hired full-time to cover high school sports in St. Charles but told I was on probation.

Since then, no one has told me that I’m off probation. But I assume that's the case.

I went on to cover more than two dozen Super Bowls, about a half dozen Final Fours, many college football championship games. And one very memorable Stanley Cup. But many of those high school games were just as fun.

I want to keep this short. I’ve been overwhelmed and humbled by the congratulations and well wishes since I announced my retirement.

I’ve met so many great people along the way — writers, players, coaches, team officials, readers. Lots of characters and personalities.

And I’m still proud of the Post-Dispatch. During COVID, we were the only St. Louis media outlet to cover every Blues (and Cardinals) game — home, away, preseason, regular season, playoffs. What a tremendous commitment by management to the readers.

There have been so many talented people come through the doors at the Post-Dispatch over the last 48 years — not just in sports but throughout the paper. I’m reminded of it every day when I pick up the paper off my front lawn. It's right there on Page A1: Winner of 19 Pulitzer Prizes.

I’m so happy to have been along for the ride.

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