Rocky Mountain News leaves sharp memories and a hole in the soul

February 26, 3:58 PMDenver People ExaminerErnie Tucker

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Gene Amole...Rocky icon

Dead.

The Rocky Mountain News.

Maybe that's how the Rocky's iconic columnist, Gene Amole, would have started his account of the beloved tabloid. Amole, a great guy among a string of colorful types, died some seven years ago, so he wasn't around to write the obit of his print home.

But there is something tragic about the loss of any popular institution that has spanned nearly a century and a half, shaping the lives of residents. I was privileged to be part of some of the folks who passed through the doors of the now-demolished Rocky site on West Colfax Avenue.

From cussing, cranky cop reporter Al Nakkula, to Cliff Edwards, a night city editor who favored turquoise belts, editor Jack Swaggerty who snuck up behind me and snipped my tie in half one day, as well as the man known as the Prince of Darkness, who cruised game arcades to find his shirking staff. There were also many of my contemporaries who played on the Rocky Mountain Newshounds (as well as the Brahms Bombers softball team, sponsored by the leather-clad, motorcycle riding Amole) -- sage John Baron, the great writer Bill Gallo, sharp Ed Stein (partner in a short-lived Westword comic, "Sporehead", rebel rocker Justin Mitchell and irascible Frank Kimmel, -- and more.

Stories I covered for them: the abduction of a small girl left in a outhouse at Chief Hosa; interviews with Daddy Bruce Randolf, Dale Tooley, Federico Pena and Vice-President George Bush; talks with cops, lawyers and even criminals charged with murder -- one of whom called me at home, begging for help getting released. Assignments which sent me to see the Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones in Boulder, AC/DC downtown, but too late for my deadline forcing me to write about their littering fans, Roseanne Barr hiking up her pant-leg in the newsroom, a night at Red Rocks watching David Byrne in his Big Suit, and a youngish Bill Murray talking about his dramatic debut in Razor's Edge.

I've been down this path before. I worked one summer as a copy boy for the now-defunct Chicago Today. And in this climate, we are all numbed by the pace and scope of job loss and company closing. But I believe the loss of such a place leaves a hole in the soul. Just as there won't be another Geno, there won't be a chance to find someone else like him in print.

Maybe online will find a way. But for now, the feeling is as Amole might have described it.

Dead.