Bates retiring after 44-year career

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By Craig DeVrieze | Sunday, August 13, 2006 | 4 comment(s)

Dearrel Bates probably never had much of a future as farm editor of the Muscatine Journal. When the Louisa County swine producers were scheduled to convene for their annual meeting in 1962, rookie reporter Bates had to inquire of his farm-bred wife, Janet: “What’s a swine?’’

Luckily, the man affectionately known as “DB’’ inside the Quad-City Times newsroom has fared considerably better as a sportswriter.

Bates, 65, is retiring this month after a 44-year career as a full-time newspaper reporter, 37 of those covering fun and games in the Times sports department.

Technically, he got his start in the business more than a half-decade ago as a paperboy for his hometown paper in Muscatine.

He got a foot in the newsroom door as a sports agate clerk for the Journal when he was a junior in high school.

Bates grew up a few blocks away from longtime Journal sports editor Harold Blake and got to know Blake better when Bates was a pitcher on the Muscatine High baseball team.

The truthful reporter in Bates won’t allow that young hurler to be described as a fireballer.

“My biggest claim to fame was pitching batting practice before the state championship game,’’ he said of the Muskies’ third straight state title win in 1958.

That’s the same year Blake gave him his job answering phones at the Journal sports desk on busy prep football Friday nights.

That was the start of a career reporting on high school athletes that will continue beyond his retirement, when Bates continues to cover the occasional game for the Times.

Bates has been a staple in the Times sports department since December 1969, when he brought two children and a then-pregnant wife back to Eastern Iowa after a 31/2-year stint as sports editor of the Marshalltown Times.

Bates also worked for a year and a half at the Oscaloosa (Iowa) Herald after two years as farm editor at Muscatine.

Over the course of his career, Bates figured he has covered no fewer than 7,500 athletic events, running the gamut from the 1983 Gator Bowl to a local prep tennis match.

If he thought one assignment was better than the other, chances are it was the latter, not the former.

Preps and small college athletics have been Bates’ favored beats since he started in the business.

“I have covered Iowa and Iowa State in bowl games,’’ he said. “I get just as much of a kick covering Bettendorf in the state championship football game.

“I found that high school athletes then and now are not quite as jaded as when you get into (Division I) college and the pros,’’ he said. “And that’s what I guess I liked about the small college beat. Those guys are out there doing what they like to do. They are never going to probably play professionally. They do it because they love to do it.’’

That last sentence describes Bates’ lifelong approach to his profession.

He always has had an appreciation for athletics and what he thinks he might miss most in retirement is talking shop each day with his fellow Times reporters.

He also will miss chatting with the coaches and athletes he has met on his beats.

“The coaches and athletes, that’s what makes it fun,’’ he said. “You don’t run into too many jerks.’’

Asked to cite a career highlight, Bates bunches four seasons of high-powered Augustana football.

“The four straight national championships all tie together,’’ he said of the dominating Vikings’ gridiron run he chronicled from 1983-1986. “They were such a power in that span of time and one of my favorite people of all-time is (then Augie coach) Bob Reade.

“What a low-key type person he was, and I really got to know him during that streak.’’

Bates also enjoyed covering the high school careers of future national stars such as Roger Craig, Tavian Banks, Jamie Williams and Ricky Davis as well as the college career of Augie quarterback Ken Anderson, who went on to a lengthy NFL career.

When he is remembered, though, Bates hopes it will be as a sportswriter who covered stars and non-stars with the same even hand.

“I always tried to be fair in my coverage of athletes and teams,’’ he said. “I never consciously tried to show favoriticism.’’

Except, of course, when he chose sports over swine.

“I enjoyed it,’’ he said of the reason for his lengthy career as a sportswriter. “I wanted to stay involved with sports. No other reason than that.’’

Craig DeVrieze can be contacted at (563) 333-2610 or cdevrieze@qctimes.com