McPHERSON — Always positive.
To City of McPherson Mayor Tom Brown, that’s the one glaring characteristic that stands out about Steve Sell.
Even on the bad days, Sell, a longtime sportswriter in McPherson, saw the silver lining. Covering McPherson athletics for 43 years, those bad days were few and far between. But they did exist.
“Part of our success over the last 43 years is that we had somebody that promoted a positive approach to our programs,” Mayor Brown said Tuesday morning after he read a proclamation recognizing March 30, 2022 as “Steve Sell Day” in the City of McPherson.
“Our kids knew he had their back,” the mayor added. “Our coaches knew they had someone they could talk to.”
The McPherson City Commission approved the proclamation at its regular meeting Tuesday morning, honoring a 43-year career of covering local sports for the McPherson Sentinel and KNGL-KBBE until his retirement March 18.
Commissioner Gary Mehl is the former publisher of the Sentinel, where Sell worked for the bulk of his career.
“I was so blessed to work with Steve for many, many years,” Mehl said. “I can still hear him today reading his stories back to himself to make sure they were perfect.
“Steve’s life was McPherson County sports and he reported it better than anyone I know,” Mehl added.
The seven-time Kansas Sportswriter of the Year covered 19 of McPherson High School’s 22 state high school basketball championships, and in one of his final stories, covered a third place showing by the Bullpup boys in the Class 4A third-place game in early March. Recently, he covered a state championship for the McPherson girls as they knocked off Bishop Miege for the crown in 2018. Readers could find a daily column written by Steve on midkansasonline.com. At the time of his retirement, he was the only daily published columnist in the state.
“The parents were great followers of Steve,” Mayor Brown said. “His positive approach is a leadership quality that’s not recognized often.
“Steve just did his job five days a week writing an article, coming to practice, always trying to lift everybody up,” Brown added. “That’s no easy task for 43 years.”