‘The story is what counts’ summed up Lexington reporter’s approach
Reporter. Columnist. Sports editor. Guiding light. Reassuring presence. Selfless witness to Kentucky history for decades.
Without seeming to try, Rick Bailey stood out in local journalism. He died on Sept. 23 at age 76.
In his farewell column ending 45 years of working for Lexington newspapers, he boiled down his approach to journalism to the essentials.
“The story is what counts,” he wrote in the column that appeared in the Herald-Leader on March 5, 2009. “It hasn’t always been the tried and true of who, what, when, where and how. It often was the story behind the story. It was the opinionated, occasionally outrageous columns that, by definition, inflamed readers, led to canceled subscriptions and once created a boycott by a coach and his team.”
Bailey, who grew up in Paintsville, covered the World Series, Triple Crown races, Final Fours and college football playoff games. In a sports journalism career that began with typewriters and ended with WiFi, he chronicled a seemingly equal broad spectrum of sports news: from Kentucky basketball to NAIA athletics.
“The more time passed, the more my appreciation deepened for the ‘small’ schools,” he wrote in his farewell. “The coaching skill and competition is just as fierce at that level as it is at the Final Four this weekend.”
Bailey covered Roy Kidd’s pursuit of 300 coaching victories, all for his alma mater of Eastern Kentucky University.
He recalled the game-winning shot by Ty Rogers of Western Kentucky in the 2008 NCAA Tournament as being launched near his press row seat. “It was perhaps the most dramatic of many game-winners I’ve seen,” he wrote.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution sports columnist Mark Bradley worked with Bailey on the Leader sports staff. He recalled his humanity and professionalism.
“Rick was a nice man and a fine journalist who helped teach me there was more to putting out a newspaper than satisfying my ego,”
Bradley wrote in an email. “I confess I mightn’t have been quite so appreciative at the time, but I am now.”
As a personal aside, I recall Lexington being a land of strangers when I joined the then Lexington Herald in August of 1981. Bailey, who then worked for the Herald’s rival newspaper, the Leader, was welcoming and willingly assisted my transition.
Bailey spent part of his career in Lexington as a religion reporter. In his farewell column, he recalled interviewing Pat Robertson in Wilmore and Jerry Falwell in Somerset.
A memorial service for Bailey will be held at Lexington’s First United Methodist Church (200 West High Street) on Oct. 15. The service will begin at 12:15 p.m. and follow a visitation from 11 a.m. to noon. Masks are required and appreciated.
This story was originally published October 4, 2021 at 2:19 PM.
