Tonight is “The Big Dance.” The Final Four. KU is there, and I’m thinking my former boss and mentor, Rich Clarkson, must be smiling and wishing he was court-side with his camera.
For those who don’t know Rich by name, you know him by his photographs if you’re a sports fan. Basketball was his love, and he photographed the Final Four for 60 years before he retired. His work graced the pages of many issues of Sports Illustrated, and the stories of his experience entertained photographers for years.
He would recount being a high school kid - maybe even younger - taking his camera to the field house on the KU campus, asking Phog Allen if he could ride the bus with the team and shoot photos. He roomed with Dean Smith when the team traveled. He honed his photography skills on the same courts that would produce legends in the sport, and he documented them all: Wilt Chamberlain, Akeem Olajuwon, Patrick Ewing, Isiah Thomas, Earvin “Magic” Johnson, Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Adolph Rupp, John Wooden, Bobby Knight…the list goes on and on.
If you ever watched the Final Four and noticed a man in a sport coat and button-down shirt sitting on the floor amid more casually dressed photographers, then you saw Rich. He dressed professionally every day. EVERY. DAY. He hated when photographers “looked like they just crawled out of a hamper.”
That was one of the many things I learned from Rich during my time working for him: present yourself, and your work, in the best possible way all the time.
My first lesson in that was actually shortly after I started working for him. He was getting ready to go into a meeting with a client, and needed some packets printed, and put together quickly. So, I put together the packets quickly and stapled them quickly and handed them to him quickly.
He handed them back and scolded me for not making sure the sheets of paper were square with each other. He had me do it again. At first, I thought - seriously? The pages may have been a little off in my haste of putting the packets together, but who cared - he needed them quickly. Well, Rich cared. And he cared because of this lesson I will share with you now. If you don’t show intentionality and pay attention to the little things, how can you be trusted to show them on the big things - when it really matters?
I redid those packets, all nice and square. And to this day, every time I staple papers together I make sure the corners are square. Because the details matter, whether the task is big or small. How you present yourself and your work matter, because they are a direct reflection of who you are.
Tonight we will see legends in the making. We will see attention to detail. And we will see how individuals present themselves in the biggest task they face to date in their sport. And those who pay attention to the details and present themselves professionally will prevail.
So for this night, and this night only, this Mizzou grad will cheer for KU. For Rich.
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