Stamford High grad, famed Texas journalist Mike Cochran, 85, was a character, too

Some giants have come out of Jones County, particularly Stamford.

Charles Coody. Bob Harrison. Current Pittsburgh Steelers receiver James Washington.

Retired longtime U.S. Congressman Charlie Stenholm.

Legendary high school coach Gordon Wood, who led the Bulldogs to back-to-back state football titles in the 1950s.

And Mike Cochran.

Cochran was a legend in Texas journalism, working for 39 years for The Associated Press. He reported sports for the Abilene Reporter-News before joining the AP, opening its office in Fort Worth.

He finished his career as a senior staff writer for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, working there for five years.

Cochran died Tuesday. He was 85.

"You can't separate Mike as a reporter, as a writer, as a character, as a Texan," longtime friend and co-worker John Lumpkin, former AP bureau chief, said in 2020. "They are merged together and are who he was and what he became."

Cochran's honors were numerous. He was inducted into the Texas Newspaper Foundation Hall of Fame in 2018. He was selected Star Reporter of the Year from the Headliners Foundation, the top individual award given annually to a Texas journalist.

In 2021, he was inducted into the Big Country Athletic Hall of Fame as a sports writer.

More: When it comes to sports writing, Stamford's Mike Cochran was an ace

A career full of highlights

Cochran could command a room, telling his many tales - some funny, some unbelievable and a few that were harrowing.

He commanded a listener's attention, yet he also was all ears when listening to others.

"You had to love being around Mike Cochran. He was a great storyteller, both in print and even more so in person. He had an infectious laugh and just drew people to him," former Reporter-News editor Glenn Dromgoole said. "I think people liked Mike because he liked people. He made everyone feel special."

One of the best stories he told was stepping forward other journalists as pallbearers for Lee Harvey Oswald, who had been shot to death as the accused assassin of President John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963.

Jack Ruby publicly shot Oswald two days later, and Oswald was buried Nov. 25.

More: Reporter Mike Cochran's somber load to bear - Oswald casket in 1963

Cochran was just 26.

Cochran also secured an interview with Oswald's wife, Marina, by knocking at her door, talking himself inside - he told her that he had carried the casket, and that struck an instant bond between them - and simply listening to her story.

When he left, he hurried to his car and wrote notes from memory to ensure his exclusive.

His experiences with the assassination propelled his career. Cochran covered many big news events, including two space shuttle disasters and the massive 1985 Mexico City earthquake, and other infamous people, such as preacher-gone-bad Walker Railey and accused murderer T. Cullen Davis.

Cochran authored five books, including works about former Gov. Clayton Williams and Hardin-Simmons University graduate Doyle Brunson, who went from football to poker to make his name.

Always drawn to West Texas

Cochran attended HSU for two years before moving on to then-North Texas State University in Denton. A 1954 Stamford High graduate, he would return to Abilene, choosing West Texas over the Texas coast to work.

Why?

He had a chance to cover HSU football, at the time coached by the already legendary Sammy Baugh.

He didn't stay in Abilene long, using the 1960 Cotton Bowl as a springboard to joining the AP. The story goes he was the fortunate victim of a mistaken identity, landing an interview with the news organization and earning a job.

Still, he was drawn back time and again to West Texas

"Though he moved to a statewide footprint later in his Associated Press career, Mike was at his rollicking best when he put the hammer down on his company car and rocked along West Texas highways and more than a few backroads," Lumpkin said last week.

"He was at his best with his lyrical prose about West Texas characters - the bright lights, the lowlifes and the true icons. Sammy Baugh, alone and aging on his ranch near Rotan. Billie Sol Estes in Brady wondering if he could avoid another con. Midland's Clayton Williams. Big Spring's pioneer female journalist Marj Carpenter.

"Bootlegger turned civic leader Tom "Pinkie" Roden, Brownwood's favorite undertaker Groner Pitts or its favorite football coach, Gordon Wood. He brought back Brownwood's Candy Barr decades after the notoriety of her stripper days in Dallas and her friendship with Jack Ruby."

Sports guy, too

Cochran's talent was storytelling but his passion was sports.

He covered many Texas college football games for the AP, particularly TCU and Texas Tech. He covered the major golf tournaments in the Fort Worth-Dallas area, and wasn't a bad golfer himself. He was Coody's teammate at Stamford.

"I did a lot of sports writing but I was not a sports figure," he said in 2020.

Ah, but maybe he was.

"What would the hospitality suite provided by Texas Tech Athletics before Red Raiders football games have been without him in the heyday of the Southwest Conference?" Lumpkin mused. "Or for that matter, the press room at the long-ago PGA tour stop at Fairway Oaks Country Club, the LaJet Classic?"

Drinks, tab were on Mike (or AP)

Cochran was a familiar face at the annual Associated Press Managing Editor's conferences, famous as the host of the 19th hole after the days' activities.

"Among newspaper editors, perhaps the most endearing quality about Mike was that he organized and held court at the hospitality room at our annual Associated Press Managing Editors convention," Dromgoole said. "There was always plenty of beer to drink when Mike was around, and he could put away impressive quantities himself."

Cochran was in good enough health to attend the delayed 2021 event held in October in San Angelo with his wife, Sondra. They were married for 63 years.

She also hailed from Stamford.

Cochran was not born in Texas — he was an Okie from Muskogee. But from his young days in Stamford on, there was no place like the Lone Star State.

He enjoyed his travels, including coming back to West Texas.

"He was welcomed by West Texas journalism titans like Abilene's Stormy Shelton," Lumpkin said. "He was just at home with a radio station owner in Brownwood or the soft-spoken publisher of the Hereford Brand in the Panhandle."

Cochran would pop in at his old haunt on Cypress Street in Abilene.

"When I was editor of the Reporter-News," Dromgoole said, "I knew I was in for a night of great steaks and good fun when Mike and AP Bureau Chief John Lumpkin stopped by to visit.

"And the AP always picked up the tab."

But, Lumpkin said, Cochran made himself at home with reporters and others who had their own stories to tell.

"Sure, he might treat the top editor to a steak dinner," Lumpkin said, "but he liked just as much to share a beer and war stories after the night shift with reporters at places like the Bar L in Wichita Falls.

Cochran's funeral will be Jan. 29 in Fort Worth.

It's a sure thing he will toasted afterward.

Greg Jaklewicz is editor of the Abilene Reporter-News and general columnist. If you appreciate locally driven news, you can support local journalists with a digital subscription to ReporterNews.com.

This article originally appeared on Abilene Reporter-News: Stamford grad, famed Texas journalist Cochran, 85, a character, too