I didn’t know Matt Newbery as well as some, but I still considered him a friend. Matt and I had many mutual friends and had quite a bit in common. Newbus or Bus, as he was known due to his size, passed away Sunday night at the far-too-young age of 53.
Matt was a beloved person to many who grew up and worked in the sports writing industry. A 1985 graduate of Pittsburg High, he went on to Pittsburg State, where he studied communications. During college, he worked at the Pittsburg Morning Sun, a paper many of us in Kansas sports writing circle revered back in the day.
That paper, though small, produced some outstanding journalists, many of whom went on to bigger and better things. Eric Turner, for example, went on to become sports editor of the Topeka Capital-Journal.
When I started my career in journalism in 1999, I envied the sports crew at the Morning Sun. They had great beats (Pittsburg State’s national power football program and Pittsburg High’s perennial football contender), the copy was always strong and the paper sparkled compared to most its size.
I knew of Matt through Eric and the Morning Sun sports staff, but I didn’t meet him until I worked for The Emporia Gazette from 2000 to 2002. At 24, I had a good beat, covering Emporia State athletics, namely an elite women’s basketball program and rising football team under future Division I coach Jerry Kill.
Bus was the sports information director for ESU’s conference, the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association. In a nutshell, it was his job to send out all the press releases and statistics (and much more) for all of the conference’s sports. That’s right, one person was responsible for covering a large conference’s media relations.
Matt did his job well. He was organized, he cared, he made sure sports writers had what they needed at the conference’s big events. He was a one-man show for years in the MIAA, which he left after 15 years in 2009.
Bus stayed in the sports media business, working in broadcasting from 2010 until his passing. I didn’t see Matt for years after I left Emporia, but I heard the occasional story about him through our mutual friends.
My favorite was about Matt’s love for fantasy football. Of course, many sports writers play fantasy football. We all love sports and we all love numbers. It’s a seamless fit. But he took it to another level. As the story goes, Bus emailed several friends and asked if anyone was interested in an Arena Football Fantasy League. You read that right: A fantasy league for Arena Football.
“I love fantasy football …” the mutual friend telling the story said. “… But that’s a bit much.”
As luck would have it, I had a chance to ask Matt about that in 2012. I was freelancing a state baseball tournament in Emporia, and he was providing play-by-play for the radio station he worked at. We had an entire day to catch up, mostly on sports, of course.
As for the Arena Football Fantasy League: “I don’t know. It just seemed like a good idea.”
That was the last time I saw Bus. We exchanged the occasional comment on social media, usually about the Royals or his beloved White Sox. He was always thoughtful, kind and funny.
Matt became ill a few weeks ago. A few days later, he tested positive for COVID-19, even though he wore a mask and advocated wearing one to protect others. Less than a week later, he was gone. This awful pandemic feels that much more real today.
Thank you for writing this Ernie. It is nice to see Matt from the perspective of others. Fantasy Arena…I’m not even a little bit surprised. Thanks for being a friend to him.
Thank you for the kind words. Hard to believe it’s been six weeks now since he passed. I think about his parents and family. They’ve had it rough.