Whatever happened to Ken Strayhorn?

[Virginia HS Football Fan]

Posting this on the Class 6 board as there are many Richmond-area schools in this class.

But I was just thinking about the start of the regular season next week...and all of the different high school football shows that are on TV on Friday Nights after the late local news. Ken was THE go-to guy in the 1980s when it came to Friday Night high school football shows in the Richmond area. Channel 8 had the best high school football show back then hands down and I think it was better than the stuff that is churned out today. One of the positive memories from my childhood.

My Dad and I would go to a game and then come home to watch Ken's segment. Those were the days.

I will also always remember the scoreboard graphic music as well. Nice smooth sounds. And when the scoreboard graphics would show an occasional score from the Battlefield or Commonwealth, I would remember getting excited seeing that.

Anyways, just feeling nostalgic this morning. If anyone knows him, please let him know that he is well-remembered and definitely was appreciated back then.

Also, others in the Richmond-area tried to follow him at that time. I remembered that Ivan Schwartz on Channel 6 did a semi-scoreboard wrap-up. I would flip over to 6 when 8 went to commercial or when Ken talked about private schools (I didn't care for Benedictine or Collegiate or any of those.) Channel 6 was decent, but it paled in comparison to that of Channel 8. And as for Channel 12? Their coverage was a lost cause.

 

[BleedingNavy]

WBBT (12) and WRIC (8) no longer cover high school football or sports for that matter. WTVR Friday Football Extra is very good. RVA Sports wrap up with Rob Witham on Facebook has been very entertaining as well. Here's an article on Mr. Strayhorn. Enjoy.https://www.boomermagazine.com/ken-strayhorn/

 

[Virginia HS Football Fan]

WBBT (12) and WRIC (8) no longer cover high school football or sports for that matter. WTVR Friday Football Extra is very good. RVA Sports wrap up with Rob Witham on Facebook has been very entertaining as well. Here's an article on Mr. Strayhorn. Enjoy.https://www.boomermagazine.com/ken-strayhorn/

Very disappointed to hear about 8 and 12. 12 never was any good at covering high school football even back in the 80s anyways. 8 was awesome when Ken was doing the Friday night shows. Too bad 8's sports department has tanked. I'm assuming Chip Tarkenton is no longer with them? Thanks for the article.

 

[NNDman]

That was a hustling crew at Channel 8 back in the day! I remember how the crowd would get excited when the helicopter would show up! They had clips from an insane amount of games on Friday night, East to the Northern Neck, south to just about the NC border. Don't remember if they covered any games in Spotsylvania or Stafford. The only gripe -- and it's not really a gripe -- was that they crammed so many games into that 20 minute time frame that sometimes the games from rural areas only had a couple highlights. Miss those days!

 

[Virginia HS Football Fan]

That was a hustling crew at Channel 8 back in the day! I remember how the crowd would get excited when the helicopter would show up! They had clips from an insane amount of games on Friday night, East to the Northern Neck, south to just about the NC border. Don't remember if they covered any games in Spotsylvania or Stafford. The only gripe -- and it's not really a gripe -- was that they crammed so many games into that 20 minute time frame that sometimes the games from rural areas only had a couple highlights. Miss those days!

It was way better than others. And especially with what we see today where some channels with once heralded scoreboard shows will just show two or three plays because their cameramen are shooting two games a night.

I remember when I heard our schools were mentioned, I was so excited. The helicopter was a big deal. I remember that. They didn't necessarily cover Spotsylvania and Stafford back in the 80s from a highlight standpoint unless one of those schools went down to Richmond. But, the schools up in this area would almost always make the scoreboard which was really cool to see.

I definitely miss those days as well.