Every high school and college athlete who ever called the Quad-Cities area home lost a friend early Saturday morning.

Dearrel Bates, a hall-of-fame sports reporter whose work appeared in the Quad-City Times for nearly 40 of his 47 years in the newspaper business, died shortly after doing what he loved the most - covering a high school game.

Bettendorf police discovered Bates in his van in the parking lot of a church at the 1700 block of Oak Street around 12:30 a.m. The 68-year-old Bates had covered the Bettendorf-Davenport Assumption football game for the Times earlier in the evening and was on his way to file a story at the time of his death.

He was transported to Genesis Medical Center - East Campus, Davenport, where he was pronounced dead. Police said he died as a result of a medical condition.

Bettendorf athletics director Mark Brooks spoke with Bates shortly after he concluded his postgame interviews and gave him a lift to his vehicle in a golf cart.

"We chatted a bit after we got to his car, and he was the same old Dearrel, always friendly, always kind," Brooks said. "The news is a shock. He was the type of reporter who let the story be the story and didn't try to create something that wasn't there."

Longtime Davenport North volleyball coach Amy Baker appreciated that Bates' passion for preps coverage extended beyond high-profile sports.

She also appreciated his style.

"Dearrel always showed such class and kindness in the way he went about his business," Baker said. "Whenever he interviewed you, you felt like you were talking with somebody in your family. He had a way with making you feel comfortable, win or lose, and he was there because he genuinely cared. We in athletics lost a good friend."

Rock Island Alleman athletics director Steve Smithers, a former basketball coach at Davenport Assumption and Alleman, said Bates had a perfect connection with the athletes and teams he covered.

"He cared about kids and had the right way of going about reporting what high school athletics and high school athletes are all about," Smithers said. "He didn't have an air about him. Whatever event he was at, he made the coaches and kids feel special."

Quad-City Times Publisher Julie Bechtel said Bates left an indelible mark on preps coverage in the Quad-City area.

"Dearrel's extensive knowledge of high school sports - the conferences, the schools and the players - was well-known throughout the region, and laid the foundation for what the Times considers to be one of our greatest strengths today."

Bechtel called Bates "a true gentleman."

"His work ethic was known to all. We extend our sincerest sympathy to his family," Bechtel said.

Bates grew up in Muscatine, Iowa, just down the street from longtime Muscatine Journal sports editor Harold Blake.

When he was in high school, Blake gave Bates a job answering phones at the Journal sports desk on prep football Friday nights, the start of nearly half-century love affair with the games that continued throughout the rest of his life.

Bates was a pitcher on Muscatine High School's 1958 state championship baseball team, although he always joked that his claim to fame was that he pitched batting practice on the day the Muskies won their third straight state title.

"He always said he got them ready to go win the title," said Don Grensing, a former Davenport Central coach and administrator who serves as executive secretary of the Mississippi Athletic Conference.

"He was the heart and soul of high school sports in the Quad-Cities region for many years. When the MAC put together its conference history book two years ago, it was dedicated to Dearrel Bates because much of what had been compiled was information we had gathered from Dearrel."

Bud Legg, information director for the Iowa High School Athletic Association, said Bates' reach extended statewide.

"Dearrel is an icon. I've always said that if you read his stories you got to know Dearrel, and once you got to know Dearrel, you got to love him," Legg said. "He was one of the first people I had a chance to talk with when I got into coaching and he while he might know what coaches said, he also understood what they meant and that was reflected in his work."

Darren Bizarri, the men's basketball coach at Black Hawk College who worked as a freelance correspondent for the Times as a high school and college student, recalls receiving a handwritten note of congratulations from Bates when he was named to his current coaching position.

"That was DB," Bizarri said, referring to Bates by the nickname used by his newsroom associates and friends. "He didn't have to do that, but he did."

That type of touch separated Bates from many others, St. Ambrose University director of athletics and men's basketball coach Ray Shovlain said.

"When you measure success, you measure it in quality and longevity, and Dearrel Bates had both," Shovlain said. "It's a sad day."

Bates worked at the Muscatine Journal, Oskaloosa Herald and Marshalltown Times-Republican before moving to the Quad-Cities and joining the Times sports department in December 1969.

He worked full time until his retirement in August 2006 and had continued to cover area sporting events as a freelance correspondent for the Times since that time.

"We were all so happy for him at the time of his retirement because he deserved it with the work he had put in, but we all knew we would miss his reports on a daily basis," said Brooks, who first met Bates nearly four decades ago when he was competing in college athletics at Augustana College.

"He always liked the local sports and appreciated the local athletes and the work they put into it. He's going to be missed."

Bates is survived by his wife, Janet; daughters Debra Meyne of Calamus, Iowa, and Lori Bates of Davenport; son Brad of Chicago; two granddaughters; brothers Tom of Sigourney, Iowa, and Roger of Muscatine, Iowa, and his mother, Helen, of Muscatine, Iowa. He was preceded in death by his father, Raymond.

Funeral arrangements are pending at Runge Mortuary, Davenport.