I've told the story many times, but under these circumstances it bears repeating.

I was in my first week as the sports editor of this newspaper in January 1984, and just to get acclimated in my new community, I went out and covered a high school basketball game between Pleasant Valley and Central DeWitt. Afterward, I went to chat with both coaches in their postgame locker rooms and introduce myself.

As PV's Ed Merritt shook my hand, he asked: "Where is Dearrel Bates tonight? I was hoping he'd be here to cover our game. Gosh, he's a fine gentleman. Say 'hi' to him for me."

It was more of the same with Central DeWitt's Neil Padgett. "Where's Dearrel?"

"He's just a great guy, and we love seeing him come up here. He's just a gentleman. Say 'hello' to him for me, won't you?"

As I soon came to understand, Dearrel Bates truly was a fine gentleman, as affable, amiable and likable as anyone I'll ever know.

He passed away Friday night doing what he loved most - covering a high school athletic event - leaving a void not only in the collective heart of this newsroom, but in a sports community that was always glad to see him.

I lost track of the number of times through the years that I covered a high school event and was asked "Where is Dearrel tonight?'' Even after he retired in 2006 after 37 years as our primary high school reporter and began covering just one game a week on a freelance basis, people asked about him. "How is Dearrel? What is he up to these days?"

There was a serene goodness about him that belied reporter stereotypes and defied analysis. He was just a nice guy, a really, really nice guy.

There was nothing complicated about it. He just had a gift for goodness, an innate ability to put people at ease. I don't think it's anything he did consciously. It's just the way he was. Spend 5 minutes with him, and you felt as if you were chatting with a favorite uncle.

He covered some big-time events for us through the years - bowl games and Division III national championship games - but he was most comfortable, most happy doing the smaller stuff.

He loved high school sports, and clearly the people connected to high school sports loved him.

News sources - coaches, athletes, administrators, fans - went out of their way to give him stories. They would drop news tips in his lap and tell him things they never would dream of telling any other reporter.

They were comfortable doing it because they always knew the information would be handled the right way. If there was anything in what they said that was remotely scurrilous, Dearrel wasn't going to use it anyway. He was too good of a guy for that.

We used to kid him at times because his stories about high school events would be filled with these little editorial adjectives to describe what was happening on the playing field. In one of his stories, you could be assured that a point guard was going to throw a nifty pass, or that a running back was going to make a dandy move.

It's entirely appropriate that he went out doing what he loved. He covered so many classic Bettendorf-Assumption football games through the years, and his last assignment was one more Bulldogs-Knights epic Friday night, a double-overtime thriller at Touvelle Stadium.

Sadly, he never got the chance to report on the game what most assuredly would have been a dandy story.