Our friend, brave Bill Lankhof covered everything under The Sun

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Bill Lankhof was in the deskman phase of his of his journalism journey when I began as a Sun intern.

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That ‘Lanky’ nickname had double meaning as he’d somehow bend his elongated frame into a regulation chair, tapping his cumbersome old-school computer terminal, a blue highlighter slashing through his page galleys amid swirls of cigarette smoke. His stern glare, moustache and goatee cut an intimidating figure to a newbie, like he’d walked off the portrait of a Dutch Masters cigar box into our chaotic sports department.

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Underneath was a clever, creative streak we witnessed night upon night, deadline after deadline, such as when the Maple Leafs called up four players from their St. Catharines farm team. Bill was from rural Chatham and dug through files for an old picture of some hayseed driving a harvest tractor and put four head shots of the new guys on its four wheels.

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To a kid out of J-school with scant layout skills, it was the most amazing thing I’d ever seen.

But editing copy, dreaming up snappy Sun headlines and dealing with our unpredictable editor George Gross’s whims couldn’t keep Bill in the bullpen forever. After a few kicks at the can — he once angrily booted a waste basket clear across the office when George ordered the section re-jigged at 10 p.m. — Bill yearned to see how the other half lived as a beat writer and eventually a columnist.

CAREER CHANGE

He loved to hear war stories from veteran reporters at the bar after the paper went to bed, or when our Sun Flashers softball team fought Press League games. Lanky was our stoic third baseman, but always brought sons Ryan and Phil to watch, along with Charlie the Wonder Dog interrupting play.

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George’s edict was cover any and all of the perspiring arts, and Bill joined us on the Leafs, Blue Jays and Argos, sometimes on the same day. Be it horse racing, auto racing, soccer, rhythmic gymnastics, he took every assignment seriously, keen to know what made an athlete tick.

Big news often found Bill instead of vice-versa, like the time his singular Leaf road trip to Hartford was on the day Harold Ballard fired GM Gerry McNamara via a phone booth at the Civic Center.

And while some of us might spare the feelings of a player, coach or exec, Bill took pride in saying “I never apologize”. Take that, Darcy Tucker, who didn’t like being branded a hit man and Robbie Alomar who wouldn’t speak to Bill for weeks. Former Blue Jays coach Jimy Williams reamed him out publicly for stirring up the manager’s war with George Bell, with Bell enjoying the show from his stall.

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IN TROUBLE WITH TUCKER, ALOMAR

That was as far as baseball fan Bill could have been from idyllic days under his grandmother’s willow tree, listening to Ernie Harwell call Detroit Tiger games or his father fidgeting with TV knobs to get the Leafs on black-and-white TV.

When Newfoundlanders thought they’d heard a discouraging word about their home in a Bill opus on curler Brad Gushue, the nicest people in Canada turned nasty on our Bill with a flood of calls.

Lanky retired in 2016 after almost 45 years covered in ink.

“After several thousand columns, stories, headlines and deadlines, it’s time to bid farewell to a place, a time and a people I have cherished,” he wrote in farewell. “A veteran newspaperman is a bit like an aging pitcher, or a hockey player who has lost a step. It is possible still to play the game, it’s just that every game is no longer your best game. So, it makes sense to walk away. But, not without melancholy. Not without memories.”

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For many years we teased Bill about a significant Leaf story he’d once missed down at the Gardens, when he chose a feel-good story on local player Mark Kirton. If only we knew that the demon known as ALS, Lou Gehrig’s Disease, would eventually claim both men, Kirton this summer after years of advocating for better ALS resources and our beloved Bill at 72 on Thursday after his own battle.

FOUGHT HARD AGAINST ALS

Through his debilitating illness, Bill kept spirits up, buoyed by visits from old colleagues to his care facility.

“Bill could do just about everything,” said Steve Simmons. “Write news, columns, features — and he was a terrific editor. All of it with absolutely no ego. That’s hitting for the cycle in our business.”

Bill’s daily column was titled ‘The Last Word’— so he shall have it here with his final paragraph from 2016.

“I am grateful. I have lived my dream. Everybody should be so fortunate.”
Lhornby@postmedia.com

X: @sunhornby

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