North: Palmer remains one of the greatest ever

As I watched Jack Nicklaus get a hole-in-one on the fourth hole at the Par 3 contest at the Masters, I couldn't help thinking about the first athlete I ever saw - the great Arnold Palmer.

I was about six or seven years old and remember sitting in our living room, or the front room as my father called it, watching television. It was a magic moment for me as I laid my eyes on "the King" for the first time.

I wish I could say for sure we were watching the Masters, but I can't. I do know it was a Saturday afternoon. To my young eyes, it looked like there were a million people following the coolest guy I had ever seen. I was mesmerized and I knew I would follow him for the rest of my life.

Palmer was a swashbuckler, a guy who took chances and an ultimate winner. Why not follow him?

I've interviewed many people over the years whom I have admired and looked up to, people such as Walter Payton, Jim Brown, Michael Jordan, Mickey Mantle and Mike Krzyzewski, but in the handful of times I interviewed Palmer, I wanted to be the absolutely best I could possibly be.

Imagine my surprise when I discovered we shared the same birthday, Sept. 10. I was thrilled, and it just made me feel an even stronger bond with the man.

I recently watched a documentary on Palmer and it showed how much he meant to regular folks. I was happy to find out there are thousands of baby boomers, just like me, who grew up with Palmer and worshipped him.

Palmer is 85 years old now, the same age as my mom, but it was still a thrill seeing him watch the Par 3 tournament on Wednesday.

Until now, very few people knew about my reverence for Palmer, a man I've always considered to be in a class by himself. He's just a regular guy who made the game of golf what it is today.

While I have grown to like Jack Nicklaus very much over the years, the Golden Bear was an afterthought to me when the two competed.

I know I caught Palmer as he neared the end of his great run, but the Palmer-Nicklaus rivalry was one of the greatest in sports history.

The deaths of a few sports greats, athletes such as Walter Payton and Pete Maravich, hit me hard when they passed on, but I know it will really be a rough one when the time comes for Arnie. I truly hope it's not for a long, long time.

I saw Palmer when I was a young kid and I am still watching him do commercials and hitting ceremonial tee shots today, and now I'm 62.

Let's face it - he's been like family to many of us. Long live Arnold Palmer!

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