Bucks County Courier Times (Levittown), Sept. 15

Bucks County Courier Times sports writer, editor retires

By KEVIN COONEY
Bucks County Courier Times

There are times at every level — from preps to pros — where the sometimes strange dance between sportswriters and coaches becomes a battle royale wrestling match.

So there was this time a few years ago when one coach — who will remain anonymous — and I disagreed about a story I had written.

For about 15 minutes, we talked in various voice tones about interpretations of facts and where we differed.

This was kind of going nowhere, so I finally apologized for having to leave to go back to the office to fill in for our assistant sports editor, who was out having a minor surgical procedure.

“You mean Ray?” the coach responded. “You tell Mr. DiLissio I said hello and that I’m thinking about him. He is a good man.”

Finally, we had found something to agree on. And it was something that almost everyone has agreed on for 44 years.

This week will mark the official end of an era for us when Raymond DiLissio — the long-time sports writer and assistant sports editor at this newspaper —retires at the age of 65.

Perhaps some of you wonder why we bring up this point. It’s because everything that this sports section has been since 1963 has been done in large part thanks to him.

When he arrived during the “golden years” of Lower Bucks scholastic sports, Ray was right there along with the legendary Dick Dougherty covering every major scholastic event like it was the World Series, Super Bowl and Final Four wrapped up into one.

The stories of that era would flow freely in recent times as Neshaminy and Pennsbury made their state title runs in football and the next generation of players — many of whom had fathers who were covered as players by Ray — moved up through the ranks.

We jokingly started referring to them as “DiLissio moments,” complete with a made-up theme song that would start at the beginning of the story that would have Ray giggling.

Laughter in a work place is huge, and Ray was the man who made us all laugh. Whenever I would try out lines for a “Cheap Seats” column that was intended to be funny — yes, they are intended to be humorous — I would send it to Ray to read first. If there were a few chuckles, the lines were axed. If there was a roaring belly laugh, I knew that I had something.

He was a writer’s best friend in the office. He always would find a way for extra space or time to make the story complete. It would drive the copy desk crazy at times, but he would somehow make it work.

This doesn’t mean he was a saint. There were nights when people wondered if there was a tranquilizer gun in the building so we could contain Ray if the computers went down, the power went out and the Phillies blew a five-run ninthinning lead — all 15 minutes before deadline.

But there was always a personal touch that separated him. He knew the value that this newspaper and its local coverage had on a community because he has been here the whole time. And in a large department filled with a lot of different personalities, Ray knew how to handle each one perfectly. He was constantly supportive and understanding.

That’s what I’ll miss. For the past 3½ years, we’ve worked four nights a week about five feet apart from each other from the time the sun went down to almost closing time at the local taverns.

He’s almost like a second father to me, and I don’t think I’m alone in this newsroom when I say that.

Time marches on and we’ll move forward. As Ray would acknowledge, this paper was here long before he got here and we hope it’s here for a long time after.

But we’ll never forget what he meant to all of us.

He’s been a good man. Nobody can dispute that.

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