I am excited to announce that Jim Thomas soon will be taking over as our lead reporter on the St. Louis Blues beat. He steps into the role previously held by Jeremy Rutherford, who will depart next week after 12 years of providing excellent Blues coverage for our Post-Dispatch and STLtoday.com readers.
Most of you know Thomas' work from the many excellent years he put in as our lead writer on the St. Louis Rams beat. Let's just hope he doesn't find a way to chase the Note out of town, too.
While JT — as he's known by most everyone — has never covered hockey as a beat, he should get his skates under himself quickly as he grew up a fan of the game and is eager for the challenge ahead. He'll also have plenty of support and institutional knowledge surrounding him as Tom Timmermann remains on the beat and "Hockey Guy" Jeff Gordon is ready to help light the lamp, too.Â
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Thomas has been at the Post-Dispatch since starting as a copy boy in December 1975 while finishing college at UMSL. He likes to remind folks that those were the days typewriters were still used. He then spent four and a half years covering high school sports in various capacities before taking over coverage of Mizzou football and hoops from 1985-91. Thomas points out that while on the Mizzou beat he covered the Tigers' infamous "Fifth-Down Game" against Colorado and the "Norman Conquest" — Mizzou's 77-0 loss to Oklahoma.
From 1991 to present JT covered the NFL, including the failed St. Louis expansion effort in the early '90s, the successful effort to lure the Rams to St. Louis in 1995, the Greatest Show on Turf and a Super Bowl championship, lots of losing football, and ultimately the departure of the team back to Los Angeles.Â
In all Thomas has covered 26 Super Bowls, six Final Fours, numerous national championship football bowl games and been part of our coverage teams for two World Series. In that time he's won numerous local, state, and national writing awards.Â
Said Thomas of taking over the Blues beat: "This Blues opportunity literally came out of the blue — pardon the bad pun. I am excited and eager to get going. As always, the P-D will get my best effort. I'm far from a hockey expert, but among my first duties on the beat will be the purchase of the book: 'Hockey for Dummies.'"Â
See, he's got a sense of humor, too.
We look forward to seeing JT hit the ice as Blues training camp gets set to open on Sept. 15.