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Bobby Rhine, hard to believe It’s already been two years

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Bobby Rhine

It was two years ago today that Bobby Rhine tragically passed away. September 5, 2011 just happened to be Labor Day and was also technically a day off for me from writing. However, when my editor at FoxSportsSouthwest.com, Ben Rebstock, emailed me asking me to write something on Bobby, I must admit I was a bit puzzled. I hadn’t been terribly plugged in for the early part of that day and hadn’t heard the devastating news that the former Dallas Burn/FC Dallas forward and defender was gone.

And when I read the news for myself, I honestly didn’t know what to think. We as writers are taught to detach ourselves from our subjects or beats as much as possible but Rhine was someone who had always been very good to me since I started covering FCD back in April 2006 for the MLS league website.

In fact, my first feature for the old mlsnet.com site was on Rhine and looking back on that interview, I remember his never-ending enthusiasm and infectious energy and something that stuck with me. I had seen him play for Colin Clarke, then Steve Morrow and finally Schellas Hyndman before being forced to retire at the end of the 2008 season.

I especially remember his last season as a player. It was funny because one quality that defined Bobby during his career was his durability. However, during that ’08 campaign, injuries started to mount and recovery was taking a lot longer for the affable veteran and by the end of the year he realized the writing was on the wall and opted to hang up his boots.

Of course, his transition into the FCD front office, whether it was in his role as an analyst on the club’s TV broadcasts or his work as Director of Community Development was seamless because he was still working with the game he so dearly loved.

And even after retiring, Rhine remained a great interview and a great source of information when it came to the history of the club who he had spent his entire professional career playing for. But when I learned of his passing and was then asked to write about him, I have to admit I was at a loss.

Part of me didn’t even want to write about his death but as I started typing what I still feel continues to stand as one of my best works ever, the words came out with relative ease. I no longer viewed my assignment as one where I was reporting bad news. No, I now saw it as a chance to celebrate the life of Bobby Rhine and that’s exactly what I did.

Here’s a link to that story in case you’re interested.

Even though I don’t write much soccer for Fox SW anymore but have done and continue to do plenty for the Dallas Morning News in recent years, I owe much of the fact that I have been covering FCD for some eight seasons now to Bobby.

That’s because he helped me rediscover a love of the beautiful game that had been dormant for a number of years, one that dates back to growing up in Tulsa and playing for my late father at the youth level and the two of us attending many games of the Tulsa Roughnecks of the old NASL at Skelly Stadium.

Bobby Rhine was one of those rare people who not only resolved to make the world a better place each and every day of his life, but he is someone who didn’t just say that, he lived it. And while we all miss the days of seeing him play or hearing him call a game or even talking the sport with him, we’ll always have those memories and for that very reason, September 5 always be a day where we will remember and celebrate his life and his memory.


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