Losses happen in sports. It is part of the essence of what competition must bring so there is a clear winner and loser. The loss of a friend through what the glory of competition brings is often one of the moments in sports that lets anybody, fan or competitor, understand there is more than winning or losing.

My first teardrop for a sports icon came when Mickey Mantle passed away in 1995. Since then I have paid my respect for athletes ranging from Darryl Kyle to Pat Tillman. Never once did I imagine one of my very own colleagues in the Schieffer School of Journalism joining those of names.

Doug Clarke, a former adjunct professor in the journalism department as well as former North Texas State University football player in the 1950s and ’60s, was never shy about giving his two cents on what college athletics meant to him. For that matter, any subject from sports to history to politics to criminal interrogations seemed fall in his realm of expertise.

I remember Clarke would wander into our newsroom and sit and chat about the weather that day and listen to what all of us fledgling writers had to say. The grandfather character in the Skiff family has passed away.

As I sat in the pew at his funeral, I recalled when he told me about when he caught a pass from TCU and NFL great Sammy Baugh at a football practice. I have shaken the hand of the man who made that reception.

More than that, the handshake was a sign that he became a friend. Doug Clarke will be missed as both a friend and competitor.

-Sports editor Marcus Murphree