Terry Foster: Remembering Terry Cabell

By Terry Foster
@TerryFoster971

I was in Columbus, Ohio to cover a Michigan State-Ohio State football game when former Detroit News sports writer Terry Cabell asked me to leave the hotel bar to get something to eat.

"I want a steak," he said.

It was one in the morning and I was more interested in sleep than a ribeye.

"TC you can't get a steak at one in the morning," I told him. "The steak house is closed."

Cabell insisted on getting a steak so I went with him. We drove to a local steakhouse. There were no lights. No cars in the parking lot. The place was obviously closed.
"Come on dude why don't you get some White Castles?" I told him. "That is the closest thing to a steak you are going to get."

Cabell got out of the car and knocked on the door. No one answered and we went to White Castle where I believe he got the number two meal.

Cabell never said no to a task and his life was filled with stories. The man we called "Top Cat" died on July 4 at the all too young age of 60. He was the cousin of former Tiger Enos Cabell and was best known for his coverage of high schools and Michigan State.

He cared a lot about the Spartans and enjoyed his dream job although he did tell me he should be a columnist or running the paper. He always had high hopes and believed in his ability. We once got into a conversation over dinner about what a good sports writer Free Press columnist Mitch Albom was.

Most of us agreed. Not Cabell.

"Man, I can out write Mitch Albom (bleeping) in the snow," he said.

Once again here was a Cat story that had us rolling.

I cannot tell you how many times a group of sports writers gathered on the road to tell Cat stories. His life was one great adventure. He once wrote a story in a bathroom because the rest of the house was too hot. But he missed deadline because a bat got inside the house and was afraid to leave the bathroom.

He once covered a Michigan State basketball game from an airplane.

Cabell was also very confident in his abilities. He told us if he wanted he could have played Major League Baseball. I once saw him play softball and let's just say his skills were not up to snuff. He snuffed: "Man anybody can hit a beach ball give me a 99 mile an hour fastball and I would hit the heck out of it."

That pretty much summed up Terry Cabell, TC, and the Top Cat.

RIP.

(Foster can be reached at Terry.Foster@cbsradio.com. A visitation for Cabell takes place Friday (4-8 p.m.) at Pye Funeral home on Plymouth road near the Southfield Freeway in Detroit.)