NEW ORLEANS — One of the best photographers to ever ply their trade on the sideline of the New Orleans Saints will be inducted into the team’s Hall of Fame Friday.
Bob “Parky” Parkinson patrolled the sidelines, almost without fail for nearly 15 years, covering the team at training camps in Hammond, Wisconsin and Mississippi along with Metairie, Louisiana.
He rarely took vacation or a week off during the football season and he suffered through several losing and trying ones, especially during the latter Mora years and all of the Ditka years.
Television videography has changed over time but when Parky was stalking the sidelines, the cameras were much heavier and they came with a 30-pound weight (recording pack) tethered around your shoulder to boot. Bob’s shoulders ached after each game, some of which came less than 15 hours after doing a similar routine for LSU or Tulane, those of which sometimes also came less than 24 hours after toting the pack for prep football.
See, some weekends included treks to Baton Rouge for nearly four hours of holding the camera/recorder combo in Baton Rouge, a return home after midnight and a wakeup call to be at the Superdome by 10:30 a.m. for another four hours.
Those chronicling the games for their stations rarely had a chance to put down the gear, spending the pre-game getting isolation shots, spending between plays and timeouts shooting “color” shots of fans in the stands, cheerleaders and shots of coaches and players. Halftime provided the rare respite, but it didn’t last nearly long enough.
Just doing that job took fortitude. Doing it so well took talent and a proper temperament. You see, after that college football/Saints combo toting the heavy weight, Bob would come back to the station, log his tapes and then begin the process of editing the Fourth Down on Four opus’ of first Chris Myers and then Mike Hoss, often times Jim Henderson as well.
Bob had the luxury of working with some of the best and they also knew they were afforded that same luxury. You could put a story in Bob’s hands and know that it would come out not only as you envisioned it, but even better.
It would be spiced with reaction shots you didn’t even know had existed with exquisite timing. I’ve said it often, I would give Parky a C+ or B- script at best. What would make the air would be an A grade.
The old Mary Tyler Moore show jingle said she could take “a nothing date and suddenly make it all seem worthwhile.” Parky could take an ordinary script and make it an extraordinary story.
He would put up with all of my wild ideas. “Hey, let’s have our high school intern talk like Sarah Connor and do a Terminator-themed intro for the Jim Mora Show.” I have no idea what Parky was thinking when I suggested that, but someone who had never done a TV story voiced it and Coach Mora loved it.
Parky liked to stay in the background, but he was sports’ secret weapon. When he was named to the sports photog post when our very talented sports photographer left for another gig, Jimmie Brown, one of TVs seasoned photographers said to me, “I don’t understand why he’s doing sports, but, I guess if you all are only going to have one photog, you probably should have one of the best.”
Sports Anchor Marc Soicher had worked with Parkinson some prior to him taking over full time in sports. I lamented the loss of our previous photog. Soicher told me “Parky is even better.”
With the intensity of football season, Parky had to let the air out somehow. He had a ritual of “saluting,” primarily other photogs, but also some staff members, with an NSFW salute. They would return the favor, with the person wielding the sword first as "the winner."
Speaking of NSFW, there was the memorable JGFO list he created, and, let’s just leave it at that. IYKYK.
The job description probably makes people think Bob had a singular focus. He did, but it wasn’t shooting sports. That was secondary. His primary focus was his family – his beautiful and brilliant wife Erin and his sons Blake and Adam. When Bob wasn’t creating video sports art, he was devoted to his family. He may not have missed a training camp or game but he also rarely missed a family landmark moment.
He and Erin married very young but theirs was a match made in heaven. In fact, it’s likely that theirs was the prototype for “here’s what real love is.” Now go see if you can replicate it. Good luck.
Bob is and was extraordinarily proud of his family. He bragged on Erin as she worked all day at raising their two sons and all night at studying to become a lawyer. He beamed talking of her rise in a profession even tougher than his own.
I remember him telling the story of her interviewing for a job with a prestigious law firm and being asked to describe her life prior to graduating law school. She told them about having two young sons and helping get them ready for school, meeting their teachers and volunteering in class and then going to law school at night. Their reply was “wait, you have two young children, raise them during the day while your husband is at work and you finished second in your entire class?”
Or the time their two young sons raced into their mom’s arms at a graduation ceremony, so proud of her. Or the time she received a rare honor from the U.S. Supreme Court.
Earlier this year Bob suffered his biggest loss as Erin was taken from him by a long term illness. He had been by her side for the entire struggle. The funeral was packed in tribute to two extraordinary people and Bob, ever the “behind the scenes” figure, wrote the most moving tribute that had those in attendance simultaneously laughing, smiling and wiping away tears.
Bob didn’t deliver it himself, not just because he is not used to the spotlight, but because he didn’t think he could make it through it.
His light shines and her light shines on through him and to his children and grandchildren. As he is honored by the New Orleans Saints today, those who know him and his work know it is richly deserved.
Bob underplayed his own talent, as modesty was his middle name. But an oft-quoted line from former Saints coach Bum Phillips about Earl Campbell and slightly changed, fits him to a tee.
As a sports photographer, as a colleague, as a human being, Bob may not be in a class by himself, but it doesn’t take long to call the roll.