North Union’s Trevyn Feasel (3) picks up yardage during a game. The photo was taken by the late Todd Ridgeway. Ridgeway provided the Journal-Tribune and Richwood Gazette with NU gridiron photos for a number of years. (Journal-Tribune file photo)
I just got back from a week’s vacation and heard some startling and sad news on Monday.
Todd Ridgeway recently died as a result of injuries from a tragic motorcycle accident near Marion.
His funeral was held yesterday.
Todd was an unsung, yet valuable contributor to the Marysville Journal-Tribune and Richwood Gazette sports departments.
He enjoyed taking North Union football pictures, which was a huge benefit for both newspapers.
We don’t have a large sports department, so any assistance we receive is very much appreciated.
Todd rarely, if ever, missed a Wildcat football game.
Like clockwork, he would start e-mailing NU football photos to us at approximately 11 p.m. or so every Friday evening during the gridiron campaign.
It didn’t matter where North Union played, either at home or points far away from Richwood.
Todd was there and supplied us with plenty of tremendous photos.
North Union, however, wasn’t the only high school football team Todd covered for us.
On some occasions, he helped with other schools.
I was covering a Fairbanks contest a few years ago and saw a familiar face walking toward me on the sidelines.
It was Todd.
He said he couldn’t get to North Union’s away game on time due to a major traffic snarl.
Instead of turning around and going home, he stopped by Fairbanks and volunteered to shoot pictures of that game.
Of course, I was more than happy to oblige.
His pictures were, of course, fantastic … much better than what I could have done.
I remember another time when I was covering a Triad playoff game near Dayton.
Guess who showed up with camera equipment in hand?
Todd said he was looking for a football game to shoot and knew we covered Triad.
He traveled all the way from his Marion-area home to Montgomery County.
Again, he supplied us with great photos.
He also covered a Jonathan Alder game as well, I believe this past fall.
Todd was not only a reliable contributor to our sports departments, but also a friend.
We at the Journal-Tribune and Richwood Gazette will miss his photographs and the sideline conversations we had with him.
Our condolences go out to his family, friends and loved ones.
They will miss him even more.