FISHING CREEK TWP. — When Tom Austin began writing a weekly outdoors column for the Press Enterprise, a typewriter, paper and whiteout were tools of the trade; Bloomsburg and Berwick’s daily newspapers were still seven years from merging.

Austin would drive his weekly column from his home on a dirt road north of Orangeville to the newspaper’s plant along Route 11, and hand it over to the sports editor to be re-typed.

Austin, who turns 76 in May, marvels today at the convenience of submitting his columns via email without ever leaving home. ... even if it took his wife’s tech savvy to help him navigate the new computer-linked world.

“It was just mind boggling,” recalled Austin. “I couldn’t believe I didn’t have to drive it down there. Technology has long passed me by. If it wasn’t for Mary Lou, I couldn’t do the column. She can send the pictures on the computer.”

Austin launched “Tom’s Tracks” for The Morning Press of Bloomsburg in 1976 at the request of then-Sports Editor John Michaels, who still covers Bloomsburg University football for the paper. At the time, Austin was working as sports director for WHLM radio.

The Berwick Enterprise in those days featured an outdoors column by Keith Schuyler called “Fins, Furs and Feathers.” 

Still at it 41 years later, Austin, a former teacher, hunting and fishing guide, and founder of Bloomsburg’s Early Bird Sports Expo, was recently named Person of the Year by Pennsylvania Outdoor News.

The bi-weekly publication based in Altoona describes Austin’s column as “one of the longest-running regular features in a Pennsylvania publication.”

“I’m honored and humbled. And a bit embarrassed,” Austin said of the recognition. “I know there’s a lot of people in the state that have been good communicators for the outdoors and good hunters and fishermen. I’ve hung around a long time, and it was my turn, I guess.”

‘Always controversial’
Austin said he takes pride in the variety of hunting and fishing topics he tackles; also, in his willingness to challenge the state Game Commission.

He’s no “mouthpiece” for that agency, he says.

“Deer management is always controversial,” Austin said of the commission’s decisions about hunting seasons and deer-harvest limits.

“I like to think of myself as a Game Commission historian. I’ve done a lot of reading, and deer management has been an issue forever. I don’t think it’s gotten any better. I think there’s a real communication problem between the Game Commission and hunters.”

Going strong
Austin says he has no plans to stop making “Tracks.”

“I enjoy doing it,” he said. “The only thing that bothers me is that by me keeping it, am I keeping someone out there who has the same enthusiasm and isn’t given a chance because I’m just hanging on?”

Austin is sure there are local outdoors enthusiasts who could write more narrowly focused columns on sports such as fly fishing, muzzle loader hunting, or boating.

He’s always preferred to write a column that ranges over all outdoor sports for a wider audience. 

“I’m a jack of all trades and master of none,” he joked.

Western Pa. roots
Austin grew up in Ridgway, county seat of Elk County, where his father, Fred, introduced him to deer and elk hunting.

After graduating high school in 1959, Austin said he had no plans to attend college, but then his high school principal was named admissions director at what was then Bloomsburg State Teachers College, and invited Austin and some other classmates to try BSTC.

Austin needed work to afford schooling, and a job at WHLM fell into his lap. He graduated in 1963 with a degree in education, and later earned his master’s degree. He worked 15 years in the Bloomsburg school system as a 6th-grade teacher, guidance counselor, and director of pupil discipline at the former middle school on North Center Street.

He met future wife Mary Lou while working at Bloomsburg, and they’ve been married 41 years. She was a school guidance counselor who later retired from Central Columbia. They have four children and five grandchildren.

‘You had a telegram’
Tom left education in 1976 and with Mary Lou launched a primitive hunting and fishing camp in Ontario, Canada, with cottages that could host up to 25 people per week. Tom guided fishing and hunting expeditions.

“The camp still exists,” Austin said. “When I had it, it was very remote. No running water or electricity. The only way to get there was by train or to fly in. Now it’s changed. There are some roads.

“But there was no communication back then with the outside world. To get a message to someone, you had to send it on a train. A train would stop about two miles away, lay on the whistle and you knew you had a telegram.”

The Austins ran the camp for 10 years. Tom then became student services coordinator at Geisinger’s School of Nursing, working there until the school closed in the 1990s.

Expo started slowly
While Tom was still at Geisinger, the Austins launched the Early Bird Sports Expo at the Bloomsburg Fairgrounds in 1988. They ran the annual event 17 years, then sold it.

“For a couple years, I wasn’t sure it would work,” Austin said. “But then it really took off. We had some very, very successful shows.”

The expo continues to this day, with its 26th annual show completed in January.