Editor’s note: This is MSR Senior Columnist Kwame McDonald’s final column, as told to Staff Writer Charles Hallman last month.

I was probably 25, 26 years old when I came to St. Paul [in the late 1950s].

The best line I’ve ever heard [uttered] anywhere was from Earl Battey [who was the Minnesota Twins catcher] at Oxford Playground back in the early 1960s. “Shoot, fat man, shoot,” someone said to him during a game.

Earl turned around and hit a long jump shot, and said, “There’s no fat on my eyes.”

One of the questions I’ve always been asked is who is the best athlete or athletes I have seen play in this area over the years: Elgin Baylor? Bobby Bell? Earl Battey? Sandy Stephens?

Stacy Robinson ranks among the best I’ve ever seen. He could play. He always was very competitive. He was humble. He was just good.

Among my memorable moments watching local sports, I once watched Minnesota Twins catcher Joe Mauer put on an athletic show as a Cretin-Derham Hall high school basketball player. After the game was over, I went to [then Gopher coach Dan Monson] and asked, “Are you scouting the right guy?” Joe tore them up that night. He’s an athlete.

Following are my best five Gopher players:
• Mark Hall (University of Minnesota basketball player, 1978-82)
• Mychal Thompson (University of Minnesota basketball player, 1975-78): He was nice. Had all the skills. A great, great player.
• Lou Hudson (University of Minnesota basketball player, 1964-66)
• Willie Burton (University of Minnesota basketball player, 1987-90)
• Bobby Jackson (University of Minnesota basketball player, 1995-97)
Best female player: Linda Roberts (University of Minnesota, 1977-81). [McDonald was the driving force for years to get her jersey number retired and displayed inside Williams Arena.]

Clem [Haskins] is the best coach I’ve saw. [McDonald also liked Brenda Oldfield during her one-season stint at Minnesota (2001-02)].

Best recruiting source for players to play at Minnesota: Detroit. All the dudes that came from Detroit could play.

Jimmy Williams was the best basketball recruiter Minnesota ever had.

Kwame McDonald (1931-2011) wanted to dictate more “best of” lists, including his best-ever five female players, but it became too taxing on his energy for him to spend time on this.

Nonetheless, Kwame passed on his rich sports journalism legacy to his son Mitchell Palmer McDonald, an award-winning sports journalist who covers prep sports for the MSR with the same zeal and enthusiasm as did his father.

“He’s way more than I would have expected,” said Kwame, a proud father, about his son.