Editor’s Note (02/13/22): After the news of former Sports Editor Miguel Rodriguez’s passing, the Campus Times received multiple submissions from his former co-editors in his memory.
David Leavitt (Class of 1998, Editor-in-Chief 1997)
Miguel Rodriguez, who passed away this month at 47 due to complications from COVID-19, was the Sports Editor of the Campus Times when I was a first-year. After learning from Miguel how to craft a story, I became a professional journalist for 10 years, and Miguel was the best editor I ever had.
I met him on one of my first days on campus when I showed up at the newspaper and, with all the arrogance of an 18-year-old who thought the world was his oyster, told him I wanted to cover the football team. He sent me (and other first-years) to cover the game that weekend, but only as a tryout. Afterward he sat down and went through the “real” story that ran in the paper, comparing it with mine and explaining sentence-by-sentence what information was needed at which part of the article. I didn’t get the football beat, which was a blessing because it forced me to see how much more I had to learn.
Miguel was kind and patient. He had a big heart. He was also a slob and was always eating something called the “Squealy Gobbler” — do those still exist? — that would drip all over everything.
According to the Washington Post, he was unvaccinated. (The Buffalo News, where Miguel had been a renowned sports reporter since 2003, omitted his vaccination status in its report about his death.) The Washington Post says he was leaning toward getting vaccinated right before he got sick.
Miguel was a wonderful person who touched many lives, lives for whom his memory is a blessing.
On that note: Get vaccinated and boosted, everyone.
Noah Loren (Photo Editor, Class of 1996)
I was also an editor with Miguel at the CT but I was in Photo. We worked together a little of course, but most of my fond memories of Miguel are more as a friend who was part of our Friday night CT skating group at GVP. He was the only other hockey player (strong skater) in that group, and we always had a lot of fun racing around the less skilled skaters. I haven’t spoken to Miguel in years, but was saddened to hear the news of his passing. I remember him as a kind and gentle soul who was liked by all with whom he interacted.
Paul Sotoudeh (Features Editor, Class of 1995)
Miguel and I shared a whole bunch of nights alone in the CT office watching playoff hockey together. But when our conversations weren’t hockey-related they usually centered around the hottest hip-hop songs of the day. We had a running argument over whether Black Reign (his choice) or All Hail the Queen (mine) was the best Queen Latifah album.
I think his quiet personality and dry sense of humor sometimes caused people to miss just how incredibly funny he was, but I think all of us around the CT knew, and I was lucky enough to get a pretty steady dose of laughs from him. I’m so sad that he’s gone and that his family lost him so soon, but it’s been wonderful to see just how many people and communities he connected with in the Western New York sports world after he left UR.
