Finally, others beside Joe Crine’s coworkers will have an opportunity to give him a hard time.

Crine, the sports editor of The Post-Searchlight, will be the subject of the Pilot Club’s annual roast on Thursday starting at 7 p.m. at The Charter House Inn.

Paschal Ward, Stan Killough and Sonny Smart, as well as a mystery roaster, will be those roasting Crine. Former The-Post-Searchlight publisher Sam Griffin will be the emcee.

It will be the second time Crine has been the roastee, the first being 20 years ago—a generation ago—in 1990.

If you grew up in Decatur County and participated in a sport, showed a cow or pig, or had any thing to do with Climax’s Swine Times, Joe Crine had probably pecked your name on his keyboard with three of his right-handed fingers.

If you participated in a sport and have excelled in it, Crine has chronicled your career with just as much zest as if it was his own.

And speaking of his own career, he has been the sports editor of this newspaper since April 1970. According to Griffin, Crine convinced Griffin the newspaper needed a sports section, so it obviously needed a sports editor.

The rest is history.

Crine’s background

Crine, 65, is a native of New Jersey, and he and his father made treks to New York City to watch the New York Giants play, including the great Willie Mays.

His family moved to Cairo when Crine was 12 years old so they could be near his mother’s family. His father opened Crine’s Drive-In, a regular teen hangout in Cairo. Crine says he mostly made the milkshakes.

Crine graduate from Cairo High School in 1962 and went on to graduate from what was then West Georgia College in August of 1969.

Crine is a member of the Bainbridge Lions Club, which he had served as its president at one time. He is also a member of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church and the Knights of Columbus.