Friends and family gathered for a memorial service Thursday at Hinton’s City Park to remember the Summers County Bobcats’ biggest fan, Marvin Douglas “Sonar” McBride.
McBride, a journalist and sportswriter, lifetime best friend and radio announcer with Joe Blankenship — universally referred to as “a great guy who loved sports” — passed away at 66 on Feb. 23 following a long COVID-19 hospitalization and struggle with pneumonia.
He contracted the virus in November, was hospitalized shortly after and never returned from the hospital. The community of Hinton and Summers County’s feelings of loss ripple through generations in his hometown.
Sonar, or Sony as he was often called by best lifelong friends Joe Blankenship and Steve Tassos, “was something else. He brightened the day with his presence,” said Blankenship.
During the service Thursday night Blankenship and Tassos stood together on the stage of the park to share memories with those gathered, holding candles under the moonlight, to reflect on the friendships they had shared for over 50 years.
“Sonar bled orange and black for the Bobcats,” Blankenship said. “And he was loved by many.”
He also recalled their long friendship, saying that “He, Sonar and Tassos were ‘three peas in a pod.’”
Tassos said prior to the service shared details of his friendship with McBride going back to 1966.
“We met on the basketball court behind Jumping Branch as kids, both growing up in the neighborhood,” Tassos said.
As lifelong friends, “he always had my back,” Tassos continued.
The two were avid baseball fans.
Tassos lost both his dad and his best friend to the pandemic during the past several months. Sonar lived behind Tassos after returning to the area from Florida where he ran a successful newspaper outside of Orlando.
McBride was the sports editor for the Hinton News back in the 1970s where he enjoyed a loyal following of readers. His friends and sports fans eagerly awaited every “Beaming in on Sports With Sonar McBride” report over the years he worked with the local newspaper.
Younger generations will remember Sonar’s unyielding passion for covering Bobcats sports with Blankenship on the local radio station.
Mike Craft manages the radio operations for Mountainplex in Hinton and has known Sonar since school days.
“Sonar’s faithful contribution to the MountainPlex Media Sports department and WMTD public relations will always be remembered. With his background as a newspaper editor and ability to visualize his feelings often his colloquial presentation of live events would immediately lock in a familiar warm feeling in his audience. He will be remembered as an incredible asset to the Bobcat Nation,” Craft said.
Former Bobcats coaches Wayne Ryan and Chris Vicars share an appreciation for the support and meaningful coverage sports received from Sonar.
According to Ryan, “Some of the fondness for Sonar goes back to childhood. He covered every youth sports activity on a daily basis. It didn’t matter the sport, he covered it.”
Looking back, Ryan shared that Sonar’s coverage of sports was unique and memorable. Ryan still has a copy of a picture and story Sonar covered of him when he was a kid growing up in Hinton and reflected on “how cool that was” to experience McBride’s unbridled support for athletics.
Ryan coached the Bobcats for 30 years before leaving for the next stage of his career with WVSSAC, the West Virginia Secondary Schools Activities Commission.
Vicars, the assistant principal of Summers Middle School, stepped down from coaching several weeks ago.
“Sonar was always a big fan of our kids. He wanted the kids in the light and never wanted to talk about kids in a negative way,” said Vicars. “I really liked Doug. He was always nice in all the coach’s interviews. Sonar’s excitement presenting sports on the radio made listening a full experience like you were (physically) at the game.”
COVID-19 has not been an easy time, Vicars said.
“I hope we can move past this pandemic, but it will be tougher now. We were hopeful he would recover from the virus, get off the ventilator and get better,” Vicars continued.
Sonar was on a ventilator for months and suffered from pneumonia.
“We lost a big part of our community,” said Vicars. “And it will be hard to fill his shoes. Hopefully, people will carry on and remember the good times.”
Ryan said, “Sonar was always supportive of the Bobcats and our athletes, and he will forever be remembered by this community.”
Hinton Mayor Jack Scott has a lifetime of memories of Sonar, as well.
“We hate to lose Sonar. He has been a big part of our community and knew everyone. Doug’s funny personality is what I remember the most,” Scott said. “I worked with Doug at The Register-Herald, played senior league baseball for him and he even worked with my father at a local car dealership. Doug was one of a kind and will be missed by our entire community.”
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