I don’t remember the first time I met Doug Thornton.
But I do remember our first extended conversation.
It was on a rainy day in 1990 sitting in a car outside a then-decrepit Tad Gormley Stadium as Thornton, then part of the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation, explained how, despite the naysayers, the $6 million needed to renovate the stadium for the 1992 Olympic Track & Field Trials, would be raised and the project would be completed on time.
The price tag actually wound up at $8 million, but no matter.
From that time a quarter century ago, it was obvious Doug Thornton was a person who knew how to bring people together to get things done — a trait that’s in as much short supply then as now.