I remember pacing the field of the Rose Bowl hours before kickoff of the 2010 BCS National Championship Game. Former assistant sports editor Spencer White and I were taking in the atmosphere in Southern California – the 75-degree January weather, the old bleachers surrounding us that hosted decades of tradition, and the perfectly painted and maintained field that only a select few get to place under their feet.

“Isn’t it crazy,” Spencer said to me after minutes of awed silence. “We’re 20 and 21 years old, and our careers have already peaked. We’ll probably never do anything this cool again.”

Although I hope he’s wrong, it doesn’t get much better than that day in Pasadena. The days leading up to the game included locker room access after a Los Angeles Lakers game, sitting by the swimming pool next to Joe Schad and playing on an ice pool table right after Pat Forde.

I mean, how many college journalists even get to cover big-time college football, much less experience all of the festivities of a national championship game? On top of that, I also lucked into covering the Alabama gymnastics team’s national championship a couple of weeks ago, becoming the first person in The Crimson White’s 117-year history to cover national championship teams in two different sports.

I guess my first thank you, then, is to the Alabama football and gymnastics teams, for winning it all the years that I was the sports editor here.

In my four years at the paper and two years as the sports editor, I have been extremely fortunate, and I feel like my experiences have been more wonderful and complete than anyone’s. But trust me when I say I haven’t forgotten how I got here and everyone who helped me along the way.

I want to thank my high school journalism teacher at Bob Jones High, Mrs. Powell, for getting me started, teaching me the basics and helping me realize sports journalism is what I want to do for the rest of my life.

Thank you Dan Sellers, my first sports editor here at The Crimson White, for recognizing my potential and giving me a chance to move up the food chain.

Thank you to all of my journalism professors at the University for their knowledge and support, especially Rick Bragg, who taught me how to write with color and grace.

Thank you to all of my editors at The Crimson White and at my various internships for your guidance and constructive criticism, especially the Orlando Sentinel’s Steve Ruiz, who taught me how to report and write more efficiently and helped me understand that I still have a huge window for improvement.

Thank you to everyone who worked under me in The Crimson White sports department the last two years, especially assistant sports editors Spencer White, Laura Owens and Tony Tsoukalas. Thank you for all your hard work and dedication to this newspaper.

Thank you Brandee Easter, Emily Johnson and Chris Jackson, for helping make our GameDay section engaging, look professional and operate smoothly.

A thank you also goes to videographer Daniel Roth, for putting up with me during football videos and helping me out with other various projects throughout this year.

Finally, but definitely not least importantly, I want to thank Victor Luckerson for giving me a second chance when he didn’t have to.

My four years here have been filled with great memories, great people and great relationships that I will never forget. I will always miss my time at The Crimson White. I hope those who come after me understand how fortunate they are and never take this experience for granted.

Jason Galloway was the sports editor of The Crimson White for the 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 school years.