Carter began his daily newspaper career with the
Savannah Morning News in 1974, but left after a few months to return to
Texas. He wrote for the
Corpus Christi Caller-Times from 1975 to 1979, covering mostly high-school athletics. In 1976, he won the Texas Headliners Award for an account of a record-shattering minor-league baseball game. In 1979, he moved to
The Daily Oklahoman as a college reporter and columnist. He covered
Jimmy Johnson's first few months as football coach at
Oklahoma State University, but was moved to the
University of Oklahoma beat shortly before the start of the 1979 season. After three years, Carter returned to his hometown and joined the sports staff of the
Houston Chronicle, originally as the beat writer for
Southwest Conference athletics. In 1983, Carter was the first to report
Clyde Drexler's decision to leave the
University of Houston and enter the
National Basketball Association draft as a junior. Carter's work at the
Chronicle also began a long connection with
Texas A&M athletics. As a college writer for three newspapers, Carter covered A&M sports for most of the 21-year span in which
Jackie Sherrill and then
R.C. Slocum served as the school's head football coach. Carter was honored by the Associated Press Sports Editors in 1986 for his in-depth coverage of the circumstances that led to the resignation of
University of Texas football coach
Fred Akers. In 1988, with A&M facing the threat of additional NCAA sanctions because of football rules violations under Sherrill, Carter was among the most vocal critics of the Aggies' coach. In his
Chronicle column, Carter called for Sherrill's resignation. A few weeks later, A&M officials forced Sherrill to quit. In 1990, Carter accepted an offer to jump to the
Chronicles rival, the
Houston Post. At the
Post, Carter covered college athletics for one year before taking over as beat reporter on the
Houston Oilers for two years. In 1993, with the
Post fighting a losing battle to compete with the
Chronicle, Carter left the newspaper for a high-school teaching position. In 1995, the
Chronicle bought the
Posts assets and folded the paper. In 1994, with the
Big 12 Conference about to begin operations, Carter accepted an offer to cover
Texas A&M for
The Dallas Morning News. In 2002, he was the first to report the firing of Slocum, who in his 14 seasons had won more games than any football coach in A&M history. Eager to move into an editor's role, he joined the
Express-News in 2003 as deputy sports editor. ==References==