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SPORTS

UH photographer leaves lasting impression

Pete Medrano, who died Tuesday, was considered a valued journalist and friend 

by Chris Elliott
The Daily Cougar

Pete Medrano's body of work as a UH sports photographer stands as a tangible testament to his love for and dedication to Cougar athletics. The most important aspect of his legacy, however, cannot be printed on a glossy sheet of paper or developed in a darkroom. 

°°You're put on the face of this Earth not to do what you can do for yourself, but to do what you can do for others,°± Micah Medrano, Pete Medrano's oldest son, said. °°When you help others out and you touch others like my dad did, those people will carry that on for years and years to come, and they might be able to take that one little thing that he did for them and do it for somebody else.°±

Pete Medrano died Tuesday of complications following a massive heart attack.

Medrano found himself in the position to affect the media institutions at UH by working for the sports information office, The Daily Cougar and the Houstonian, many times sacrificing his money and time at a moment's notice.

°°A lot of times he would cover sports for free,°± track and field and basketball sports information director Rick Poulter said. °°If we had an emergency and needed a photo for a media guide, for instance, he would drop what he was doing and take care of it. 

°°He was one of our best resources for the last four or five years. He was a good friend. He was a great friend to the University. He will surely be missed.°±

Micah Medrano was well-acquainted with his father's love of collegiate sports, in particular anything to do with UH.

°°There was one time when he was supposed to go to my son's baseball game, and he couldn't because somebody called him up and told him they needed him to cover a (UH) game because someone couldn't make it,°± he said. °°So he dropped what he was doing and went out there. He lived for that university. His life's joy was shooting sporting events for the University of Houston.°±

With an enthusiasm for photography that matched his love of sports, Pete Medrano's talent evolved right before the eyes of those who worked with him.

°°The thing about Pete is that he always wanted to be better, so he would work with people like Tom Shea, Jeff Shaw, Richard Carson and all these guys who were professional photographers to get better,°± football sports information director Chris Burkhalter said. °°You can see the difference in what he did for us when he first started helping us out in 1999-2000 to what he just did recently for the baseball team up in Norman (at the NCAA Norman Regionals in Oklahoma in June).°±

When Burkhalter heard the news of Medrano's condition days before his death, the first thing that came to his mind was the photographer's ability to coax a laugh or smile out of anyone.

°°I just think it's tragic, because he enjoyed life more than anything else,°± Burkhalter said. °°He had a passion for his family. He had a passion for the University of Houston. He had a passion for Cougar athletics, and that was every team. I just don't know if there will ever be anybody else like that.°±

No matter how valuable Pete Medrano was to the University as a photographer, pictures only tell half the story. Those closest to him knew him as something much more.

°°He was what you would call a true friend. He'd give you the shirt off of his back. He's irreplaceable,°± Pete Medrano's stepson Joe Drescher said. °°He strove to better other people's lives. That's the type of person he was.°±

Pete Medrano's younger son, Scott Medrano, recalled a conversation with his father in which he explained how at the age of 50, he was finally doing what he always wanted: traveling, going to school and shooting sporting events.

°°He was doing what made him happy, and that's what matters,°± Scott Medrano said.

Before his death, Pete Medrano had taken photos that appeared in Sports Illustrated, the Houston Chronicle, the Houston Post, The Daily Cougar, CoogFans.com and various other Web sites and sports magazines. Medrano's favorite photos were not published, but that's not a bad thing. His most prized shots show what kind of man he was when it was all said and done.

°°He's most proud of the pictures he's taken of his grandkids and his family,°± Drescher said.

Please send comments to dcsports@mail.uh.edu