Sid Salter, currently Mississippi State University’s chief communications officer, sat in the lobby of the Starkville Book Mart last Saturday morning signing copies of the new edition of his first book, “Jack Cristil – The Voice of the MSU Bulldogs.” 
The book, which was initially released in 2011, was Salter’s first assignment for MSU. Salter, along with MSU President Mark Keenum and a few others, wanted to write a book detailing Jack Cristil’s life and career as MSU’s premiere play-by-play sports announcer.  The University received 100 percent of the profits from the original hardback edition, and will receive 20 percent of the royalties form the re-released edition. All of the profits MSU has received have been funneled into establishing an endowed journalism scholarship in Cristil’s name. 
Cristil died in 2014, and did not retire from MSU until 2011, three years before his death. Over his 58 year career, Salter said Cristil was the best of the best of the play-by-play announcers, and Cristil’s office was filled with proof in the form of numerous awards and trophies.  
“What people really liked about him was he called it like he saw it,” Salter said. 
At this time, Salter said the Jacob S. ‘Jack’ Cristil Journalism Scholarship has yet to be awarded, as the proceeds from the book have yet to reach the minimum requirement to become a fully endowed scholarship, which requires about $200,000. 
Salter said currently the university has received about $170,00 from the sales’ royalties, and he hopes the paperback re-release, which has added content and will be available to a larger market, will allow the scholarship to meet its goal. 
Once the scholarship is endowed, the lump sum is preserved by the MSU Foundation and the principal interest generated annually by the sum will be awarded to students to help pay for a broadcast journalism degree at MSU. 
“I think we have a shot to do something really meaningful,” Salter said. “I’m really hopeful this will benefit kids going into broadcast.”
In 2011, Salter joined the MSU faculty as a Journalist in Residence. Soon, he was approached with a request to write a book about MSU’s famous Sports Announcer. At this point in his career, Salter said he had never written more than a few chapters of a book.
“I was asked if I could write a book in six months and like a fool I said yes,” Salter said.
Salter rose to the occasion, however, and turned in his first book assignment by deadline. Salter said when you are doing something you love, it is not stressful. 
“I grew up listening to (Cristil) with my father. Jack was a rock star to me.” Salter said. “I had to get over the ‘I’m not worthy’ part of myself. He was really approachable.”
With a tight deadline, Salter said while he was writing the book he would travel to Cristil’s home in Tupelo on a weekly bases for a series of interviews that would last for hours. 
Over those meetings, Salter said he got to know Cristil and his family well. 
“I wouldn’t trade anything for all the time I got to spend with him sitting at his kitchen table in Tupelo,” Salter said.
Salter said he tried to make the book as scholarly as possible, having pulled hundreds of pages of research, some of which he said never made it into print. 
Despite having been a prominent public figure for most of his life, Salter said Cristil liked to keep his work and his private life separate. At the start of the interview process, he said Cristil was resistant to the idea of having a book written about him, and only changed his mind once he learned it would go toward founding a journalism scholarship. 
The newest edition of “Jack Cristil – The Voice of the MSU Bulldogs” is in paperback, the new edition having several photographs unavailable in the original hardback book.  Salter said the main element of the re-release was the new epilogue, which tells the story of the final two years of Cristil’s life after he retired from MSU.