Soft side to Gallo: When I arrived in Dallas in April 1997, I couldn't have been more of an outsider. I was a Southern Californian relocating from the faraway Lakers beat and knew pretty much no one in town.

Thankfully, though, Randy Galloway was my new teammate.

Don't be fooled by his uncaring tough-guy act on what he loves to call wimp-free radio. Randy has a softer, mentoring side that he doesn't like his mentees to discuss. But luckily for me, he can't help himself.

I'm not sure if he even remembers this stuff, but he was hugely instrumental in my early days covering the Mavericks in helping me get to know important people in the organization (and the city) at a time when I almost didn't know where to start. More than any other big-city newspaper columnist I had encountered to that point, Randy wanted to be involved in the newsgathering, which was a huge help for someone like me who was trying to quickly learn the Mavs' landscape and history after getting very little exposure to the franchise back in L.A. My timing was really good, too, because Randy moved to the Star-Telegram within 15 months of my arrival. He wasn't my Morning News teammate for long, but he taught me a ton about the Mavs -- and Dallas -- in that short time.

Appearing on "Galloway & Company" for the last decade-plus has naturally been an absolute blast. It's because of his show that I have the privilege of telling my kids that I have my own theme song, along with fantastic memories of correcting the old man's misguided NBA theories or frustrating him by sneaking in the odd mention of Manchester City or my favorite Israeli tennis players ... just to rile him up.

(I will also never, ever forget Rick Carlisle's first-ever visit to the GAC show, when Randy -- as only Randy can -- started one question by saying something to the effect of: "Rick, I gotta be honest ... I've heard that you're WEIRD!")

Yet, when I think of Randy Galloway, I always think first about the most distinctive voice in DFW radio giving me the warmest of Texas welcomes when I really needed the guidance. Gonna miss the show -- and you, Mr. GAC -- more than words can convey.

Influence felt far and wide: Randy Galloway doesn't remember the first time he met me. But I sure do.

I was a sophomore at TCU getting a chance to come out to write a story on the Rangers the summer before they started winning AL West titles in the mid-to-late 1990s. Really, I obtained a credential to get to see what covering a team was all about. And Randy made sure to shock my system moments after I arrived at the park for the first time.

Galloway could tell I was hesitant to ask some questions, and he let me know about it, telling me that if I ever wanted a job in this business, I couldn't do it with my mouth closed. His words had a little more hot sauce on them, but you get my point.

I never forgot it. He's right, of course. Could he have told me -- at that point a total stranger -- the same message without scaring me half to death? Sure. But tact isn't something Randy Galloway has in spades. And thank goodness for that.

For those of us who have the pleasure -- and it is that, as much as we dog him on the air -- of working with Galloway, you have a tendency to hear him way before you see him. Usually he's screaming your name and marching down the hall like Yosemite Sam, ready to argue about something you wrote or said. Then he's more than happy to blast you on and off the air. All in good fun, of course.

He's a walking mess of sorts. Trash seems to hover around him, including chards from the cigar he chews on and wads of paper he rolls up. In other words, he's not a guy you want organizing your closet. But you can be guaranteed he'd have an opinion on whether your closet needed straightening.

"He's never afraid to speak his mind," said Texas Rangers play-by-play broadcaster Eric Nadel, who credits Galloway as one of the folks who "showed him the baseball ropes" when Nadel got into the business. "He shies away from nothing. He played a major role in this market in being a really outspoken talk-show host at a time when most other guys were really not going out on a limb with extreme opinions."

Galloway's voice -- through a newspaper column that started at The Dallas Morning News and migrated west to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, and his radio show on WBAP and then ESPN Dallas 103.3 FM -- has been a part of the North Texas sports landscape for decades. And because of his radio show, many sports fans who read his column do so with Galloway's Texas twang in his or her head.

"Randy Galloway had a wide variety of venues to express a wide variety of opinions, but at heart he was an outstanding newspaper man," said veteran baseball beat writer T.R. Sullivan, who worked with Galloway for years at the Star-Telegram. "His mother Martha was a widely admired pioneer and role model for many women journalists in Texas, so Galloway was literally born into the business. As such, he never strayed far from his core values, and that was to turn out an outstanding product for the newspaper.

"More than having a big opinion, Galloway loved digging for news and coming up with scoops, not just for himself, but those who he worked with."

Galloway has enough stock with local fans that he can bury someone in the newspaper and then bring him on the radio show the next day and try to do it all over again. But he could be praising that same person the next week.

That's a prime example of the influence he's held in the North Texas sports universe for decades.

"I think Randy took a lot of joy in helping young writers and broadcasters succeed," said Matt Mosley, who has been on the air with Galloway for seven years. "He always acted about 20 years younger than he actually was, and that probably helps with longevity in a career. I'll miss him, even though he harassed me about 80 percent of the time."

I'll miss him, too. I've leaned on him for advice, and he's taught me a great deal about how this business works. He's become a friend, and for that I'm thankful. I know I can call or text him (yes, Galloway finally learned how to text recently) when I want to know his opinion on something. But that won't be the same as flipping on the radio and hearing his voice.

Thanks, Galloway, for making the drive home so enjoyable.

ED WERDER, ESPN