Graham Watson's farewell: It's been real Dr. Saturday, I'm out

This is my last post for Dr. Saturday.

It’s weird to type that. After all, it’s been nearly six years since The Dagger’s Jeff Eisenberg invited me to join the Yahoo Sports team and now here I am, calling it quits.

I still remember that first post. It was a trick-shot challenge between BYU star guard Jimmer Fredette and up-and-coming (and ultimate BYU flop) quarterback Jake Heaps. Somehow that post was enough to get me in the door and I never left.

I’ve run Dr. Saturday for five years and in that time I’ve written thousands of posts. Yeah, thousands. It’s hard to remember all the posts themselves, but I do remember some of the moments that accompanied them. Like calling former Deadspin editor Tommy Craggs in the middle of the night and asking him if their Manti Te’o post was for real (and him telling me there was even more they couldn’t verify). There was the time I stood on the field and watched my alma mater Missouri play in its first-ever SEC game — and promptly get crushed by Georgia. Or watching Yahoo columnist Dan Wetzel contemplate scaling a 10-foot wall to get an interview with Katherine Webb, the then-girlfriend of Alabama quarterback AJ McCarron, following Alabama’s 2013 BCS National Championship (he didn’t do it because he knew I’d post a photo on social media). I covered a World Cup in Rio and watched a media member ask for Cesc Fabregas’ game-worn shorts. Later a horde of Chilean fans stormed the media center and I stood on top of a table and feared for the safety of all involved.

In 2015, on a whim, I flew to Tucson to investigate a story on a former Arizona baseball player named Chris Moon. After a day of tears and gut-wrenching interviews, I wrote the story about a young man who left a baseball scholarship to serve his country and never came home. As difficult as the story was to write, I was able to write a story that hadn’t previously been told. In the end, it helped Chris’ high school earn enough donations to erect a statue in his honor.

I could go on and on, but I think you all get the drift. My time at Yahoo was fun, challenging, inspiring, and at times, a little sad. But I wouldn’t trade the moments or the posts for anything. It’s been a fantastic time in my career.

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And don’t worry, Dr. Saturday won’t be changing much. Nick Bromberg and Sam Cooper, two of the very best teammates a girl could have, will continue to keep readers entertained with poignant posts, witty banter and all the GIFs anyone could want (as long as the ACC doesn’t keep ratting DS out to Twitter for copyright infringement).

As for me, well, I’m heading to San Antonio. I’m packing up my family of five and going to be the executive producer of the website for the San Antonio Express-News. I’m excited to get back to my newspaper roots while applying the digital knowledge I’ve leaned in the past decade. It’s a new challenge and a chance to shape a newspaper website from the ground up. If I can make it half as successful as Dr. Saturday has become — something I could have never foreseen — I’ll consider myself very lucky.

With that said, I want to thank all the loyal readers who stood by Dr. Saturday while it tried to find its direction and those who kept coming back. You’re the reason the Dr. Saturday team works ridiculous hours and writes thousands of posts.

I’ll cherish the time always.

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Graham Watson is the editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at dr.saturday@ymail.com or follow her on Twitter! Follow @YahooDrSaturday