Columnists shuffle: Harvey says hello in Houston; Knapp says good-bye in SF

Randy Harvey wrote his first piece as the new columnist for the Houston Chronicle. The Texas native is coming back to his roots.

He writes:

There’s no such thing as a former Texan.

I  understand the culture, which not everyone does. While at the Los  Angeles Times, I was working last fall on a business deal involving  sports coverage with a kind, smart man from Switzerland. Over lunch one  day, we began talking about college football, which means about as much  to the Swiss as schwingen does to us.

I quickly realized  Jean-Francois had never heard of the Sooners and Longhorns. I explained  the rivalry to him as best I could as he made mental notes. A couple of  days later, he ran into my office excitedly, pointed to the television  and shouted something about the Sooners and Longhorns.

As he stood  by proudly, I turned on the television to find a game between Texas  A&M and Oklahoma State. One small step for mankind.

Meanwhile, Gwen Knapp is leaving the San Francisco Chronicle. She is joining the new Sports on Earth site.

Knapp writes:

The 49ers‘ chances of winning the next Super Bowl have just improved. They claimed their last Lombardi Trophy only months before I arrived to write a sports column in July 1995. Now, on nearly the same date 17 years after I appeared in a San Francisco newspaper, I am going to work for a website called Sports on Earth, due to launch in seven weeks.

The past 17 years saw the Raiders‘ return to Oakland; Steve Mariucci‘s Midwestern goofiness; a merger of The Chronicle and old Examiner; “Moneyball”; Mike Singletary; Tim Lincecum; trips to court with Barry Bonds and Bill Romanowski; trips to the Final Four with Jamila Wideman, Candice Wiggins, Jayne Appeland Nneka Ogwumike; a reefer-scented World Series parade; and the 49ers’ renaissance – but not a Super Bowl celebration, which had become as constant as fog on the Fourth of July in the years before my arrival.

I’m not taking responsibility, mind you. I didn’t introduce Eddie DeBartolo Jr. to the governor of Louisiana, or hire Terry Donahue. But I believe in jinxes just enough to suggest that the mayor’s office stock up on confetti for February.