A columnist I admired in my early days in journalism was Hal Boyle, who wrote about 7,000 newspaper columns during a long career. He died in 1974 at the age of 64.

Though he reported from the front lines during World War II, he didn’t limit his topics to war stories: Everything was fair game for the Associated Press writer, who often opened with, “Things a columnist wouldn’t know if he didn’t open his mail.”

Can we apply that to today’s mail? Well yes, if you want to learn about credit card offers or solicitations for funds from a zillion charities. A close friend once told me that giving to a charity is “like feeding pigeons.”

Let me explain: When I was an editorial assistant for a weekly newspaper called the Naperville (Ill.) Sun, I’d walk through a huge park on the way to work each morning. Once I must have dropped part of my breakfast roll, whereupon a couple of pigeons joined in the cleanup duties. I shared some more, and over several days, the word must have gotten around, and soon I feared I’d become like one of the statues in the park, a place for pigeons to leave their constant droppings.

Though I’m a contribution softie, I’m aware that it seems one donation spawns requests from a dozen more.

But we’re drifting — Hal Boyle style — away from the “Things a columnist wouldn’t know . . .”

My learning curve changed Sunday morning as I glanced at the list of the weekend’s high school football scores. The list might not have been complete, nor my conclusions scientific or even credible, as I simply scanned the scores of 32 games.

What struck me was the number of shutouts — slaughters, if you will — in which the winner scored at least 50 points. What a bunch of mismatches, I thought. How would any team survive intact after a ravaging that could have included seven touchdowns, or 17 field goals, or 25 safeties?

That’s when I called former Robertson High School coach and current radio sports announcer, Art Abreu, to inquire about the 50-point, or “mercy rule,” that I didn’t quite understand.

“How can so many teams score exactly 50 points?” I asked. Abreu said, “There’s a multitude of ways,” he said, as he began to list the various combinations. He said that “any final score is possible,” except for 1 point.

Fair enough. I then rattled off some hastily accumulated figures regarding the weekend’s scores:

• In the 13 state games where the losing team failed to score, the average margin of victory for the winner was almost 43.
• Twelve teams scored 50 or more points.
• The closest game was 21-20, Texico over Tucumcari.
• For all listed weekend games, the average margin of victory was 34 points.
• Two teams, Animas and Escalante, scored at least 70 points.

Abreu said he’d thought I’d phoned him, as others must have, to ask him to explain the 73 points Animas scored against the School for the Deaf, or Escalante’s 70 to 6 win over Shiprock.

The rule, as I understand it, calls for the game to end when one high school team scores 50 points. How then, did Animas sneak in an extra 23 or Escalante get another 20? Well, Abreu explained, the teams must finish the first half, regardless of the score, so apparently Animas and Escalante scored all of their points by halftime.

And that, dear readers, was “something a columnist wouldn’t know.”

There’s also a rule that once a team leads by 35 or more points, the game clock keeps running, even during time outs. If the trailing team reduces that margin, then the clock runs as before.

I also asked, “Why do teams schedule games in which they know they’ll be in trouble shortly after the playing of ‘The National Anthem’?” Clearly, a spanking of the nature of the Escalante and Animas games, or the 50 to 0 beating Las Cruces gave Alamogordo, or the identical scores registered by Navajo Prep over Newcomb doesn’t make the losing team want to invite the victors over for homecoming next year. Abreu’s explanation is simply that schools belong in districts and don’t have much flexibility in schedule. Geography and school population form districts and conferences.

Abreu cited cases in which colleges — with much more flexibility — might agree to travel to stadia of powerhouse teams, get eviscerated and humiliated, but then return home with a pot full of money (the visiting team’s share), for the honor of getting trounced. Abreu mentioned the emotional and physical hurts some players might suffer in being sacrificed that way.

Several years ago, a Highlands linebacker, who made the starting team as a freshman, said that in some games, when one team is clearly in control, all that remains for the losing team is to incur injury.

• • •

Those of us who couldn’t make it to Highlands’ homecoming game Saturday at Perkins Stadium might have tuned in to SAM-FM radio, 96.7 radio to catch Art Abreu at the mike. Alas, we live in Camp Luna, a distance from the local station, and received much static and even interference from another station close on the dial.

Wouldn’t it be great if SAM’s waves were able to provide a clear, strong signal to places outside the city limits?