NBC4 Washington reporter Tommy McFly has been the chief temporary custodian of local broadcasting legend Pat Collins’ famous “snow stick” since 2024. McFly did not set up at Connecticut Avenue and Fessenden Street, Northwest—the spiritual home of the stick—to report on this weekend’s storm on Sunday. Instead, he went to the National Mall, where a massive snowball fight had been scheduled. McFly reckoned the stick could “help ward off flying snowballs” if necessary.
The fight, alas, got canceled, because organizers said the snow wasn’t the right type. But McFly’s day on the Mall yielded other vignettes of local life, from the overachievers who wouldn’t let six inches of snow stop them from running to whatever the heck you call this:
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The Mall was a “good spot to make friends,” says McFly, who also ran into someone he says was a USA biathlon coach traversing the area via skis with a friend. McFly has spent a great deal of time outdoors in the cold over the past weeks, having recently returned from Lake Placid, where he tried several Olympic sports, including Alpine skiing.
McFly’s winter clothing strategy for days like Sunday? Thin winter socks, ankle-length steel-toe boots, long johns and sweat pants under ski pants, a long john shirt, a long sleeve hoodie that plugs NBC’s upcoming coverage of the Winter Olympics in Italy, and a station jacket. He wore two hats.
But what about the stick, Tommy? Was it difficult to force it through the thickly glazed snow to measure how much we got? That layer of ice packed down the snow, the Scranton, Pennsylvania, native says, reducing the measurement from almost six inches at the start of the day to four point something later on. Not a problem: “We, of course, love the number four around here.” McFly is also in charge of this year’s Snow Stick Challenge, which rewards viewers with a replica snow stick (presumably not legal for professional use) and this year asked participants to record their personal snow games as a tribute to the Olympics. They’ve had some good entries, McFly says, including a family in North Bethesda who made a bobsled run and a couple who enjoyed the winter landscape via their hot tub (water depth measurement: 29 bubbling inches). The station will announce a winner Wednesday.
In McFly’s package about the runners he saw on the Mall, he wondered aloud whether there was anything he was committed to enough to do on such a cold day. What about reporting, Tommy, we asked him? You were out there bringing snowy scenes to the DC area when most of us were home trying to find our instant hot chocolate packets in the deepest recesses of our pantries. “I honestly didn’t think of it that way,” he says. Moments after our call ended, he called back to make sure we knew he was “merely the custodian, merely the keeper” of Collins’ vaunted stick. We hear you, Tommy, but we also think that stick may be big enough for two names one day in the future.
Andrew Beaujon joined Washingtonian in late 2014. He was previously with the Poynter Institute, TBD.com, and Washington City Paper. He lives in Del Ray.
