There have been countless incredible sports moments in the last decade in Southwest Florida. And without Linwood Ferguson, a lot of those would be just memories. Ferguson has shot hundreds of games at Florida Southwestern and FGCU. He moved to Florida for retirement in 2012, and at first, it was just a few games here and there, but he quickly became a staple on gamedays.”He’s been such an important piece to the athletic departments, not only here at FSW, but also with FGCU. Just for what he gives to us and the student-athletes and the exposure for our programs that we’re able to gain,” said FSW sports information director Roy Allen.”It just picked up and found they really liked attention to the sports that don’t get it,” Ferguson said. “The students liked it, the parents liked it. So I kept doing it.”When FSW restarted its athletics program in 2015, Ferguson started shooting for the Buccaneers, as well as the Eagles. He captured all the action, but sometimes he was a part of it too.”It can be exciting,” Ferguson said. “I often am sitting, like, under the basket. You get run over occasionally, but so far I’ve survived that.”Photography has always been a fun hobby for Ferguson. He said that he started in high school and did it off and on over the years, but not once did he turn it into a business.” just as a way to get away from real work,” Ferguson added. “So that’s a reason I didn’t want to take money for it. Then it becomes a job and it doesn’t become fun anymore.”So every single picture he took was as a volunteer. He just enjoyed the experience and liked knowing what he was able to give to the teams.”We don’t have big budgets for photography,” Allen said. “I can’t express what it means for our kids that are overseas and their parents aren’t able to be here at games and not able to take pictures of their kids and to be able to go onto Linwood’s page after the game and pull pictures that he’s taken of their kids that they can hang up in their house or give to their family members and have as memories forever. It’s just something that’s really important and we’re just so blessed to have had him for as long as we did.””My family is all the way across the world,” FSW softball player Sietske Drijvers said. “They’re not able to watch our games live, so being able to send these pictures and show them what we’re doing over here and the passion in the pictures really means a lot to me and my family.”Ferguson’s photos have been used on the athletic departments’ websites, as gifts for senior days, and they are on display all over the arenas. “If you go into our arena right now, you can look up and see a picture of our NBA player, Keon Ellis,” Allen said. “It’s a kind of classic picture that Linwood took after he made a big dunk in a big game that’ll be out there forever. And without Linwood, we wouldn’t have that shot. So it’s huge for us from a display factor as you walk down the halls at both FSW and FGCU. The halls are lined with photos that he’s taken for both of us. From day one of our arena, from day one of our volleyball program, from day one at the City of Palms Park when baseball and softball started back up here. Linwood was there for all of that and everything in between until now, and so he’s captured just some enormous moments for us that otherwise we wouldn’t have to be able to use for generations to come.”But after 12 years in Southwest Florida, his retirement journey is taking him and his family further up the East Coast.”To be honest, going forward, it’s going to be tough for us to replace what Linwood has given us for so many years,” Allen said.And while Ferguson might be leaving the 239, his impact will live on through the halls of arenas and beyond.”I will certainly miss shooting out here,” Ferguson said. “Once I get in and get settled, I have hundreds of boxes to unpack… maybe I’ll find a school up there that wants somebody to come out and photograph their athletes occasionally.”