Meet The Sports Writers

[Bill Burgess]

Louis J. Smith---AKA Lou Smith

Born: May 24, 1903
Died: March 21, 1979, Cincinnati, OH, age 71,---d. Good Samaritan Hospital.

Cincinnati Enquirer sports editor;
President of Baseball Writers Association of America, 1952.

----------------------------Sporting News' obituary, April 7, 1979, pp. 71, column 5.


1947-48: Lou Smith, Cincinnati Mayor Albert Cash, Cincinnati Reds' manager, Johnny Neun.--------------------------------1960: Pie Traynor / Lou Smith.

[Bill Burgess]

Franklin Wetheriel Yeutter

Born: Februay 10, 1889, Atlantic City, NJ
Died: February 21, 1963, Philadelphia, PA, age 74---d. heart attack

Philadelphia sports writer; Jewish
Philadelphia Bulletin;
Lived in Philly since childhood,
Philadelphia Bulletin police reporter, conducted a daily news progream for Bulletin over WFI.
Transferred to sports in mid-1930's.
WWII Army captain,
Covered Phillies in spring training, pennatnt races, represented Bulletin in World Series.

Father: Julius C., born Penn. around 1864, Highway inspecter; Mother: Rebecca, born Penn. around 1867.

Sporting News' obituary, March 9, 1963, pp. 6.---Hartford Courant obituary, February 23, 1963, pp. 16A.

1942: Sports writers, L-R: Red Smith (Philadelphia Record), Irving Lisager (Chicago News), Howard Roberts (Chicago News),
Al Horiwitz (Philadelphia Record), Frank Yeutter (Philadelphia Bulletin), Samuel Goldwyn (MGM movie studio),
Herb Simons (Chicago Times), Babe Ruth, Gary Cooper (actor), Stan Baumgartner (Philadelphia Inquirer), Christy Walsh.
Kneeling: Herb Schulte (Chicago News), Jimmy Corcoran (Chicago Herald American).

[Bill Burgess]

Harold Lamson Middlesworth---AKA Hal Middlesworth

Born: September 19, 1909, Cowden, IL
Died: April 24, 1984, Detroit, MI, age 74,---d. cancer

Detroit sports writer:
Graduated Eastern Illinois (Charleston, IL),
El Paso World News
The Daily Oklahoman (Oklahoma City, OK), sports writer, 1939 - 1950
Washington Times-Herald, Spring, 1951 - September 26, 1951
Detroit Free Press, sports writer, September 26, 1951 - November 30, 1960
Detroit Tigers' PR director, November 30, 1960 - 1979
Editor of Detroit Tigers' Official Yearbooks, at least 1968 to 1981.
Sporting News' correspondent

Father: Lloyd; Mother: Mary Edna Lamson, born 1889, Cowden, IL, died March 5, 1983, Normal, IL; Wife: Thelma Francis Riley. His middle name was his mother's maiden name.

Former Sports Editor Middlesworth, 74, Dies
Daily Oklahoman obituary - Wednesday, April 25, 1984
Hal Middlesworth , former sports editor of The Oklahoman and public relations director for the Detroit Tigers for nearly 20 years, died Tuesday at the Detroit Osteopathic Hospital after a lengthy battle with cancer. He was 74.

Middlesworth joined the staff of The Oklahoman in 1939 and succeeded the late Bus Ham as sports editor in the early 1940s. He left The Oklahoman in 1950, later serving as sports editor of the Washington Times-Herald.

He was a sportswriter for the Detroit Free Press before joining the Tigers in 1960. While in Oklahoma City, Middlesworth also worked as a sportscaster for WKY Radio and WKY-TV. He was active in promoting the All-College Basketball Tournament and the Golden Gloves.

Middlesworth retired from the Tigers in 1979, but continued to edit the club's yearbook for the next two years.

He was born Sept. 19, 1909 at Cowden, Ill., and was a graduate of Eastern Illinois. He worked on the El Paso World-News and Herald-Post before coming to Oklahoma City.

Middlesworth is survived by his widow, Thelma, and his son, Mike. Funeral arrangements were incomplete.

Atlanta Daily World death article, May 22, 1984, pp. 5.------------------------------------------------------------------------Sporting News' obituary, May 7, 1984, pp. 44.


--------------------------November 15, 1955--------------------------------November 18, 1960.

[Bill Burgess]

Nicholas Stetwegen Flatley---AKA Nick Flatley---middle name found in International Genealogical Index of familysearch.org

Born: September 7, 1886, South Boston, MA
Died: October 13, 1930, Boston, MA, age 44,---d. the O'Connell House, St. Elizabeth's Hospital (Boston, MA) after several months of illness from heart disease.

Boston sports writer;
Sporting News correspondent
Graduated Boston College, 1907
Boston Journal,
Baseball Magazine, Associate editor, 1910
Boston American sports writer, 1914 - 1928, sports editor around 1917.

Father: Thomas J.; Mother: Katherine Flaherty


Hartford Courant obituary-----------------August 2, 1930: Nick Flatley eating watermelon with Babe Ruth, at Nick's house, in Nantasket, Mass.
October 14, 1930, pp. 14.

[Bill Burgess]

Robert Liston Burnes

Born: July 14, 1914, St. Louis, MO
Died: July 11, 1995, St. Louis, MO, age 80,---d. heart attack. Buried: Catholic Resurrection Cemetery, Affton, MO

St. Louis sports writer / editor;
Graduated Christian Brothers College High School (St. Louis, MO), 1931
Graduated St. Louis University, 1935
St. Louis Globe-Democrat, sports writer, August 27, 1935; Appointed sports editor, February 2, 1943; promoted Executive sports editor, January, 1966 - 1986. (His column, entitled, "The Benchwarmer" was began in October, 1946.
KMOX radio host, 1953 - 1992

Father: Brian Paul Burnes, born St. Louis, MO, August 25, 1887, died St. Louis, Mo, January 20, 1959; Mother: Bernadine M. Liston, born St. Louis, MO, September, 1891, died January 14, 1960, St. Louis, MO; Wife: Adele Daut, born July 9, 1915, died St. Louis, MO, December 7, 2002. Bob's middle name, Liston, was his mother's maiden name.

Bob Burnes, was a well-known sports editor for the Globe-Democrat and one of the original members of the St. Louis Soccer Hall of Fame. When he passed away the Executive Board chose to create an award in his honor.

This award is presented every year at the Annual Soccer Hall of Fame Banquet to someone who has shown outstanding support for the sport of Soccer in the St. Louis area whether it be as a player, coach or administrator.

Robert Liston Burnes was born in St. Louis July 14, 1914, graduated from Christian Brothers College High School (St. Louis, MO) in 1931, and St. Louis University in 1935. He began working in the Sports Department of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat on August 27, 1935, and remained there until the Globe folded in October, 1986. He was named Sports Editor on February 2, 1943 and Executive Sports Editor in January of 1966.

Bob started his famous “Benchwarmer” column in October 1946 and it appeared daily for 40 years, and hosted a sports program and “Sports Open Line” on KMOX for 39 years. He was known as a kind individual who loved his family, his God, and his chosen profession, in that order. He was revered and respected by all who came his way, whether it was the unknown man on the street, the little child seeking autographs, the many sports stars he traveled with, or the CEO’s of the large corporations. He had time for them all and he rarely forgot a name.

He was a man of impeccable energy, churning out his column on an old manual typewriter at home, stuffing the copy in his pocket, heading to the office and entering it into the computer to be printed. Then he would always take time to visit with members of the staff before rushing off to a speaking engagement, radio station, or a meeting with one of the many organizations gathering to raise funds for the less fortunate.

Bob had several heartbreaks through the years: the death of his father, Brian P. Burnes in a robbery in 1959, the closing of the Globe-Democrat in 1986, his dismissal by KMOX in 1992. But the one tragedy he never recovered from was the loss of his daughter, Cathie, who died of an aneurysm. Cathie followed her Dad as a budding sportswriter for the Post-Dispatch. Still Bob never wavered. He took the time to recognize the many friends, present and former co-workers who had shown so much support for Bob and his dear wife, Adele, in their time of sorrow.

Bob Burnes was the author of two published books, “Fifty Golden Years of Sports” in 1950 and the “Big Red, The Story of the Football Cardinals” in 1975. He contributed articles for such chronicles as The Sporting News, Baseball Digest, Sport Magazine, The St. Louis Review, and even The Saturday Evening Post. He served on the President’s Council of St. Louis University, was a 50 year member of the Baseball Writers Association of America, the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame, and the organization closest to his heart – The St. Louis Soccer Hall of Fame (formerly the Old Time Soccer Hall of Fame) in which he was a charter member and director since it’s formation in 1971. Bob is sorely missed by the many thousands of lives he touched in all walks of life.

Bob Burnes, known as "The Benchwarmer," wrote for the St. Louis Globe-Democrat newspaper for 51 years (1945-1986). Burnes wrote over 15,000 articles for his sports column (also known as "The Benchwarmer") during that time. He covered the St. Louis Browns and went on to become the paper's sports editor. He premiered on KMOX radio in 1953 and became the first host of their Sports Open Line program. (bio by: Connie Nisinger)

Authored:
50 Golden Years of Sports, 1948
Big Red: Story of the Football Cardinals, 1975

Saint Louis University Class of 1935-------------------------------Catholic Resurrection Cemetery, Affton (St. Louis County), MO.


Robert Burnes, J. Ed Wray, Sid Keener.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------May 17, 1961: Taylor Spink, Robert Burnes, Gene Autry.

[Bill Burgess]

Thomas Francis Devine---AKA Tommy Devine

Born: May 3, 1910, Maysville, KY
Died: June 8, 1968, Detroit, MI, age 57,---d. complications following surgery.

Detroit sports writer;
Graduated University of Dayton,
Columbus Citizen, 1940 - March 1, 1943
United Press bureau, sports editor; Chicago office, March 1, 1942 - 1946
Detroit Free Press sports writer, 1947 - January, 1959
Covered Michigan sports, 1946 - 1957), respected college football analyst; Covered 1947/1948 national college football champions;
Army induction, November 15, 1943.
Sporting News correspondent
Miami News sports editor around November, 1959 - July, 1962.
Detroit Race Course (Livonia, MI), publicity director, 1964 - 1968, death.

Married: Lois Ernestine Albert in August, 1941.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Sporting News' obituary, June 22, 1968, pp. 46.

[Bill Burgess]

Louis Niss---AKA Lou Niss

Born: October 5, 1903, Minsk, Russia
Died: April 30, 1987, Eastchester, NY, age 82

Brooklyn / New York sports writer:
Brooklyn Times-Union, 1923-37
Brooklyn Eagle, assistant sports editor, 1937-1941, sports editor, 1941-1955.
New York Mets, Public Relations, 1960 - 1962, Traveling Secretery, 1962 - 1980.
Dave Anderson of the New York Times was one of the reporters he trained.

The last sports editor of the Brooklyn Eagle, Louis Niss was also the first front-office employee hired by the Mets, in 1960. Niss began his newspaper career in 1923 wirh the Brooklyn Times and worked his way through a series of mergers that ultimately reduced four Brooklyn dailies to zero. The Times absorbed the Standard Union to become the Times Union and then, in 1937, the paper was sold to the Eagle. In 1941, Niss became the Eagle sports editor, succeeding Jimmy Wood. (The other principal Brooklyn daily, the Citizen, closed in 1947.) When the Eagle folded in 1955 during a strike, Niss did publicity for Yonkers Raceway for three years (1955-58) and then joined Branch Rickey’s projected third major league, the Continental League. When the league forced expansion in the A.L. and N.L., Niss was hired by the Mets, initially as a publicist. Starting in 1962, however, Niss spent 19 seasons (through 1980) as the team’s traveling secretary. While with the Eagle, he served as chairman of the B.B.W.A.A. Brooklyn chapter several times, the first in 1944-45.

------------------------------------------------------------New York Times' obituary, May 1, 1987, pp. D21.

[Bill Burgess]

Harold Cooper Burr

Born: June 11, 1884, Orange, NJ
Died: July 6, 1955, New York City, NY, age 71

Brooklyn sports writer;
Wall St. broker's clerk.
Reviewed books for New York World, 1920
Brooklyn Eagle sports writer, 1920 - 1935, 1944 - 1954, covered Dodgers,
New York Evening Post, traveled w/Yankees, 1935 - 1944
New York Daily Mirror, ? - 1944, Sporting News' correspondent.

Sporting News' obituary, July 13, 1955, pp. 48.-------------------------New York Times' obituary, July 7, 1955, pp. 27.

[Bill Burgess]

Peter Joseph O'Donnell

Born: September 13, 1905, Louisville, KY
Died: October 16, 1973, Louisville, KY, age 68---d. heart attack

Louisville / Chicago sports writer/editor;
Louisville Herald-Post, sports editor, (1923 - 1937?)
Chicago Herald-Examiner, sports writer, (1937? - 1941?)
Chicago Sun, sports copy desk editor, (1941 - 1948)
Left newspaper business late 1940's,
General Manager for some race tracks, including Lincoln Fields (1948-1955), Ascot Park (1955-1968?), Latonia (early 1960 - late 1960's) & Miles Park (1956 - 1965?).

May 3, 1947, right after Jet Pilot won the Kentucky Derby. My Dad, Pete O'Donnell, was the only sports reporter to correctly pick that race 1-2-3-4-5.

----------------------1950--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Sporting News' obituary,
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------November 3, 1973, pp. 7, column 4.------Washington Post obituary, October 17, 1973, pp. E2.

[Bill Burgess]

Edmund Power Cunningham

Born: February 11, 1888, Worcester, Massachusetts
Died: March 30, 1969, Boston, MA, age 80,---d. at University Hospital in Boston, MA.

Boston sports writer;
Holy Cross College (Brookline, MA),
Worcester Telegram, 1912
Rochester Railway Flagman, (June 5, 1917 WWI Civilian Draft Registration)
Boston Herald, sports writer, 1917-23
Boston Traveler, sports editor, 1923 - July 8, 1926
Boston Braves' secretary, July 8, 1926 - August 16, 1935

Father: Peter, born MA in April, 1857, was telegrapher in 1900; Mother: Mary A., born MA, August, 1861.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1932--------Sporting News' obituary, April 19, 1969, pp. 44.


1926-35: Fred Mitchell (Braves' business manager), Judge Emil Fuches (Braves' owner), Ed Cunningham (Braves' Secretary)

[Bill Burgess]

Oscar Charles Reichow

Born: January 31, 1889, Chicago, IL
Died: July 8, 1950, Hollywood, CA, age 61,---d. in a Hollywood hospital of an internal disorder. Had entered hospital July 2 for surgery.

Chicago sports writer;
Chicago Daily News; reporter, became its featured writer;

Associated with Cubs, traveling with them. Minor league club official & sports announcer, credited with influencing Judge Landis into taking job as baseball's 1st commissioner. Around 1927, became announcer for LA Angels, in Pacific Coast League. Before that was business manager of Los Angeles Angels, owned by Wrigley.

Sporting News' obituary, July 19, 1950, pp. 20.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------New York Times' obituary, Juloy 9, 1950, pp. 69.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------His entry in Who's Who in Major League Baseball, edited by Harold (Speed) Johnson, 1933, pp. 520.

Oscar Reichow (left) general manager of the Los Angeles "Angels" ball club of the Pacific Coast League, and his assistant and team captain Jack Lelivelt, as they came on the field with their team for the first time at Santa Monica's new municipal ballpark to begin official spring training. Some 40 players turned out. The new training camp is at Santa Monica beach, Los Angeles' favorite seaside resort, some 10 miles west of Hollywood and 15 miles from downtown Los Angeles.


------------------------------2 photos from 1908.

[TRfromBR]

Austen Randolph Lake

Born: May 23, 1895, Buffalo, NY
Died: June 9, 1964, Quincy, MA, age 69---d. heart attack at home.

Boston sports writer;
Graduated Phelps Exeter Academy (Exeter, NH) / Lafayette College (Easton, PA),
Boston Transcript, 1923-1933
Boston Record American (1933-46), War corresponent during WWII for Boston American
Boston Evening American (April, 1947-July, 1959)
Boston Sunday Advertiser (June, 1961-64)

New York Times' obituary, June 13, 1964, pp. 23.--------------Sporting News' obituary, June 27, 1964, pp. 40. -----Austen lights a Cuban stoggie for Babe Ruth, probably around 1945.


December 15, 1947: Austen Lake, Paul Hynes, Sy Hyde.

[Bill Burgess]

Joseph Leo Coughlin---AKA Roundy Coughlin

Born: September 18, 1889, Madison, WI
Died: December 9, 1971, Ocomomowoc, WI, age 82, d.---nursing home.

Wisconsin sports writer/columnist
Captal Times (WI), 1921 - 1924
Wisconsin State Journal (Madison, WI), 1925 - January, 1971. His column, 'Roundy Says', was quite famous, and loved.

Roundy started on the Capital Times in 1921, and switched to the Wisconsin State Journal in 1925, located in Madison. Roundy was a big Irishman, 200 lbs. Roundy retired in January, 1971, and moved from his long-time home in Madison to a nursing home in Ocomomowoc, WI.

Authored:
The Hand-Painted Chop Suey: Translated from the King's English to the Queen's Taste, 1933

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Men's Bowling tournament officials:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------L-R: Lee Edwards, William N. Blu, Ray Farness, Roundy Coughlin, John Dillon, Bob Aspinwall, and Earl Haase.

Chicago Tribune obituary, December 11, 1971, pp. A3.------------------------------------------------Sporting News' obituary, December 25, 1971, pp. 46.

---------------March, 1970.

[Bill Burgess]

Robert Richard Addie---AKA Bob Addie

Born: February 6, 1910,
Died: January 18, 1982, Bethesda, MD, age 71,---d. cardiac arrest

Washington, New York sports writer;
New York Journal-American journalist,
Washington Times-Herald general reporter & sports writer, ? - 1954
Washington Post reporter, sports writer, & columnist, 1954 - 1977, covered the Senators until the team moved to Dallas in 1971.
Wrote a column for Sporting News, 'Addie's Atoms'.
Selection committe for Baseball's Hall of Fame.
Author/Sports Writer
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Bob Addie and Allen Lewis were the recipients of the 1981 J.G. Taylor Spink Award.

Reporter, columnist, bon vivant and raconteur, Bob Addie covered baseball for the Washington Times-Herald and Washington Post for close to 40 years. Addie was known for his clean style, hilarious anecdotes, unabashed sentiment, red socks and dark glasses. He never missed a day on the Washington Senators' beat for 20 years until the team left town in 1971.

A players' friend who wrote like a fan, accentuating the positive and winning affection among readers and subjects alike, Addie was a former President of the Baseball Writers' Association of America. He was a recipient of a National Press Club Award and a highly-respected member of the Hall of Fame Committee on Baseball Veterans.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wikipedia page.
Robert Addie was an American sportswriter who covered baseball for The Washington Post and Washington Times-Herald. Addie was known for his clean style, hilarious anecdotes, unabashed sentiment, red socks and dark glasses. He never missed a day on the Washington Senators' beat for 20 years until the team left town in 1971. Addie was presented with the J. G. Taylor Spink Award by the Baseball Writers Association of America in 1981. Bob also covered the PGA after Baseball moved from Washington. Bob also wrote many articles for the Post after his retirement from the paper in 1977. He went on to write a book about his sportswriting career entitled Sportswriter which was published in 1980. His wife the great Pauline Betz Addie, 4 time US Open and 1 time Wimbledon Champion is still alive and well. They have five children, a daughter and four sons. His daughter is award-winning poet Kim Addonizio and his granddaughter is actress Aya Cash.

Authored:
Profiles & Caviar, 1974

Washington Post obituary, January 20, 1982, pp. B12.

[Bill Burgess]

John Abbott Lardner

Born: May 4, 1912, Chicago, IL
March 24, 1960, New York City, NY, age 48,----d. heart attack at his Greenwich Village, NYC apartment.

New York sports writer;
New York Herald Tribune, reporter, 1931 - 1933
North American Newspaper Alliance, sports columnist, 1934 - 1948
Newsweek, 1939 - 1960
war correspondent
The Saturday Evening Post, 1942 - 1945
The New Yorker (magazine), television / radio critic, 1957 - 1960
Son of acclaimed sports writer Ring Lardner.

John was born May 4, 1912 when his father was the baseball writer for the Chicago Examiner. Many critics say he was most like his father out of the four children. At a young age, John wrote his first piece for The New Yorker and soon began to work for the World.

The city editor at the World, Stanley Walker, said that John "came close to being the perfect all-around journalist" (Lardner, p. 231). After returning from working at the European edition of the World, he came back to the states to work for the Trib in New York in 1931. He was still only nineteen.

After working at the World he began a syndicated sports column for the North American Newspaper Alliance at age 21. This gave him a national audience. "What John started with was a delicate instinct for the difference between stories that had to be recorded faithfully and those that permitted some creative license. It is a nicety largely undiscovered by the 'new journalism' of today" (Lardner, p. 233).

Shortly after he married Hazel Bell Jean Cannan in September of 1938, John had to leave his bride to write about the World Series between the New York Yankees and the Chicago Cubs. But John was already beginning to make the transition from newspaperman to magazine writer, which he didn't complete until after the war.

John began this transition following in his father's footsteps with a story in the Saturday Evening Post about the "Black Sox" scandal of 1919. To further supplement his syndicate salary, he soon began talking to Newsweek about a column called "Sports Week," which began on March 13, 1939.

From February 1942 - June 1945, John was abroad as a war correspondent and took the time to begin his book Southwest Passage: The Yanks in the Pacific. While in the Pacific Front, a Japanese sniper opened fire on John and his crew. John had said that the man scored with 'a carom shot' that lighted in a pile of stones, "causing one of them to fly up and catch him in the groin." But, in reality, it was not stone but a bullet. John realized this a few months later when, while he was taking a shower, a small-caliber machine-gun bullet "worked its way out of a testicle and struck the tile floor" (Lardner, p. 311).

By 1948 John had dropped his syndicated sports column and become a magazine writer only. In 1951 John wrote Bill that he was diagnosed with tuberculosis. The next year he was virtually healed and started a feature page in the magazine "Look" called "John Lardner's New York." But, soon after this, he made a trip to Australia where he suffered a heart attack on the trip.

Began attempting to write a book called Drinking in America, which he wrote seven chapters of before his death. He continued to write a column called "The Air" until he died on December 8, 1958. He had suffered a full-fledged coronary occlusion.

Authored:
The world of John Lardner
White hopes and other tigers
It beats working; 2 copies,
Strong cigars and lovely women

New York Times' obituary, March 25, 1960, pp. 28.---Hartford Courant obituary, March 26, 1960, pp. 4.

-----------------------------------------------------Chicago Daily News' obituary, March 25, 1960, pp. C9.