Meet The Sports Writers

[Bill Burgess]

Edward Earl Fitzgerald---AKA Ed Fitzgerald

Born: September 10, 1919, New York, NY
Died: February 11, 2001, Eastchester, NY, age 81,---d. at Sound Shore Medical Center, New Rochelle, NY, from complications from a stoke.

Magazine editor / writer / book author
Yonkers, NY, 4-month old, (January 10, 1920 census)
Yonkers, NY, 10-year old, (April 14, 1930 census)
Yonkers, NY, assistant sports editor, newspaper, (April 8, 1940 census)
Sport Magazine, writer / editor, 1946 - 1951, Editor-in-Chief, 1951 - 1960
Doubleday Company, books division, President, 1960 - 1968
McCall Magazine Group, President, (published McCall's, Redbook, Saturday Review), 1968 - 1971
Book of the Month Club, President, 1973 - 1974
Quality Paperback Book Club, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), 1979 - 1984

Father: Francis, born Ireland, 1891?; Mother: Mary, born Vermont, 1901?;

Co-authored autobiographies by Yogi Berra, Mel Allen, Johnny Unitas, and Althea Gibson.
Wife: Libuse Ostruk; Daughter: Eileen; Son: Kevin

Authored:
A Nickel an Inch: A Memoir, 1985

Edward E. Fitzgerald, former president and CEO of the Doubleday Book Clubs, Book-of-the-Month Club and Quality Paperback Book Club, died on February 11 in New Rochelle, N.Y., of complications from a stroke. He was 81 years old. In 1946 Fitzgerald cofounded Sport magazine, an early rival of Sports Illustrated , and was its editor for nine years until 1960. That year, he went to Doubleday and spent eight years as president of the book division, book clubs and bookstores. From 1968 to 1971, Fitzgerald was president of the McCall's magazine group, and started the McCall's Book Publishing Company. He was named president of BOMC in 1973 and founded the Quality Paperback Book Club a year later; he was CEO at QPB from 1979 to 1984. His memoir of his publishing days, A Nickel an Inch , was published in 1984.

New York Times' obituary, February 19, 2001, pp. B8.

[Bill Burgess]

Leonard Koppett

Born: September 15, 1923, Moscow, Russia
Died: June 22, 2003, San Francisco, CA, age 79

New York / Palo Alto sports writer;
Bronx, NY, 6-year old, (1930 census)(listed Leonard Kopetioweck)
New York, NY, 16-year old, (April 2, 1940 census)(listed Leonard Kopelivitch)
Moved to US, 1928
New York Herald, sports writer, 1948 - 1954
New York Post, sports writer, 1954 - 1963
New York Times, sports writer, 1963 - 1973
New York Times, correspondent in Palo Alto, CA 1973 - 1978
Peninsula Times-Tribune, sports editor, Palo Alto, CA, 1979 - 1993
Spink Award (Baseball, Hall of Fame, 1993)

Father: David O. Kopelivitch, born Russia, 1891?; Mother: Marie Kopelivitch, born Russia, 1894?;
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Leonard Koppett and Bus Saidt are the recipients of the 1992 J.G. Taylor Spink Award.

An intellectual sports writer, original thinker and "guru" to hundreds of writers, Koppett has shared with his readers an expertise on a variety of issues, always supporting his points with a wealth of statistics and historical data.

Koppett was born in Moscow, Russia, but moved to New York City at age 5 and grew up within a block of Yankee Stadium. He covered the Dodgers, Yankees and Giants for the New York Herald Tribune (1948), the New York Post (1954) and the New York Times (1963) before moving to California in 1963, at the age of 40, to work for the Palo Alto Peninsula Times while still maintaining ties to the New York Times as their West Coast correspondent.

Koppett was always fond of the theater and for years he was director and chief writer for the New York Baseball Writers' annual satiric show. He has authored numerous baseball books including The Man in the Dugout and the very popular Thinking Man's Guide to Baseball.
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Leonard Koppett (Sportswriter. Born, Moscow, U.S.S.R., Sept. 15, 1923; died, San Francisco, Calif., June 22, 2003.) The first sportswriter to subject the games themselves to analytical scrutiny and to effect the methodology of press service to the writers [don’t understand phrase], Leonard Koppett wrote for three major New York dailies for nearly four decades. A Columbia graduate, Koppett brought his analytical approach to, mainly, basketball and baseball during his career, which began at the Herald Tribune in 1948. A year later, he moved from the desk to basketball coverage both on the college and pro level. Following the college basketball scandals of 1951, more coverage was concentrated on the Knicks (an N.B.A. Final team for the first time that year). Koppett was among those who encouraged the adoption of the 24-second clock in the pro league. In March 1954, he moved to the Post, which had the effect of increasing his ability to disseminate his views. Five years later, he persuaded Lester Scott, the publicist, to introduce point-by-point play-by-play typed sheets at college basketball doubleheaders in the Garden. The successful experiment resulted in the universal use of the system in both college and pro basketball. Koppett moved to The New York Times in 1963 and 10 years later persuaded the paper to base him in California to cover New York teams when they went West. He began a 16-year relationship with The Sporting News (1966-82) as a columnist concentrating on thoughtful approaches to what he perceived to be problems in pro sports. Some of his proposed solutions were more practical than others, though all were well thought out and backed by statistical analysis. Koppett was an early enthusiast for the designated hitter. He left The Times to write for a California paper in 1978 but returned for three years (1987-90). Even after leaving The Times a second time, Koppett remained active with newspapers in the San Francisco area. He was the author of 17 books on several sports and numerous articles in national and regional publications. (The Bill Shannon Biographical Dictionary of New York Sports is an open database of sports biographies maintained by Jordan Sprechman and Marty Appel.)

San Jose Mercury News' obituary, June 24, 2003.-----------------------------------------------------------------------San Francisco Chronicle, June 24, 2003, pp. C2.

[Bill Burgess]

Jesse Lamar Outlar---AKA Jesse Outlar

Born: May 6, 1923, Finleyson, GA
Died: April 10, 2011, Peachtree City, GA, age 87

Atlanta sports writer;
Omega, GA, 16-year old, (April 2, 1940 census)(listed Lamar Outlar)
Graduated University of Georgia (Athens, GA), 1943 (B. S.)
Atlanta Constitution, sports writer, 1947 - 1957, sports editor, 1957 - ?

Father: Jesse P.; Mother: Lois Mangham, born Georgia, 1897?; Wife: Florence Beaton on October 12, 1947; Daughter: Jan Louis; Son: Barry Thomas

The Citizen.com obituary, Tuesday, April 12, 1011;
The popular sports writer, Jesse Outlar, passed away Sunday, April 10, 2011 to go to what he called the Big Sleep.

Outlar was born to Jesse P. Outlaw and Lois Mangham in Finleyson, Georgia. The family settled in Omega where Outlar started his love affair with newspapers and sports. He had his own route at the age of seven delivering the Atlanta Journal, Atlanta Constitution and the Jacksonville Times-Union. He dreamed of writing the stories of the sports heroes he’d hurry home to read about after each morning’s deliveries.

Outlar began his writing career in Omega where he founded and edited the high school newspaper. At the University of Georgia, he was the sports editor of the Red and Black and in the US Marine Corps, Outlar was the editor of the Camp Lejeune (North Carolina) Globe.

In 1945, fresh out of the Marines, Outlar landed a job in Waycross, Georgia, where he was the sports editor of the Waycross Journal -Herald. During baseball season he also covered the Waycross professional team, broadcast the games over the radio, ran the PA system, filed game stories for the Savannah Morning- News and was home game official scorer. He somehow found time to marry Florence Beaton and begin a family.

Outlar took a cut in pay to work for the Atlanta Constitution for the starting salary of $50 weekly. He could not have known that this small-town boy from a city of less than 200 people would rise to the ranks to become the sports editor of a major metropolitan daily newspaper.

Outlar and his column grew up with Atlanta. He was a sports staff member for 41 years and sports editor and sports columnist the last 30 of those years. Outlar told the stories of the games and people behind the games of high school, college and professional football, baseball and basketball. He covered the Kentucky Derby, the World Series, The Super Bowl, the Masters, the Butts-Bryant Saturday Evening Post libel suit, world class boxing, Henry Aaron’s record-breaking homerun and anything sports about his beloved Georgia Bulldogs. He relished writing the story of the games and readers in the city of Atlanta loved reading about how Outlar saw them.

Outlar won numerous awards throughout his career. He was named Georgia Sportswriter of the Year three times by the National Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association and he was voted as Georgia's Sports Columnist of the Year four times by the Associated Press. He was a recipient of the University of Georgia Dan Magill Award for long and lasting contributions to sports. And in 1991, Outlar was inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame.

Outlar married Johanna Kristjansdottir Hutson., a native of Iceland, in 1972. They were still honeymooning when a robbers’ bullet almost ended Outlar’s life. Leaving the Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium after filing his story of an almost upset of the Falcons over the San Francisco 49ers, Outlar was shot. Miraculously, he recovered, missed a month and a half of work and was back on the beat.

Outlar is survived by his children, Barry and his wife Cheryl of Lilburn, Jan and her husband David Edwards of Fresno, California, his “adopted” daughter Cindy and Reverend Bill Calhoun of Gainesville, and Johanna’s sons, Jim Hutson of McDonough , David and Debbie Hutson of Dawsonville and Bill Hutson of Atlanta.

Together, he and Johanna had 11 grandchildren and 11 great grand-children.

The family will receive friends at a visitation this Friday, April 15, from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. at Mowell Funeral Home in Peachtree City. An interment service will immediately follow at Westminster Memorial Gardens at 11:30 a.m.

In lieu of flowers, contributions in memory of Jesse Outlar may be made to the Jesse Outlar Scholarship, c/o Grady College, The University of Georgia, 120 Hooper Street, Athens, GA 30602. If you have additional questions, call please or email [email protected] or call 706.542.5032.
Carl J. Mowell & Son, Peachtree City, GA (770)487-3959

Authored:
Caught Short, 1972 (written with Donald Davidson)
Between the Hedges: A Story of Georgia Football, 1973

[Bill Burgess]

Earl M. Lawson, Jr.

Born: February 1, 1923, Greene, OH
Died: January 14, 2003, Sacramento, CA, age 79,---d. at his home following a seven-month battle with liver cancer.

Cincinnati sports writer;
Norwood, OH, 17-year old, (April 21, 1940 census)
Cincinnati Times-Star, 1949 - 1958
Cincinnati Post, 1958 - 1984
Spink Award (Baseball Hall of Fame, 1985).

Father: Earl M., Sr., born Kentucky, 1881?; Mother: Bertha B., born Massachusetts, 1891?;
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Earl Lawson was the 1985 recipient of the J.G. Taylor Spink Award.

Lawson began his newspaper career at the age of 17 as a copyboy for the old Cincinnati Times-Star. Two years later he was promoted to city-side reporter. Military service interrupted his journalistic aspirations, but he returned to the Times-Star in 1946, this time in the sports department.

Lawson first covered the Reds on a part-time basis in 1949, and in 1951 he was assigned to the Reds full-time, covering his first of 34 spring training camps. The Times-Star folded in 1958, and he switched to the Cincinnati Post, continuing his coverage of the Reds until his retirement in February of 1985. He was an official scorer during much of his press box career.

Highly respected by players, managers, and colleagues, Lawson also served as President of the Baseball Writers' Association of America in 1977.

Authored:
Cincinnati Seasons: My 34 Years With the Reds, 1987

[Bill Burgess]

David Rensing Condon

Born: March 4, 1924, Las Vegas, NM
Died: December 5, 1994, Chicago, IL, age 70,---d. after a long illness.

Chicago sports writer/author;
Las Vegas, NM, 6-year old, (April 7, 1930 census)
Las Vegas, NM, 16-year old, (April 22, 1940 census)
Attended Notre Dame University,
Las Vegas Daily Optic,
South Bend Tribune,
Chicago Tribune, 1944 - 1982; In 1955 he took over the "Wake of the News" column from Arch Ward & held it until he retired in 1982. Specialized in football.

Father: Frank W., born New Mexico, 1896?; Mother: Leona R., born 1900?, died August 18, 1967, Santa Fe, NM.

Chicago Tribune obituary, December 6, 1994
David Condon was more than a sportswriter. He knew presidents and princes, actors and aldermen, heroes and hucksters. He was a Chicago legend, a man about town, as recognizable as many of the notable men he wrote about in the 27 years he wrote In the Wake of the News for the Tribune.

Mr. Condon, 70, died at 5:55 p.m. Monday at Barr Pavilion, 66 W. Oak St., after a long illness. From his front-page forum in the Tribune's sports section he would by turns skewer the pompous and write caressingly of the hard-luck guys who wander the back alleys of the world of sport.

But he was a well-rounded newspaperman who could and did cover such wide-ranging stories as the coronation of Queen Elizabeth, a prison riot in New Mexico and a visit to his hometown by the late Cardinal Stritch.

When the Harlem Globetrotters played a charity game in London in 1963, Prince Phillip told Trotters owner Abe Saperstein, "Give my regards to Dave Condon at the Chicago Tribune."

He was a personal friend of President John F. Kennedy and interviewed Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and Lyndon B. Johnson for his column.

Although the pristine clarity of his prose as he described a dawn breaking over the stable area at Churchill Downs could bring a tear to the eye, he was more likely to evoke laughter with his humorous style.

He was a funny man in his personal life, too, a legendary prankster, who once convinced a Tribune security guard that he might be receiving a visit from Mr. Condon's deranged twin brother. After a quick change of clothes, Mr. Condon did, indeed, confront the guard as his demented twin.

Another time when the same guard left his post for a few minutes, Mr. Condon pushed the security desk into an elevator and sent it to the lobby. When the guard returned, Mr. Condon was there to ask him, "Say, you didn't happen to see an elephant go by here, did you?"

Once at the Kentucky Derby, Mr. Condon and another Tribune writer drove to Churchill Downs, arriving only minutes before the start of the race. Approaching the overfilled parking lot, Mr. Condon pointed to his colleague and said, "I've got the governor of Illinois here." He was ushered to a prime parking spot.

His most famous public prank came when, in collusion with his pal, Oakland A's owner Charlie Finley, he appeared on the field at Comiskey Park in a wig and dress as Morganna the Kissing Bandit and planted a smooch on a startled Joe Rudi.

"Dave was mischievous, a character out of `Guys and Dolls' and `The Front Page,' " said George Langford, the Tribune's public editor and former sports editor. "He was the best I ever saw on deadline, writing obituaries, chewing unlit cigars and playing practical jokes.

"His imagination, talent and dedication to journalism were unsurpassed. He was as expert in politics as he was in sports. And he was a soft touch. Of all the wonderful characters I've encountered, Dave was in a league of his own."

Mr. Condon was born in Las Vegas and attended Notre Dame University before joining the Tribune in 1944. In 1955 he succeeded Arch Ward as conductor of the Wake column, a post he held until his retirement in 1982.

"Whenever there was a big story," remembers Cooper Rollow, former Tribune sports editor, "you'd look around the room and Dave Condon was the first guy you'd go to. You knew you were going to get a first-rate job."

Mr. Condon is survived by his former wife, Patricia; five daughters, Susan, Colleen Green, Barbara Marrs, Kathleen Lorenz and Mary Harris; a son, David, and 14 grandchildren.

Arrangements are pending at John Carroll Sons funeral home, 1035 N. Dearborn St.

[Bill Burgess]

Alfred Marshal Thomy---AKA Al Thomy

Born: January 1, 1925, Lake City, SC
Died: Still Alive

Southern sports writer;
Lake City, SC, 7-year old, (April 10, 1930 census)(listed Abraham Thomy)
Lake City, SC, 16-year old, (April 20, 1940 census)
Attended Guilford College (Greensboro, NC) part-time, earning 2 years of credits
University of North Carolina, (Chapel Hill, NC), 1952
Greensboro Daily News, 1944 - 1950
Atlanta Constitution, sports writer, 1955 - 1962, 1965 - 1978
Houston Press, 1962-1964, 1986
Atlanta Times, 1964
ESPN Magazine, 1988-2008

Father: Najib, born Syria, 1880?; Mother: Careemy, born Syria, 1890?;

Al left Atlanta in 1978, when his mother became ill.
produced an Atlantic Coast Conference sports magazine in Durham for a year, 1978.
Has written a column for ESPN Magazine since 1988, the magazine's beginning.

As of 2005, at age 80, Al covered NASCAR for Speedway Scene of Boston, Mass., and has won 32 journalistic awards.

Authored:
The Ramblin' Wreck: A Story of Georgia Tech Football, 1973
Pepper!: The Autobiography of an Unconventional Coach, 1976
Fourth and Long Gone, 1984
Bill Elliott: Fastest Man Alive, 1988

[Bill Burgess]

Joseph Paul Durso---AKA Joe Durso

Born: June 22, 1924, New York, NY
Died: December 31, 2004, Nissequogue, NY, age 80,---d. at University Hospital in Stony Brook, N.Y of cancer.

New York sports writer;
Hudson Falls, NY, 5-year old, (April 7, 1930 census)
Upper Darby, PA, 15-year old, (April 6, 1940 census)
Raised in Hudson Falls in Adirondacks, NY, and Upper Darby, PA.
Left NYU in junior year to enlist in Army Air Forces. Became pilot / flight instructor.
Returned college, 1945 Received bachelor's degree economics, 1946, and a year later earned master's degree from Graduate School Journalism at Columbia University.
Newark Evening News reporter, 1947.
Months later, moved radio station WINS (New York) as news and sports writer.
New York Times sports writer, 1950 - 2001

Father: Joseph, born New York, 1900?; Mother: Angela, born New York, 1902?;

Soon became director of news and special events.
In 1950 became copy editor on national news desk of New York Times. Assistant to national news editor, head of the city copy desk and associate city editor Became a sportswriter in 1964. NY Times sports writer, 1964 - 2001.

Voted Taylor Spink Award in 1995, (Baseball Hall of Fame). He liked writing about New York stuff.
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The 1995 recipient of the J.G. Taylor Spink Award was Joe Durso. Durso has been an editor and writer for the New York Times since 1950 and a sportswriter and columnist since 1964. He has covered 25 World Series for the Times as senior baseball writer.

Durso was born in New York City and was raised in Hudson Falls in the Adirondacks. He attended New York University and the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. His education was interrupted by a stint in the Army Air Forces during World War II where he reached the rank of captain.

He is the author of thirteen books, including biographies of Casey Stengel, John McGraw and Lou Gehrig, memoirs of the Yankee years with Mickey Mantle and Whitey Ford, and the 50 year history of Yankee Stadium. Durso is also a professor at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism.
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Joe Durso (Sportswriter. Born, New York, June 22, 1924; died, Stony Brook, L.I., Dec. 31, 2004.) Known in baseball press boxes as “The Count,” Joseph Paul Durso was an elegant baseball writer for The New York Times for over two decades who later wrote extensively about thoroughbred racing. In the 1970s, Durso covered primarily the Yankees and then moved to the Mets in the 1980s. Most of his final decade before retirement in 2001 was spent on the racing beat. Durso had 17 years’ experience in the news business before becoming a sportswriter in 1964. Following service as a fighter pilot in the Army Air Corps during World War II, he finished his bachelors’ degree at N.Y.U. and, in 1947, went to the Newark Evening News as a reporter. Before joining The Times as a copy editor in 1950, Durso spent nearly three years at WINS Radio, where he rose to news director. He served on the national desk and city desk before returning to sports. Durso ultimately covered some 25 World Series and 20 Kentucky Derbies, as well as doing a weeknight “Sports of The Times” report on WQXR Radio for 27 years. He wrote 14 books, including sports topics such as his years with the Yankees, biographies of Casey Stengel, John McGraw, and Joe DiMaggio, histories of Yankee Stadium and Madison Square Garden, and the business aspects of sports. Durso was chairman of the B.B.W.A.A.’s New York chapter in 1973-74. (The Bill Shannon Biographical Dictionary of New York Sports is an open database of sports biographies maintained by Jordan Sprechman and Marty Appel. We welcome public and scholarly contributions and suggestions.)

Authored:
The Education of a Baseball Player (1967)
Casey (1967)
The Days of Mr. McGraw (1969)
Amazing: The Miracle of the Mets (1970)
The All-American Dollar (1971) The Big Businss of Sports
Yankee Stadium: Fifty Years of Drama (1972)
Screwball (1974) Story of Tug McGraw
The sports factory: An investigation into college sports (1975)
My Luke & I (1976), bio of Gehrig with his wife Eleanor.
Whitey and Mickey: An Autobiography of the Yankee Years (1977)
Madison Square Garden: 100 Years of History (1979)
Baseball and the American Dream (1986)
Casey & Mr. McGraw (1989)
DiMaggio: The Last American Knight (1995)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------May 23, 1974: Joe Durso/Tom Seaver. Presenting Cy Young Award at Shea Stadium.

[Bill Burgess]

Henry Phil Collier, Jr.---AKA Phil Collier

Born: December 7, 1925, Stanton, TX
Died: February 24, 2001, San Diego, CA, age 75,--d. prostate cancer

Los Angeles / San Diego sports writer;
Pelly, TX, 4-year old, (April 10, 1930 census)
Pelly, TX, 14-year old, (April 12, 1940 census)
Baytown (Texas) Sun sports statistician, 1938 - ?
WWII
Texas Christian University
Houston Post
San Diego Union, 1953 - 1996; Pacific Coast League correspondent for his first five years before being assigned to the Dodger games.

Mother: Maud E., born Texas, 1903?;

From 1961 - 1969 covered Dodgers & Angels, attending 200 games a year, working 7 days a week from late February through mid-October.
Covered Padres when they debuted as a National League expansion team, 1969, and in 1987, became paper's national baseball writer.
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Phil Collier was the recipient of the 1990 J.G. Taylor Spink Award.

Collier began his newspaper career at the tender age of 13 in 1939, as a sports statistician for the Baytown (Texas) Sun and as a semi-pro baseball stringer for the Houston Post. Following military service during World War II and graduation from Texas Christian University (moonlighting for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram between classes, his editor was Jack Murphy), he joined the San Diego Union in 1953. When Murphy moved to San Diego in 1951, he quickly brought along Collier. In San Diego, Collier covered the Pacific Coast League San Diego Padres until the Brooklyn Dodgers moved to Los Angeles. For the next decade, he covered both Dodgers and Angels games for the San Diego Tribune. He was their Pacific Coast League correspondent for his first five years before being assigned to the Dodger games. From 1961 to 1969 he covered both the Dodgers and the Angels, attending 200 games a year and working seven days a week from late February through mid-October.

When San Diego was awarded the Padres as a National League expansion team in 1969, Collier picked up their beat and in 1987 he became the paper's national baseball writer. . He covered the team for 18 seasons. In 1987, Collier became the national baseball columnist for the Tribune. He continued to write for the Tribune after their merger with the San Diego Union in 1992. He retired from the paper in 1996. He was awarded the J.G. Taylor Spink Award in 1990.
Collier continued to write a weekly column for the Union-Tribune after retirement. He also served as an official scorer for many years. Collier died in 2001 of cancer.

During his career Collier has enjoyed numerous scoops. Collier was the sportswriter who Sandy Koufax called to inform the baseball world of his sudden retirement from the game in 1966 and Leo Durocher's appointment as Cubs manager. Other feathers in Collier's baseball cap include his presidency of the BBWAA, his serving as official scorer in Los Angeles, Anaheim and San Diego, and his role as correspondent for The Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, the Associated Press and Copley Press.

[Bill Burgess]

Robert William Wolff---AKA Bob Wolff

Born: April 21, 1925, Milwaukee, WI
Died: April 14, 2011, Milwaukee, WI, age 85

Milwaukee sports writer;
Milwaukee, WI, 5-year old, (April 2, 1930 census)
Milwaukee, WI, 14-year old, (April 8, 1940 census)
Milwaukee Journal, 1947 - 1986
Sporting News basketball columnist;
radio announcer, 1945 - ?, WINX;
Had been on a troop ship during WWII as Lieutenant.

Father: William, born Wisconsin 1883?; Mother: Ella, born Wisconsin 1887?; Wife Arlene Voss; ;

[Bill Burgess]

Joseph Thomas McGuff

Born: August 15, 1926, Tulsa, OK
Died: February 4, 2006, Kansas City, MO, age 79,---d. at home from complications arising from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Kansas City sports writer;
Tulsa, OK, 3-year old, (April 3, 1930 census)
Tulsa, OK, 13-year old, (April 23, 1940 census)(listed Joe McGuff)
Attended Marquette University (Milwaukee, WI);
Tulsa World,
Kansas City Star, 1948 - 1992; sports columnist / sports editor, 1966

Father: William, born Ohio, 1886?; Mother: Anna, born Missouri, 1894?;

Covered the Kansas City Blues baseball team in the AA league from 1951, When the Philadelphia Athletics moved from Philadelphia to Kansas City, MO in 1955, started covering them until they left in 1968.

He is justly credited with helping the lobbying effort to install a ML team back into Kansas City in 1969, 2 years after the A's abandoned KC in favor of Oakland. He did this in part by using his sports columns to convince voters to approve funding for the Truman Sports Complex and Kemper Arena.

He became sports editor in 1966 and vice-president & editor from 1986 until he retired in 1992. He was former President of the BWAA and was voted outstanding Missouri sports writer 6 times, and a member of the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame.
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1984 J.G. Taylor Spink Award Winner

The 1984 recipient of the J.G. Taylor Spink Award was longtime Kansas City baseball writer Joe McGuff.

McGuff joined the Kansas City Star in 1948 from the Tulsa World and began covering the Kansas City Blues of the American Association in 1951. Four years later, with the move of the Philadelphia Athletics to Kansas City, McGuff was transformed overnight into a major league reporter.

McGuff was named sports editor at the Star in 1966 and was Vice President and Editor from 1986 until he retired from the paper in 1992. He is a former president of the Baseball Writers' Association of America, was named outstanding sportswriter in Missouri six times, and is a member of the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame.

McGuff's writing style has been compared to a chef preparing a souffle with all the trimmings, but also serving the meat and potatoes. Balance and fairness were the hallmarks of his columns, and his ability to temper the truth with compassion made him a favorite in dugouts, locker rooms, playing fields, and press boxes around the country.
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Joe McGuff; Kansas City Star
Career: Began at the Tulsa World before moving to Kansas City, where he spent 44 years as a sportswriter, columnist and eventually editor/vice president before retiring in 1992.

Highlights: He successfully lobbied owners to return major-league baseball to Kansas City after the Athletics left for Oakland. ... His columns also swayed voters to approve funding for the Truman Sports Complex, home of the Chiefs and Royals, which remains a Kansas City icon today. ... He covered 31 World Series, including one where he threw out the first pitch. It was Game 7 of the Royals-Cardinals series in 1985, and when former President Gerald Ford had to cancel at the last minute, Major League Baseball turned to Joe. ... McGuff was also enshrined in the writers' wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.

APSE connection: Was a founding father of the organization and served as president in 1977-78.

Other: In the same month that Joe retired as editor of the paper, The Star won the Pulitzer Prize for national reporting.
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Former KC Star editor dies at age 79
Jefferson City News-Tribune obituary (MO) - Monday, February 6, 2006
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - Former Kansas City Star editor Joe McGuff , who was instrumental in bringing major-league baseball to Kansas City, has died from complications of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

McGuff died Saturday night at his home at the age of 79, The Kansas City Star reported. McGuff is survived by his wife, Kay, and six adult children.

McGuff played a major role in bringing to Kansas City the expansion Royals baseball team in 1969, two years after Charles O. Finley moved the Athletics to Oakland, in part by using his sports columns to convince voters to approve funding for the Truman Sports Complex and Kemper Arena.

"He is the essence of sports in Kansas City and why there is a Truman Sports Complex and, frankly, why the two teams are there," Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt said. "He is and always will be a champion of all sports in Kansas City."

McGuff began his career at The Kansas City Star in 1948 as a sports reporter. He became sports columnist in 1966, and he wrote columns for the next 20 years.

"When major-league baseball came to Kansas City, Ewing Kauffman always said Joe deserved most of the credit for making that happen," Royals owner David Glass said.

In 1986, McGuff was named editor and vice president of The Star and The Kansas City Times, and oversaw many of the newspapers' historic moments, including the merger of the morning and afternoon newspapers. He retired in April 1992, the same month The Star won the Pulitzer Prize for national reporting for a series that exposed waste and flawed policy-making in U.S. Department of Agriculture programs.

In 1994, McGuff was selected to the Royals board of directors and helped raise the $50 million needed for a succession plan to ensure the club remained in Kansas City. McGuff served as chairman of the Greater Kansas City Sports Commission, and the organization's downtown headquarters are housed in the Joe McGuff Sports Center.

In 1999, McGuff was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, known as Lou Gehrig's disease. He entered the baseball writers wing of the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., in 1985, the same year he threw out of the first pitch of game seven of the World Series, the Royals only championship year. He also was a member of the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame.

In all, McGuff covered six Olympics, 31 World Series and 16 Super Bowls.

"Joe always put The Star's interests above his own, and Kansas City's interests above The Star's," said current Star editor Mark Zieman. "He wanted the paper to improve our community, not bludgeon it. But when facts supported it, he loved hard-edged, investigative reporting, especially if it involved misspent tax dollars or standing up for the little guy.

"And when the big guys complained, he always listened graciously to their objections, sent them happily on their way _ and ran more tough stories. He was just an outstanding editor, and a good man."

Authored:
Why Me? Why Not Joe McGuff?, 1992
Winning It All: The Chiefs of the Afl., 1970


Who's Who in America, 54th edition. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------August 7, 1965: -Joe presents Spink Award posthumously to Hugh
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Fullerton. His son accepts for him.

[Bill Burgess]

Jerome J. Holtzman

Born: July 12, 1926, Chicago, IL
Died: July 19, 2008, Evanston, IL, age 82,---d. 4 days after devastating stroke

Chicago sports writer; Jewish
Chicago, IL, 3-year old, (April 7, 1930 census)
Chicago, IL, 13-year old, Marks Nathan Jewish Orphan Home, (April 9, 1940 census)
Chicago Daily Times copyboy, 1943;
WWII; Marine Corps;
Chicago Sun-Times, 1943 - 1981; became baseball writer in 1957.
Chicago Tribune columnist, 1981 - 2000
Was named 'Official Historian' to MLB, 1999 - 2008
Weekly contributor to The Sporting News for 30 years, both as a columnist and correspondent.
Spink Award, 1989.

Father: Sam, born Russia, 1896?; Mother: Dorothy, born Illinois, 1903?;

No Cheering in the Press Box, 1973, is a critically acclaimed book, which discusses sports writers via personal interviews.
The writers interviewed are: Dan Daniels, Marshall Hunt, John Kieran, Fred Lieb, Paul Gallico, Al Laney, Richards Vidmer, Shirley Povich, Ed Prell, George Strickler, Abe Kemp, Al Horwits, Ford Frick, John Drebinger, Harold Parrott, Red Smith, John Tunis, Jimmy Cannon, Al Abrams, Fred Russell, Wendell Smith, Gene Kessler, Ray Gillespie, Jim Schemmer.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The 1989 recipient of the J.G. Taylor Spink Award was Jerome Holtzman.

Jerome Holtzman's fascination with sports manifested itself in the printed form. As a youth, his heroes were sportswriters. Upon graduation from high school he began his own career in the sports department of the Chicago Daily Times as a copyboy in 1943. After serving two years in the Marine Corps, he returned to newspaper work. He has covered baseball with the Chicago Sun-Times (22 years) and with the Chicago Tribune for well over 40 years.

Holtzman was a weekly contributor to The Sporting News for 30 years, both as a columnist and correspondent. He has written over one hundred articles for such magazines as the old Saturday Evening Post, Sport, Sports Illustrated and Baseball Digest. A strong editor as well as writer, his book No Cheering in the Press Box is a highly-praised collection of interviews with some of America's greatest sportswriters.

He is credited with inventing the save for relief pitchers in 1959, deriving a formula that evolved into the official statistic in 1966. In 1999, Holtzman was named official historian for Major League Baseball.

Detroit News baseball writer Joe Falls paid him the ultimate compliment: "There is no better baseball writer around, and certainly none more knowledgeable."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The dean of Chicago baseball writers defends the Tribune.
Jerome Holtzman retired in 2000 after 20 years with the Tribune and 38 years before that at the rival Sun-Times. "I think they bend over backward to be fair to the Sox," Holtzman, 79, says of his former colleagues [Chicago Tribune baseball writers]. But White Sox fans, Holtzman concedes, "won't ever believe that. What are you going to do? It's part of human nature."

Holtzman and other veterans of Chicago's sports scene also note that anti-Tribune feelings among some White Sox fans existed long before the company [Chicago Tribune] bought the Cubs. Last spring, the Tribune wrote a story about complaints it had gotten from a White Sox publicist. He'd measured the amount of coverage in the newspaper given to the Cubs and to the White Sox and proved his team wasn't getting as much ink.

The year that publicist complained: 1959.

Authored:
Baseball, Chicago Style: A Tale of Two Teams, One City, 2001
Believe It! the Story of Chicago's World Champions, 2005
Fielder's Choice: An Anthology of Baseball Fiction, 1979
Jerome Holtzman On Baseball, 2005
The Chicago Cubs Encyclopedia, 1997
The Commissioners: Baseball's Midlife Crisis, 1998
The Jerome Holtzman Baseball Reader, 2003
No Cheering in the Press Box: Recollections-personal & professional by 18 veteran American sportswriters, 1974
Three and Two! The Autobiography of Tom Gorman, the Great Major League Umpire, 1979


------2003-06

Chicago Baseball Museum President Dr. David Fletcher/Jerome Holtzman--------Cubs' manager Don Zimmer/Jerome Holtzman: 1988-91.

----1990.

--------------1990.

[Bill Burgess]

Joseph Francis Falls

Born: May 2, 1928, New York City, NY
Died: August 11, 2004, Detroit, MI, age 76

New York & Detroit sports writer;
Queens, NY, 1-year old, (April 18, 1930 census)
Associated Press, copy boy, NYC, 1945 - 1951
New York sports writer, 1951 - 1953
Associated Press, sports editor, Detroit, 1953 - 1956
Detroit Times, sports writer, 1956, 1960
Detroit Free Press ,sports writer, 1960 - 1965, sports editor / columnist, 1966 - 1978
Detroit News, sports editor & columnist, 1978 - 2004, death
Sporting News', correspondent, 1965 - 1985
Won Spink Award in 2002.

Father: Edward, born New York, 1894?; Mother: Anna, born New York, 1900?;

Mr. Falls covered 50 World Series, 20 Kentucky Derbys, 15 Super Bowls, 20 Masters and United States Open golf tournaments, 25 Indianapolis 500's, and assorted events such as Rose Bowls, Stanley Cup finals, and NBA finals.[/B]
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Joe Falls is the recipient of the 2001 J.G. Taylor Spink Award.

A veteran of over 50 years as a sportswriter, the colorful Falls began his career in 1945, when he went to work in the New York office of the Associated Press. In 1953, he became an AP bureau chief in Detroit, and three years later he joined the staff of the Detroit Times.

In 1960, he moved to the Detroit Free Press, eventually becoming the newspaper’s sports editor, and he remained there until 1978, when he joined the staff of the Detroit News. Falls's columns, always enthusiastic and often humorous, have also appeared regularly in The Sporting News.

Known for his popular blue-collar approach to writing, Falls has covered and interviewed numerous Hall of Famers, including Al Kaline, Mickey Mantle, and Ted Williams.
----------------------------------------
Biography Resource Center:
Born May 2, 1928, in New York, NY; son of Edward (a policeman) and Anna (Zincak) Falls; married Rose Gentile (divorced December 19, 1973); married Mary Jane Erdei (a secretary), October 10, 1975; children: Robert, Kathleen, Susan, Janet, Michael. Religion: Roman Catholic. Addresses: Home: 8115 Deerwood Rd., Clarkston, MI 48016. Office: Detroit Free Press, 321 West Lafayette, Detroit, MI 48231.

AWARDS: Named Michigan sports writer of the year by National Sportscasters and Sports Writers Association seven times; named runner-up for national sports writer of the year five times.

CAREER: Associated Press, New York, NY, copy boy, 1946-51, sports writer, 1951-53; Associated Press, Detroit, MI, sports editor, 1953-56; Detroit Times, Detroit, baseball writer, 1956-60; Detroit Free Press, Detroit, baseball writer, 1960-65, sports editor and author of column, 1966--. Member of committee of Oakland County Community for Retarded Citizens.

OBITUARY NOTICE:[/B] See index for CA sketch: Born May 2, 1928, in New York, NY; died of heart failure, August 11, 2004, in Detroit, MI. Journalist and author. Falls was a Hall of Fame sports writer and editor with the Detroit News and Detroit Free Press. He started his journalism career while still a teenager, working as a copy boy in New York City for the Associated Press from 1946 until 1951, and then as a sports writer there until he moved to Detroit in 1953, where he continued with the AP as a sports editor. He joined the Detroit Times as a baseball writer in 1956, and when the Times closed four years later he moved on to the Detroit Free Press, first as a baseball writer, then as a sports editor and columnist. Next, in 1978, Falls switched to the Detroit News. During his long career, Falls covered almost every imaginable major sporting event, from the Super Bowl and World Series to the Stanley Cup, Kentucky Derby, and Indianapolis 500; he also covered college and high school events, once declaring that the high school basketball tournament was his favorite competition to cover. He was friends with such legends as Ted Williams and Al Kaline. In 2002, Falls was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame and honored with the J. G. Taylor Spink Award. The next year, suffering from diabetes, he retired. Falls was the author of several sporting books, including Man in Motion (1973), The Detroit Tigers (1975), and So You Think You're a Die-Hard Tiger Fan (1986), as well as the autobiography Joe Falls: Memories of a Hall of Fame Sportswriter (1997).

Authored:
Man in Motion (biography of Bo Schembechler), 1973.
The Detroit Tigers, 1975.
The Boston Marathon, 1977.
So You Think You're a Die-Hard Tiger Fan, 1986.
Joe Falls: Memories of a Hall of Fame Sportswriter, 1997.
Daly Life: Every Step a Struggle: Memoirs of a World-Champion Coach, 1990. (With Chuck Daly)
A Legacy of Champions: The Story of the Men Who Built University of Michigan Football
First Principles
Greatest Moments in Detroit Red Wing History
The Detroit Tigers: An Illustrated History
BASEBALL'S GREAT TEAMS: DETROIT TIGERS (with Jerry Green)
Joe Falls: Fifty Years of Sports Writing: I Still Can't Tell the Difference Between a Curve & a Slider
So You Love Tiger Stadium Too... Give it a Hug!
Author of a column in Sporting News.

Biographical Dictionary of American Sports, supplement, 1989-92,
Suppliment of Baseball and Football, edited by David L. Porter, 1992.

---------------------------------------------------------------Detroit News' sports editor chats with Tigers' boss, Sparky Anderson, 1979-95.

[Bill Burgess]

John Francis Steadman

Born: February 14, 1927, Baltimore, MD
Died: January 1, 2001, Stevensville, MD, age 73,---d. cancer at a Towson hospice (Towson, MD).

Baltimore sports writer;
Baltimore, MD, 13-year old, (April 15, 1940 census)
Baltimore News-Post reporter, 1945 - 1954,
Baltimore Colts, general manager/publicity director, 1954 - 1957
Baltimore News-American, sports editor, 1958 - 1986
Baltimore Evening Sun, 1986 - 1995
Baltimore Sun, 1995 - December 3, 2000
Wrote 7 books

Mother: Mary Steadman, born, Maryland, 1895?, died May 2, 1970, Greenwich, CT.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
John Steadman (February 14, 1927-January 1, 2001) was an American sportswriter for The Baltimore Sun. His career spanned 7 decades and he attended and reported on every Super Bowl from its inception until his death.

Steadman attended the Baltimore City College high school and was once a minor league baseball player. He decided to leave baseball in order to become a sportswriter. He was originally hired by the Baltimore News-Post in 1945 as a $14 a week reporter, and in 1952 broke that Baltimore would regain an NFL franchise. Steadman even went to every Baltimore Football game from 1947 to December 10, 2001, a streak of 719 games. He was also one of only eight writers to attend all 34 Super Bowls, through Super Bowl XXXIV. He was inducted into the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association Hall of Fame in 2000.
-----------------------------------------------
A Baltimore legend, champion of underdogs
Sportswriter: A man of grace and humor, he told the stories of the greats and the little guys of Maryland sports for more than a half-century.
By Mike Klingaman | Sun Staff
January 2, 2001

John Steadman, who chronicled the Maryland sports scene in his newspaper columns, books and commentaries in a career that spanned seven decades, died of cancer yesterday at a Towson hospice. He was 73.

A one-time minor-league baseball player, Mr. Steadman rose to the top of his craft and won election to the National Sportswriters and Sportscasters Hall of Fame last year. With a bent for the offbeat and a passion for the past, he fleshed out the seminal figures in sports, both celebrated and obscure, enlightening readers of Baltimore newspapers for more than a half-century.

"It's the men and women in sports who interest me rather than the games they play," he once said.

Mr. Steadman's forte was re-creating historical flash points; some of his reminiscences read like Norman Rockwell paintings.

"I loved John's columns," said William K. Marimow, editor of The Sun. "I loved it when he wrote of Larry Kelley of the 1936 Yale football team or Jimmie Foxx, the great Maryland native," and baseball Hall of Famer. "He wrote history with such precision and complete recall that it really brought those people to life."

Mr. Steadman's prose -- he championed the underdog -- mirrored his own temperament, said Mr. Marimow: "As careful and meticulous as he was with his columns, John was the same way with relationships -- a very thoughtful, compassionate person."

A Baltimore native, Mr. Steadman grew up in Govans, the son of the city's deputy fire chief. He played football on vacant lots, swam in Guilford Reservoir and sneaked into baseball games through loose boards at old Oriole Park.

Mr. Steadman graduated from City College, where he lettered in baseball, football and basketball and wrote for the school newspaper. Signed as a catcher by the Pittsburgh Pirates, he spent one season in the minors and hit .125 before swapping his bat for a pencil.

In 1945, the Baltimore News-Post hired Mr. Steadman as a $14-a-week reporter. For much of the next 55 years, he would attract a marble-step readership loyal to his straightforward style, the cavalcade of characters who paraded regularly through his columns and Mr. Steadman's unflagging obstinacy on issues close to his heart.

"Mr. Steadman established his reputation early on. In 1952, he scooped the country with a story on Baltimore's return to the National Football League -- a piece that earned him a $25 bonus. The money went for a beer-and-shrimp bash for the News' sports department.

"John had a thousand sources. He could find out stuff that no one else knew," said Brooks Robinson, the Orioles' Hall of Fame third baseman. "He wouldn't ask you a thousand questions, either; people volunteered information to him."

His sources trusted Mr. Steadman no end.

"John is the one newsman I've never been concerned about talking to," said John Unitas, the Colts' Hall of Fame quarterback. "If you told him something off the record, he'd keep it to himself. There aren't too many [reporters] you can say that about."

Gino Marchetti, the Colts' Hall of Fame defensive end, called Mr. Steadman "the only Baltimore newsman that I really, really trusted. He was morally sound; he never crossed the line."

Mr. Steadman shadowed the Colts from their first scrimmage in 1947. That year his iron man streak began -- he attended every pro football game played by not only the Colts, but also the Ravens. Up until Dec. 10, he covered 719 games in a row. He was one of only eight reporters in the country to attend all 34 Super Bowls.

Toward the end of his streak, Mr. Steadman sometimes sat in the press box in a wheelchair.

After cancer was diagnosed in the fall of 1998, Mr. Steadman endured rigorous chemotherapy and radiation treatments during the next two years while continuing to write his weekly column. He died at the Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care at Greater Baltimore Medical Center.

"He was Ripken before Ripken," said Frank Deford, senior writer for Sports Illustrated and a commentator for National Public Radio.

Mr. Deford grew up in Baltimore during Mr. Steadman's ascent at the News-Post and American. Mr. Steadman left the business in 1954 to become the Colts' assistant general manager and publicity director, but returned to the paper three years later.

"Once you've worked on a newspaper, it's like a man who goes to sea and eternally loves the roll of a ship and where it's going," he explained at the time.

In 1958, Mr. Steadman was named sports editor -- the youngest at a big-city paper. He held that job until the demise of the News American in 1986.

Readers embraced Mr. Steadman's comfortable, conversational style. What he lacked in lyricism, colleagues said, he made up for in legwork.

"He was certainly not a poet," Mr. Deford said. "He was a good reporter. John could write a feisty and entertaining column. He could not have survived as a stylist, but he was very good at what he did."

Mr. Steadman had a newsman's savvy and sense of timing, his peers said.

"He knew what to write, and how and when to write it," said Sam Lacy, sports editor of the Baltimore Afro-American newspaper. "John was an outstanding journalist, a credit to the profession."

Mr. Steadman's unabashed empathy for the underdog was legendary. He gravitated toward sports personalities who had overcome hardships. Here, a story on a blind baseball announcer; there, one on an ice-skating coach who'd lost both legs. Upbeat articles, all -- and readers devoured them.

"There are positives in this world, but without John in Baltimore, we'd never have heard about them," said Vi Ripken, mother of the Orioles' third baseman.

Taking one-man stands appealed to Mr. Steadman. He berated Colts owner Carroll Rosenbloom for charging full ticket prices for preseason games. Another time, when a Colts fan was admonished for blowing a bugle at Memorial Stadium, Mr. Steadman defended the yahoo in print -- and soon began tooting his own horn in the press box.

"He was always a savior for the little guy," Mr. Unitas said. "John wasn't a front-runner. He took on a lot of causes."

When he learned of an 8-year-old cancer patient's final wish, Mr. Steadman shepherded the youth's hero, Orioles outfielder Gene Woodling, to the boy's bedside at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Aboard a Colts charter plane at the time of President John F. Kennedy's assassination, Mr. Steadman wrote a poignant piece on the players' reaction to hearing the news, while flying 30,000 feet above Texas.

He was also a magnet for lovable oddballs who popped up repeatedly in his columns. Favorites included Mr. Diz, a local horse racing tout, and Theodore "Balls" Maggio, a character who scavenged old balls of all shapes and sizes from the Jones Falls and from city sewers.

Mr. Steadman enjoyed writing against the grain. He covered a Colts game from a seat on the team bench. He talked Buddy Young, the club's star runner, into racing a real colt. (The colt won.) He wrote a tongue-in-cheek column about a horse named Mrs. Steadman entered in the fifth race at Liberty Downs.

"He wrote a couple of articles that got people a little whacked out, like when he 'talked' to Babe Ruth in heaven," Brooks Robinson said. "But I enjoyed the offbeat stuff. John could be serious, but he also had that self-deprecating wit."

Once, at spring training, Mr. Steadman cajoled the Orioles into letting him catch -- and got conked by a Hoyt Wilhelm knuckleball. "It might be feasible for baseball players to write stories for newspapers," he wrote ruefully, "but sportswriters should not try to 'switch hit.' "

At the News American, he mentored aspiring young journalists, including Sun columnist Michael Olesker.

"John had me cover stories that transcended sports, like a champion weightlifter who'd grown up with polio," Mr. Olesker said. "He always stressed the human heart beyond the game.

"He held onto those eternal verities of life that we all learned as kids, but sloughed off as adults."

When the News American folded, Steadman joined the staff of The Evening Sun. Despite a fervid following, he greeted the public with characteristic humility:

"Our profound wish is The Baltimore Sun and you, the readership, have the tolerance to put up with the 'new kid' who has appeared in your midst."

When the Evening Sun folded in 1995, he moved to The Sun. Mr. Steadman's last column, a remembrance of the late Navy football coach and war veteran Emery "Swede" Larson, was published Dec. 3. Mr. Steadman's final entry in the pages of The Sun related a warm and thoughtful look at Larson, described in the column as a man who "came away a winner every time."

Steadman finished the column with this paragraph: "Larson is buried only 100 yards from John F. Kennedy at Arlington National Cemetery. Let his epitaph be written: He never lost to Army."

"John was the epitome of Baltimore, a great human being," said Art Donovan, the Colts Hall of Fame lineman. "He's been a friend through thick and thin. He came to see me after my heart surgery and brought me salami sandwiches.

"To go through what he has gone through in the past two years took more guts than anyone I've ever met. I say a prayer for him every night, always will.

"I say, 'God bless John Steadman.' "

A lifetime member of the Professional Baseball Players Association, Mr. Steadman belonged to the Baseball Writers, Football Writers and Pro Football Writers associations. He also served on the selection committee of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

He won three Freedom Foundation medals -- one for writing and two for radio commentaries -- and wrote seven books, notably "The Best (And Worst) of Steadman," an anthology of columns that in 1975 won the Dick McCann Memorial Award for Distinguished Writing. Others included "The Baltimore Colts Story" and "Miracle Men of Football," which celebrated the Colts' first championship in 1958; and "Days In The Sun," a compilation of columns from The Sun, published in 2000.

He is survived by his wife of 48 years, the former Mary Lee Kreafle, of Stevensville in Queen Anne's County; a brother, Tom Steadman, of Ellicott City; and a sister, Betty Fones, of Greenwich, Conn.

Authored:
Football's Miracle Men: The Baltimore Colts' Story, 1959
The Best (And Worst) Of Steadman: A Collection of Stories By The Sports Editor of The Baltimore News American, 1974
The Greatest Football Game Ever Played: When the Baltimore Colts and the New York Giants Faced Sudden Death, 1988
From Colts to Ravens: A Behind-The-Scenes Look at Baltimore Professional Football, 1997
John Steadman: Days in The Sun, 2000

1997: Nestor Aparicio/John Steadman.--------------------------January 10, 1980: L-R: John Steadman, Earl Campbell (Houston Oilers), Pete Rozelle. Schick Trophy for MVP.

[Bill Burgess]

Roger Kahn

Born: October 31, 1927, Brooklyn, NY
Died: Still alive

New York sports writer;
Brooklyn, NY, 12-year old,(April 11, 1940 census)
New York Herald Tribune, general reporter, 1948 - 1955 (covered Dodgers)
Sports Illustrated contributing writer, 1955,
Newsweek sports editor, 1956-60.
Saturday Evening Post, editor at large, 1963-69;
Esquire columnist, 1969-75. Time, 1976.

Father: Gordon, born New York, 1902?; Mother: Olga, born New York, 1903?;

A premier baseball essayist, the Brooklyn-born Kahn at twenty-five began covering the Dodgers for the New York Herald Tribune. He later wrote for Sports Illustrated and Newsweek. His 1971 best-seller, The Boys of Summer, an account of the great Brooklyn teams of the 1950s, is a recognized classic.

His classic 1972 memoir, The Boys of Summer, examines his relationship with his father seen through the prism of their shared affection for the Brooklyn Dodgers, a team Mr. Kahn would cover as a young reporter for the New York Herald Tribune. Kahn's two seasons (1952-53) as a Dodger beat writer coincided with the peak of the Jackie Robinson era in Brooklyn, when Robinson - by now established as a major star and a leader of the Dodgers - still had to confront racism on and off the field.

Kahn later worked as a general-assignment magazine writer and has excelled in writing about non-sporting topics as well. But, as an author, his work on baseball ranks among the best of his time. In addition to The Boys of Summer, Kahn wrote books such as Good Enough to Dream, a chronicle of his year as the owner of a minor league baseball franchise, and The Era 1947-57, an examination of the decade during which the three New York clubs - the Dodgers, Yankees and Giants - dominated Major League Baseball. His acclaimed life of the great heavyweight boxing champion, Jack Dempsey, A Flame of Pure Fire, is under development as a major motion picture

Kahn's latest book, Into My Own, (publication June 2006) is a memoir describing friendships with Robert Frost, Jackie Robinson. Pee Wee Reese, Eugene McCarthy, and his late son, Roger Laurence Kahn, who died by his own hand in 1987. Mr. Kahn lives in a Hudson Valley community with his wife, the psychotherapist, Katharine Colt Johnson. He was inducted into the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame on April 30, 2006. On that occasion Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig wrote, "Roger is an icon in our sport." Dave Anderson, the Pulitzer-Prize winning sports columnist of The New York Times, added: "Anyone who has ever read any of Roger's vast collection of writing knows only too well that he is not merely one of America's great sportswriters, but one of America's great writers period."
------------------------------
baseball-reference-bullpen
Roger Kahn was born in Brooklyn, NY in 1927, the son of second-generation Jewish immigrants. Both his father and grandfather had a great love of baseball and were avid fans of the Brooklyn Dodgers, transmitting their passion to young Roger, at the despair of his mother, the highly-cultured Olga Kahn, who saw baseball as a waste of time. Olga did succeed in transmitting to her son another passion that would serve him well in life, for poetry and good writing.

After dropping out of college, Kahn joined the New York Herald Tribune as a copyboy in the late 1940's, and quickly made his way up by writing stories about local sports. In 1952, he was given the job as the reporter covering the Dodgers for the season, a position he held for all of 1953 as well. Both years, the Dodgers went all the way to the World Series only to lose to the New York Yankees, and soon after the end of the 1953 World Series, Dodgers manager Charlie Dressen, who had become a close friend, was fired, and Kahn's father, Gordon Kahn, died of a sudden heart attack, marking the end of Roger's boyhood. He would later turn his recollections of those two seasons, complemented with interviews of former Dodger players conducted 15 years later, into the classic book The Boys of Summer, published in 1972, which is regarded as one of the best books ever written about baseball.

In 1954, Kahn took a job with the newly-founded Sports Illustrated where he became a feature writer. He eventually branched out into other fields of reporting, while still retaining his undying love for baseball and his attachment for the regretted Brooklyn Dodgers. His other books about baseball include: The Seventh Game (1982); Good Enough to Dream (1985 - about his one season as owner of a minor league franchise Utica Blue Sox); Joe and Marilyn (1986 - a work about the stormy mariage of Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe); The Era, 1947-1957: When the Yankees, the New York Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers ruled the World (1993 ISBN 0395561558); and The Head Game: Baseball Seen from the Pitcher's Mound (2000).
-----------------------------------------------------
Roger Kahn (Sportswriter. Born, Brooklyn, Oct. 31, 1927.) Joining the New York Herald Tribune fresh out of N.Y.U. in 1948, Roger Kahn began his career as a general assignment reporter but gravitated to sports. During that period, Kahn covered the Dodgers in Brooklyn but left the paper in 1955 to become a contributor to the then-new Sports Illustrated.

In 1956, he was named the New York sports editor of Newsweek, where he remained until 1960. Kahn became a prolific and much-praised magazine writer, but was transformed into a national name in 1972 with the publication of The Boys of Summer, his insightful book about the great Dodgers teams he had covered in the 1950s. Another baseball book, A Season in the Sun, followed in 1977 to general, though not universal, acclaim. His third national best-seller was Pete Rose: My Story (with Rose) in 1989. (The Bill Shannon Biographical Dictionary of New York Sports is an open database of sports biographies maintained by Jordan Sprechman and Marty Appel.)

Authored:
The Boys of Summer, 1971
A Season in the Sun, 1977
Pete Rose: My Story, 1989 (with Pete Rose)
A Flame of Pure Fire: Jack Dempsey and the Roaring '20s
Good Enough to Dream
Into My Own: The Remarkable People and Events That Shaped a Life
Joe & Marilyn: A Memory of Love
October Men: Reggie Jackson, George Steinbrenner, Billy Martin, and the Yankees' Miraculous Finish in 1978
Beyond the Boys of Summer: The Very Best of Roger Kahn
Memories of Summer: When Baseball Was an Art, and Writing About It a Game
The Era 1947-1957: When the Yankees, the Giants, and the Dodgers Ruled the World
The Head Game: Baseball Seen from the Pitcher's Mound
But Not to Keep
Games We Used to Play: A Lover's Quarrel With the World of Sport
How the Weather Was
Inside Big League Baseball
The 1954 Mutual Baseball Almanac
The Battle for Morningside Heights: Why Students Rebel
The Little Red Book of Baseball Wisdom
The Mutual Baseball Almanac
The Passionate People: What It Means To Be A Jew In America.
The Seventh Game
The World of John Lardner

[Bill Burgess]

Glenn Ernest Dickey, Jr.

Born: February 16, 1936, Virginia, MN
Died: Still Alive

San Francisco sports writer;
St. Louis County, Township 60, MN, 4-year old, (April 29, 1940 census)
Watsonville Register- Pajaronian
Watsonville, CA, sports editor, 1958-63
San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco sports writer, 1963 - 1971, sports columnist, 1971 - present.

Father: Glenn Dickey, Sr., born Iowa, 1911?; Mother: Madlyn, born Illinois, 1915?;

Biography Resource Center:
Veteran sports journalist Glenn Dickey has been covering major league sports in the San Francisco area for over forty years, most of that time for the San Francisco Chronicle. During that time he has written books on several championship teams, as well as several broad examinations of sports history. In his 1980 survey The History of the American League since 1901, Dickey manages to cover eighty years of baseball history in a “well-organized, clear treatment,” according to Library Journal contributor G. S. Schwartz. Similarly, Dickey's 1983 survey The History of the World Series since 1903 is “a lively, interpretive history,” Morey Berger noted in Library Journal. Dickey has also written histories of baseball's National League and of professional American basketball.

With his long experience in sports, Dickey has written biographies both about and with prominent sports figures. He collaborated with National Football League referee Jim Tunney on the latter's autobiography, Impartial Judgment, as well as with Super Bowl-winning coach Bill Walsh of the San Francisco 49ers. The latter book, Building a Champion: On Football and the Making of the 49ers, was termed “a notch above the usual sports autobiography” by Library Journal contributor Ron Chepesiuk.

Dickey's works also include several volumes on individual teams, including football's San Francisco 49ers and Oakland Raiders, and baseball's San Francisco Giants and Oakland A's. In his 2002 book Champions: The Story of the First Two Oakland A's Dynasties--and the Building of the Third, Dickey explores the reasons for the success of the team, which won three World Series in the 1970s and played in three World Series in the 1980s, winning in 1989. The author “effectively mixes a straight narrative approach with oral history,” Wes Lukowsky noted in Booklist; as a result he “conveys a vivid sense” of each dynasty's workings. Champions is “a solid, telling, and delightful account of the A's,” Robert C. Cotrell and Paul Kaplan remarked in Library Journal, “with many insightful portraits.”

PERSONAL INFORMATION
Born February 16, 1936, in Virginia, MN; son of Glenn Ernest and Madlyn Marie (a homemaker; maiden name, Emmert) Dickey; married Nancy Jo McDaniel (an artist and homemaker), February 25, 1967; children: Kevin Scott. Education: University of California, Berkeley, B.A., 1958. Politics: Democrat. Religion: Presbyterian. Memberships: Newspaper Guild, Baseball Writers Association of America. Addresses: Home: 120 Florence Ave., Oakland, CA 94618. Office: San Francisco Chronicle, 901 Mission St., San Francisco, CA 94103. Agent: Mitchell J. Hamilburg Agency, 292 South La Cienega Blvd., Ste. 212, Beverly Hills, CA 90211. E-mail: [email protected].

AWARDS: “Best Sports Stories” award, 1963, 1968, 1971, and 1977.

CAREER: Watsonville Register- Pajaronian, Watsonville, CA, sports editor, 1958-63; San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco, CA, sports writer, 1963-71, sports columnist, 1971--.

WRITINGS:
The Jock Empire: Its Rise and Deserved Fall, Chilton, 1974.
The Great No-Hitters, Chilton, 1976.
Champs and Chumps: An Insider's Look at American Sports Heroes, Chronicle Books, 1976.
The History of American League Baseball since 1901, Stein & Day (New York, NY), 1980.
America Has a Better Team: The Story of Bill Walsh and San Francisco's World Champion 49ers, Harbor, 1982.
The History of Professional Basketball since 1896, Stein & Day, 1982.
The History of the World Series since 1903, Stein & Day, 1984.
(With Jim Tunney) Impartial Judgment: The “Dean of NFL Referees” Calls Pro Football As He Sees It, F. Watts, 1988.
San Francisco 49ers: The Super Years, Chronicle Books, 1989.
(With Bill Walsh) Building a Champion: On Football and the Making of the 49ers, St. Martin's Press, 1990.
Just Win, Baby: Al Davis and His Raiders, Harcourt, 1991.
Sports Great Jerry Rice (juvenile), Enslow Publishers, 1993.
Sports Great Kevin Mitchell (juvenile), Enslow Publishers, 1993.
The San Francisco 49ers: The First Fifty Years, Andrews & McMeel, 1995.
The San Francisco Giants: A Forty-Year Anniversary, Woodford Press, 1997.
Glenn Dickey's 49ers: The Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of the NFL's Greatest Dynasty, Prima Publication, 2000.
Champions: The Story of the First Two Oakland A's Dynasties--and the Building of the Third, Triumph Books, 2002.