To mark the sad end of Grantland (named in honour of the great American typewriter-belting sports writer Grantland Rice), here's a look at 91 US sports writers and their typewriters from over the years. Grantland, the sports and pop-culture blog owned and operated by ESPN, was started in 2011 by veteran writer and sports journalist Bill Simmons (above), who
remained as editor-in-chief until May this year. ESPN announced on Friday it
was suspending the publication of Grantland.
This, seemingly, is how the modern-day sports writer desports her/himself. (It's Mexican Ines Sainz taking a break from the hard slog of sports reporting in 2010.) The image below is a lot more like I remember it, squashed up on unsteady benches, uncomfortable seats, sometimes no seats at all.
Or sometimes this, perhaps
Looking through these images, can you pick which brands were the indoor (offices, homes) and outdoor (ball park press boxes, press rooms) favourites of the sports writers? Indoors, I'd say it's a toss-up between Royal and Underwood, while outdoors, Remington on top, but the Hermes Baby seems to have done quite well. My favourite image is the one of Harry Grayson, followed by Stan Isaacs.
Al Stump
Al Thomy
Arthur
Daley
Babe
Young
Barney
Kilgore
Barney
Kremenko, centre
Bill
Corum (with Joe Louis and an Underwood 5, right)
Bill
Cunningham
Bill
Driscoll
Bill
Heinz
Bill
Nicholls
Bill
Saroyan
Bob
Considine
Bud
Shaver
Charles
Beane
Charles
Doyle
Charlie
Roberts
Chet
Smith
Chuck
Heaton
Cullen
Cain
Damon
Runyon (my No 2 favourite)
Dan
Daniel
Dan
Parker
Dave Egan
Denman
Thompson
Dick
Young
Ed Bang
Ed Burns
Ed
Danworth (with Furman Bisher)
Ed
Pollock
Ed Wray
Eric Zale
Faye
Lloyd
Frank Deford
Frank
Graham
Fred Lieb
Furman
Bisher
Gene
Fowler
George
Lederer
Gordon
Cobbledick
Grantland
Rice (all-time great No 2)
Gus
Steiger
Hal
Lebovitz
Harold
Parrott
Harry
Grayson
Harry
Keck
Henry
Newman
Henry
Smith
Herb Wind
Heywood
Broun
Hunter S. Thompson
Jack Kofoed
Jack Kofoed
Jerry
Izenberg
Jim
Coleman
Jim
Leonard
Jim
Minter
Jimmy Breslin (right, with Red Smith)
Joe
McGuff
Joe
Williams
John
Drebinger
John P.
Carmichael (is it a Barr?)
John Lake
Johnny Kilbane
Ken Smith
Larry
Robinson
Lou
Effrat
Mary
Garber
Max Kase
Melissa
Ludtke
Mickey
Walker (Woodstock)
Ned
Cronin
Oscar Kahan
Paul
Gallico
Paul
Rickard
Philip
Wylie
Quentin
Reynolds, my idol in my teens
Red Smith
(all-time great No 1)
Rex
Edmonson
Ring
Lardner (my No 2 favourite)
Robert Lipsyte
Royal Brougham
Sam Lacy
Sec Taylor
Shirley Povich
Stan Baumgartner
Stan Isaacs
Sydney James
Unnamed US sports writer at the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games
Unnamed golf writer
Unnamed something (dog?) writer
Westbrook Pegler (another of my favourites)
It's a shame about Grantland. But what an historic roll call of sports writers! Thank you.
ReplyDeleteExcept for recognizing many of the typewriters and a few names this is all new to me. I seldom read the sports pages or periodicals unless it was on local hunting/fishing. Most of my spectator sports reading came off the teletype when I was on the air.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing all the great photos.
Wow at Frank Deford! I've never seen a period photo of anyone using a Royal Empress.
ReplyDeleteI've never seen a picture of Royal Brougham--he was a well-known sportswriter in Seattle--the City of Seattle renamed S. Connecticut St in his honor--Royal Brougham Way borders both of our stadiums--Safeco Field (baseball) and CenturyLink Field (football)
ReplyDeleteWhat a huge collection of superb photos!
ReplyDeleteI don't think that's a Barr, it's a Remington noiseless portable.
Never realized that Saroyan was a sportswriter.
A lovely assembly, but the brilliant [sepia] shot of the sports writers all up in the gods, it appears to have sixteen [16] odd (even?) Lord Kitchener Mouse Taches attached to otherwise smooth-shaven faces!
ReplyDeleteThank you for featuring my father. That photograph epitomizes the Daily News with its teletype constantly chattering and the old fashioned telephone used to call in stories from sports events. I still have my dad's typewriter shown in the picture.
ReplyDelete