Lee Congdon - Legendary Sports Writers of the Golden Age: Grantland Rice, Red Smith, Shirley Povich, and W. C. Heinz

Legendary Sports Writers of the Golden Age

Lee Congdon

ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD

Lanham Boulder New York London

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Congdon, Lee, 1939 author.

Title: Legendary sports writers of the golden age : Grantland Rice, Red Smith, Shirley Povich, and W.C. Heinz / Lee Congdon.

Description: Lanham : Rowman & Littlefield, [2017] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016043504 (print) | LCCN 2017005692 (ebook) | ISBN 9781442277519 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781442277526 (electronic)

Subjects: LCSH: Rice, Grantland, 18801954. | Smith, Red, 19051982. | Povich, Shirley. | Heinz, W. C. (Wilfred Charles), 19152008. | SportswritersUnited StatesBiography. | Sports journalismUnited StatesHistory20th century.

Classification: LCC GV742.4 .C66 2017 (print) | LCC GV742.4 (ebook) | DDC 796.0922 [B]dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016043504

TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Printed in the United States of America

To Carol, Mitchell, Colleen, and Jennifer

This is an appreciation of four writers who devoted their considerable talents to covering the world of sports. They did so for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was living and working during the Golden Age of Sports. When people speak of the Golden Age of Sports, they are generally referring to the 1920sthe time of Babe Ruth, Bobby Jones, Jack Dempsey, and Red Grange. The argument advanced here, however, is that the Golden Age continued on through the 1930s, 1940s, and, especially, 1950s, before coming to an end in about 1963. In the fall of that year, President Kennedy was assassinated, and almost at the same time, the historical (as opposed to the chronological) decade of the 1960s began. The United States and American sports would never be the same.

With the exception of Grantland Rice, my subjectsRed Smith, Shirley Povich, and W. C. Heinzlived on into the new era, but their best work continued to concern athletes and events of the Golden Age, which was one of the reasons they constituted an informal fraternity. But there were others. They covered many of the same events, admired one anothers work, and socialized when opportunity presented itself. When in Manhattan, these writers headed straight for Toots Shorsthe Mother Lodge, as Red Smith called the famous saloon-restaurantwhere they knew they would be joining athletes and members of their guild.

Like all good writers, each of them developed a distinctive style. Grantland Rices celebration of great athletes reflected a poetic sensibility. Because of his command of the English language, Red Smith followed Rice in moving sports writing in a literary direction. Shirley Povich not only continued in the RiceSmith tradition, but also displayed a rare sympathy for those athletes whom critics took to task for their failures both on and off the field. A novelist at heart, W. C. Heinz adopted a style similar to the one made famous by Ernest Hemingway, while striving to remind readers that athletes are human beings, not simply performers. Taken together, these four writers lifted sports reporting to heights that it is unlikely to reach again, which is why it is important to remember them and the remarkable era they immortalized.

Grantland Rice

American sports writing, insofar as it counts as a literary pursuit, owes a lasting debt to Grantland Rice. Having earned a degree in classics from Vanderbilt University, Granny (as his friends called him) brought to his chosen profession broad learning and a conviction that great athletes were actors in a drama as heroic and meaningful as that of the ancient Greeks. Possessing a poetic nature, he found time, while publishing more than 67 million words as a journalist, to craft more than seven thousand verses, some of them of high quality; he regularly began a column with lines of verse.

Henry Grantland Rice was born in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, on November 1, 1880. The place was the scene of an important Civil War battle, fought on July 13, 1862. Led by General Nathan Bedford Forrest, the Confederate Army defeated Union forces and, in the process, established their leaders reputation. Rices maternal grandfather, Henry Grantland, took part in the battle and spoke to his grandson of his admiration for Forrest and lack of respect for the more senior General Braxton Bragg. Although regarded as incompetent, even by his own men, Bragg treated Forrest as a mere raider who lacked the West Point education he himself possessed. Not a man to suffer fools gladly, Forrest once dressed Bragg down in words not customarily used in addressing a senior officer: You have threatened to arrest me for not obeying your orders promptly. I dare you to do it, and I say to you that if you ever again try to interfere with me or cross my path, it will be at the peril of your life.

Forrest was, and continues to be, a controversial figure, in part because of his April 12, 1864, capture of Fort Pillow in Henning, Tennessee, during the course of which defenders, many of whom were black, were either killed after refusing to surrender or executed. After the war, he joined the Ku Klux Klan, although whether he was ever the Grand Wizard remains uncertain. Nevertheless, because of his courage, daring, and military gifts (without having had formal military training), Forrest was a hero to Tennessee boys, including Grantland Rice, who admired men of adventure and courage, and displayed it himself, when, already famous, 37 years of age, married, and the father of one, he, like Bedford Forrest in the Civil War, enlisted as a private when the United States entered World War I. On thru whatever hells may wait, he wrote in a verse about the lure of battle for the New York Times, With marching feet and rolling drum/Beyond the final grip of Fate/The Great Adventure whispers Come!

Due to his maturity and celebrity, Rice quickly rose to sergeant and then second lieutenant of the artillery. Originally assigned to work with the Stars and Stripes, the military newspaper, he sought and was assigned a role in the MeuseArgonne Offensive (September 26November 11, 1918), during which he faced real danger, although as an artilleryman he was stationed near the rear of the front. He survived but never forgot those who did not. In A Marine Comes Home, he wrote of John W. Overton of Tennessee, killed in action in July 1918.

He has come home again to find old dreams

Beneath the shelter of his native sky,