The 10 Best US Sports Writers of All Time
The best US sports writers ever!
Well before TV and radio, if you wanted to take in a game you had to go in person.
If that wasn’t a possibility, your only other option was to ask a friend or read about a game in print.
So you had to rely on a journalist who is essentially a storyteller to find out what happened. That, after all, is what the best journalists do.
They don’t string facts together- they tell stories and sometimes give informed opinions.
Find out about some of the best US sports writers in history.
1. Bob Ryan: Boston Globe
If you could call someone a sport walking encyclopedia, Bob Ryan would be one of the closest to it.
He has written about all sports since 1968 for the Boston Globe, a major newspaper in the Boston area. He has also written about all four major sports teams in Boston: the Celtics, Bruins, Patriots and Red Sox.
He has even attended the Olympics as a journalist.
Without knowing anything else about him, this experience means that he witnessed the back half of the Celtics winning 11 championships in 13 years, the breaking of the Curse of the Bambino in 2004, the Patriots winning seven Super Bowls and numerous other accomplishments in the sports world.
Instead of just writing about sports, he is also an avid sports fan who offered a unique perspective on the games he watched.
Ryan has also appeared in various podcasts and he regularly features on shows such as Outside the Horn, a show which airs regularly on ESPN.
2. Grantland Rice
Grantland Rice had the privilege of covering some of the best athletes in history, and also some of the most famous games in history.
According to Rice, the greatest game he ever wrote about was the one between Sewanee and Vanderbilt, (Vanderbilt is Rice’s alma mater) where a fascinating play that included a double pass occurred.
Some other athletes Rice covered were Babe Ruth, Jack Dempsey and Knute Rockne.
Unlike Bob Ryan, Grantland Rice worked for several newspapers throughout his career.
This included some of the most prominent newspapers in the south, such as the Atlanta Journal, the Cleveland News and the Nashville Tennessean, as well as various newspapers in New York.
3. Red Smith
Red Smith wasn’t just a writer or storyteller. Just like any of these other journalists, writing came extremely easy to him.
As a matter of fact, he is quoted in a book called, “A quarto of modern literature”.”
The quote is sandwiched between an essay written by Winston Churchill and a story by Dylan Thomas in a book that is used to teach some college-level classes.
As for his actual career, Smith worked for the Milwaukee Journal, St. Louis Journal and the Philadelphia Record.
In his later years, Smith became known as America’s favourite Sports writer as he was the most syndicated sports columnist in America.
He got his degree from Vanderbilt University and he was born about 45 minutes east in Murfreesboro, TN.
He also has an award named after him, which goes to any journalist who has made a major contribution to sports journalism over the past year.
This award is given out by the Associated Press Sports Editors, a national journalism organisation.
4. Jonathan Wilson
It’s safe to say that all you’ll get from Jonathan Wilson is the truth.
As a matter of fact, the British journalist has admitted that he would be exceptionally bad at tabloid journalism. Wilson writes mainly for various non-American football (soccer) publications.
Wilson has also written several books such as ‘Behind the Curtain’, ‘Inverting the Pyramid’, ‘Angels with Dirty Faces’, ‘The Names Heard Long Ago’ and ‘Two Brothers.’
5. Guillem Balague
Guillem Balague is one of the personalities in Spanish sports to benefit from the fact that one can work both in print and broadcasting simultaneously.
He works for BBC Radio 5 Live, Laliga TV and Spanish Newspaper Sport.
Balague has also written numerous books, including books about the best football players in history, such as Messi and Maradona.
6. Rick Reilly
If you were ever a Sports Illustrated subscriber, chances are you will recognise this name.
He is the guy who would write a column that often appeared on the last page of Sports Illustrated. The 11-time sports writer of the year is also inducted into the National Sports Writers Hall of Fame.
Reilly’s greatest contribution to the world came when he was stuck for ideas when producing his weekly column in 2006.
He produced a campaign called Nothing But Nets, a charity that helps to fight malaria and produce nets for those who live in Africa.
If you’re wondering how much the charity has raised in 16 years, that number is well over $33 million.
7. Tony Massarotti
For those who live in the Massachusetts area who aspire to work in sports journalism, Tony Massarotti has worked for quite a few of the local media outlets.
This includes the two biggest papers in Boston: the Boston Herald and the Boston Globe.
In this past season, he started doing colour commentating for NESN, which is the regional sports network of the Boston Red Sox, a team he covered for the Herald from 1994-2008.
Outside of writing and commentating, Mazz also has a show on 98.5. The Sports Hub has been in existence since 2009.
While he has some experience in every single sports medium, he has also had time to help write several books.
This includes ‘Big Papi: My Story of Big Dreams and Big Hits,’ written with David Ortiz, and ‘Knuckler: My Life with Baseball’s Most Confounding Pitch’, written with Tim Wakefield.
8. Jackie MacMullan
Jackie Macmullan was a highly-touted journalist for roughly 40 years, starting at a time when women sports journalists were a rarity.
She just retired, making her final appearance on August 31 on the ESPN show Around the Horn.
On the day she retired, she was showered with compliments from famous sports figures and other personalities in the sports media landscape.
Before entering the sports media landscape at a national level, Macmullan spent decades writing for the Boston Globe.
She started at this paper as an intern and eventually became a premier US sports writer, primarily writing about the New England Patriots and Boston Celtics.
9. Tom Verducci
There is one thing unique to Tom Verducci compared to the other writers on this list.
He temporarily had a major league baseball career, when he tried out for the Toronto Blue Jays. Unfortunately this did not work out.
However, this didn’t happen at the time you would think. It happened in 2005 when he was still a writer for Sports Illustrated.
He was naturally able to transfer into the sports journalism world and it didn’t take him long to be able to write for publications known at a national level.
After writing for one year at Florida today, Verducci moved way up the coast to New York where he wrote for New York Newsday in 1983.
He then moved his way up to Sports Illustrated in the 1993 season.
Outside of writing for Sports Illustrated, Verducci also works on the broadcasting side for nationally known TV networks such as MLB Network.
10. Dan Raphael
If you don’t follow some of the less conventional sports, Dan Raphael may not be a household name- but he certainly deserves to be on this list!
Raphael primarily writes for ESPN about boxing.
Prior to coming to ESPN, Raphael was already an accomplished journalist and he worked for some national newspapers, such as his role as a boxing writer for USA Today for five years.
While Raphael made the big time in journalism writing about boxing, this isn’t the only sport he has covered.
He has covered auto sports, local sports and also the Binghamton Mets, the AA team for the New York Mets.
