Colleagues Remember Sportswriter Larry Whiteside
Gregory H. Lee Jr., senior assistant sports editor at the Boston Globe and 2005-07 chair of the Sports Task Force of the National Association of Black Journalists, filed this report for Journal-isms on Tuesday:
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When New York Daily News sports editor Leon Carter was beginning his career at the Louisville Courier-Journal in the early 1980s, he knew about the famous Larry Whiteside “black list.”
“Long before I met Larry, I was on the black list,” Carter recalled. “In those days, a copy editor was hard to find. If you were African American, it was harder.”
But Carter was found by Newsday editor Dick Sandler, who had Whiteside’s list in hand and called Carter for an interview at the paper.
Carter finally had a chance to meet Whiteside in Atlanta in 1984 at the National Association of Black Journalists convention, where Whiteside encouraged the young editor and had a prophecy.
“You are going to be a top editor someday,” Carter recalled Whiteside telling him. “Today I am one of six black sports editors in the country and I often wonder where I would be if Dick Sandler did not see the black list.”
After his tribute, Carter presented Whiteside’s wife, Elaine, an album of tributes to her husband from the NABJ Sports Task Force.
That story was among the many told on Tuesday at Whiteside’s funeral before an overflowing crowd of about 90 at Newton Cemetery Chapel in Newton Center, Mass., outside Boston. Whiteside, the Boston Globe sportswriting pioneer, died at age 69 on Friday.
Many of Whiteside’s colleagues were present, including Globe sports columnists Bob Ryan and Dan Shaughnessy, who read from the Book of Revelations; Nick Cafardo of the Globe; Michael Holley of WEEI radio; ESPN’s Michael Smith; Howard Bryant of the Washington Post and former Red Sox player Tommy Harper. For many years, Whiteside was the only journalist covering the Red Sox who was not a white male.
Whiteside was lauded as a pioneer for those who pursued careers in sports journalism.
“He is historic,” said longtime Boston Globe colleague Derrick Z. Jackson, who was No. 6 on Whiteside’s list. “He is really the Jackie Robinson for the black sports writers around the country.”
Jackson recalled that he began his career at the Milwaukee Journal in 1972. When he filed his first game story, no one told him how long to write it, so he produced 3,000 words. The story was eventually cut to 300 words and there were red marks from the sports editor that said, “You will never make it with work like this.”
“There was one full-time African American there,” Jackson said. “Thank goodness it was Larry Whiteside. I went to his desk and he opened the desk drawer full of hate mail. Whiteside said to Jackson, “He is testing you . . . the stronger you walk . . . the more they test you . . . don’t let them break you.”
Jackson read some of the many thoughts voiced by members of the NABJ Sports Task Force listserve.
He read CBS Sportsline columnist Mike Freeman’ s tribute, recalling Freeman’s days as a young intern at the Globe in the 1980s.
“Larry Whiteside was my hero. I can’t say it any better than that. A quick story to illustrate: In the late 1980s, I interned at the Globe. As many people know, racial tensions in Boston at that time were high. On my third day interning, I cut through a Boston neighborhood called Savin Hill. I did not realize that not so long before I arrived, a group of whites from Savin Hill had chased several young black kids through the same neighborhood, chasing them in front of a moving subway train, killing them. . . . The next day I went to the Globe for work and word had spread throughout the offices about what had happened. One of the first people to speak to me was Larry Whiteside. . . . Larry educated me about the city: where to go, where not to go.”
Jackson added that Whiteside even went a step further, telling editors to add to the intern orientation where and where not to go in Boston.
Back in 1979, Whiteside touched a young Michael Wilbon, who was interning for the Washington Post, where he is now a columnist.
“I walked into the old Comiskey Park press box as an intern the summer of 1979, and this brotha with a gap-tooth smile comes over and says, ‘Young man, I’m Larry Whiteside, who are you?’ I told him I was a Washington Post intern, still in school at Northwestern. . . . He took a piece of paper out of the inside breast pocket of his jacket and said, ‘Your number?'” I think I was No. 37 . . . That number is in my head for some reason. That’s how many black sportswriters at daily newspapers there were at that time . . . Though I hardly ever cover baseball anymore, I got into the business to become a baseball writer, which I did a lot of my first five or so years in this business, and one of the coolest things I could do was be in the same press box as Larry, which might also mean a long breakfast or lunch on the road . . . Advice, warnings, encouragement . . . He was just a wonderful, wonderful man. . . . To walk without Ralph Wiley and Larry certainly makes it a longer, less exciting journey.”
Stanford law professor William Gould, a longtime friend of Whiteside who chaired the National Labor Relations Board during the Clinton administration, echoed many who spoke of Whiteside’s selfless attitude.
“He was the consummate gentleman,” Gould said. “He was in the business of helping others. His winning personality opened doors in baseball. The ultimate honor would be to put ‘Sides’ in Cooperstown,” in the Baseball Hall of Fame, he said. Gould said Whiteside was the first sports journalist awarded a Knight fellowship at Stanford.
Whiteside started the black list in 1971, three years after the Kerner Commission, reporting on the racial riots of the 1960s, said the lack of black journalists in the mainstream media was partly responsible. There were only nine blacks on Whiteside’s list, Jackson said.
“The list went with Whiteside on the road. He always challenged sports editors on why there were not more black sports reporters,” Jackson said. “In 1983, the black list reached 85. He was a hero, a godfather and a prince.”
The NABJ Sports Task Force has started a scholarship in honor of Whiteside. Donations can be sent to the National Association of Black Journalists at 8701 Adelphi Blvd, Adelphi, MD 20783-1716.
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Columnist J.A. Adande in Talks with ESPN.com
Sports columnist J.A. Adande, who took a buyout at the Los Angeles Times last month, is in talks with ESPN.com, Adande told a sports blog.
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“I wouldn’t say I ‘turned down’ Sports Illustrated because I’m not sure it ever came to a formal offer,” Adande told The Big Lead on Tuesday night. “Yes, Sports Illustrated Managing Editor Terry McDonell called me when he found out I was leaving the Times. I was flattered that SI would think of me, and McDonell had some intriguing ideas for what I could do for them. But I couldn’t continue to appear on ‘Around the Horn’ in that scenario,” Adande said, referring to the ESPN show.
“I realized how much fun I have doing ‘Around the Horn.’ It’s more work than you see, but for the hour that I sit in the chair while we’re taping I have a great time. How many jobs can you say that about?
“I’ll miss out on the chance to write for the greatest writing brand in the history of sports journalism, but I’ll still get the chance to write for a large audience at espn.com, if and when the deal gets finalized. The recognition from ATH is nice, but it’s much more satisfying when people tell me they enjoy reading my columns.”
ESPN spokesman Josh Krulewitz told Journal-isms the network had nothing to announce.
Adande also told The Big Lead, “I don’t know where you got the notion that I’ll be sitting on my couch. I’ve never been that type of columnist, and at ESPN I would continue to travel, go to events and talk to people. And although I would be writing primarily about the NBA, I wouldn’t be writing about it exclusively. Regardless of how many people write for any part of the web site, if you’re compelling and informative, you’ll be read. That’s my challenge and responsibility wherever I work.”
Sports Illustrated’s McDonell told Journal-isms in April, “We just need more diversity on this staff. I thought I could make it change very quickly. It’s harder than I thought.”
