Finally found my classic QA with Jim Murray...

It took probably three hours of digging and re-digging over the weekend. Had not looked at it in many years. It was in of all places, my NFL archives. No idea how it got there. But it's really a wonderful read. Here it is, totally exclusive to SportsJournalists.com members... enjoy... http://thebiofile.com/2011/04/biofile-classic-with-jim-murray-1919-1998/

 

I know you've gotten a lot of grief on these boards, but thanks for posting that.

Meeting Murray was one best days of my journalism career. He surpassed my impossibly high expectations.

 

Thanks Mizz, well said. Where did you meet him at?

 

Great stuff, Scoop...thanks for that...

 

Small correction, Mark: Jimmy McLarnin was the welterweight champ in 1933, not 1993. I know it's just a typo, but it hits you right at the start.

I like how Murray's says his most-prized possession was his Pulitzer.

 

I enjoyed it as well.

 

A Dodgers game in 1997. I saw him in the press box and blurted out, "Oh my god, Jim Murray is here." and a friend/mentor who knew him introduced me and I talked with him for about 10 minutes. He was so gracious. I kept saying, "Oh my God, if I'm bothering you just tell me and I'll leave you alone..." He laughed every time I said it.

Before he left the game, he came over and said how nice it was to speak with me, and honestly, I was so floored I could barely speak.

 

Ok, I'll share. I was fortunate enough to be friends with Murray for the last year of his life. My favorite line was when I went to his house in the desert for a party and I brought a bottle of wine. He opened the door looked at me and the wine and said, "What, are you afraid we wouldn't have anything to drink?"
The most touching moment was at a PGA Tour event at Riviera CC and I brought my dad along. My father was a stoic German who didn't say a lot and worked a blue collar job most of his life. He didn't understand how I could struggle in this business when there were so many other things I could do. He saw Murray from across the room and said, "Is that Jim Murray?" I said "Yes, you want to meet him?" He said: "You know him?!" I took him over and the first thing he said to Murray was "I've been reading you since before he was born." Murray said, "Well that makes me feel really old." They talked for a while and I later wrote my father was like a teenage girl at a Beatles concert. But after that day he finally understood why I wanted to do this.

 

Yeah...he must be one of those egotistical writers who take meaningless awards too seriously.

 

I went to high school with Murray's daughter although she was a senior when I was a sophomore so we didn't associate much. But friends of mine were neighbors of his. One of my closest friends was the next-door neighbor of the Murrays and knew his son, who OD'd. Another friend arranged for Murray to come speak to my journalism class. He taught us how to take football stats and I used that method my entire career.
I later met him again at press boxes around town, but the L.A. Open was his domain. We talked a lot during dead time at that tournament.
I remember one year being totally pissed off because the media didn't get parking passes for the Wednesday pro-am day. So I was driving around above Sunset Blvd. looking for a place to park when I saw him walking toward the course. He had to park in the boonies, too. So I stopped being pissed.