Frank Deford wins Red Smith Award

OK, so he did.

http://apsportseditors.org/newsletter/frank-deford-is-2012-red-smith-award-winner/

I will never say a single bad word about Frank Deford, who I grew up reading and always admired, but even he notes that he thought it was a "newspaper award" and I must admit: So did I.

Do, two things: 1) Is he big enough, and did he influence what newspapers and newspaper writers did enough that it doesn't matter and/or B) did his time with the grand experiment, The National, make him a "newspaper guy."

Or doesn't any of it matter?

 

True, Deford's more of a magazine guy than newspaper guy (and he's more of a TV guy now through his work with "Real Sports"), but I imagine the spirit of the award is "impact on sports journalism." And Deford has had a larger impact than most there.

 

I think it's time to break out of the newspaper-only model for these types of awards. But I would say The National Sports Daily made a serious, if short-lived, wave in the history of newspaper sports sections by pulling away and redistributing top talent and calling attention to many up-and-coming stars.

 

Fair points, and well-taken, just wondering.

 

I don't think you can underestimate the impact Deford has had on generations of sportswriters.

As a kid, I'd leaf through my dad's SIs. The typeface seemed to small and the articles to long for me to read, but I loved the pictures and read the captions. I think Bull Sullivan might have been the first long feature I ever made it all the way through.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1122011/index.htm

I'm sure I wasn't the only person who read that and realized you didn't need to be a big name, win a big game or be on TV to be worth writing about. Deford brought to life a long dead coach and that story still pings around by brain. The pictured by the late great Brian Lanker really helped make that story.

 

Hope he gets a haircut for the award ceremony. When I've seen him on Real Sports. He looks like Rhett Butler on a bender.