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Toronto Star legend Milt Dunnell passes away at 102

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by RedCanuck, Jan 4, 2008.

  1. RedCanuck

    RedCanuck Active Member

    This may indeed be a d_b, but I didn't see it anywhere. Dunnell was probably one of the most famous sportswriters in this country, and an inspiration to many. The Star has a nice tribute article to him, and they've included a sampling of some columns. They're worth a read. RIP.

    http://www.thestar.com/News/Obituary/article/290693

    Edit: Nice story from CP via TSN too. http://www.tsn.ca/headlines/news_story/?ID=226452
     
  2. Flash

    Flash Guest

    His '72 Summit column is fantastic. The Canadian team had been performing to expectations and he writes this:

    In Canadian hockey, things are never going to be quite the same again.

    While the Canucks turned it around and won the series, Dunnell was correct. Of course, world hockey was never the same again either.
     
  3. Herbert Anchovy

    Herbert Anchovy Active Member

    http://www.thestar.com/Sports/article/289891
     
  4. Dave Kindred

    Dave Kindred Member

    Always joy in his eyes, soft music in his voice. Made you feel good. I was a kid when I met him through Ali and the Derby. I later shared Milt's-a-sweetheart stories with another famous Canadian, Jack Kent Cooke. I last spoke with Milt when he was 96; he shared an anecdote about Bundiini Brown.
     
  5. friend of the friendless

    friend of the friendless Active Member

    Sirs, Madames,

    It might be aprocryphal (but I doubt it): Supposedly he never entered anything in Canada's National Newspaper Awards' sportswriting catgeory. Yup, he actually predated shameless self-promotion.

    My brushes with his greatness were brief but spectacular. As high schoolers my buddy and I went to the Jose Napoles-Clyde Gray welterweight title fight at Maple Leaf Gardens. We ran down to the ring after the fight (my buddy wanted to dip his program in blood on the canvas .... don't ask). We ducked and dodged through spectator traffic going the other direction. Sure enough, I felt a light brush on my elbow. My buddy yelled behind me: "You just knocked down Milt Dunnell." There behind me, the fallen idol.

    I'm sure Milt just took a knee.

    YD&OHS, etc
     
  6. Dave Kindred

    Dave Kindred Member

    I sent a couple links to a friend, who replied:

    "Thanks for sending these stories. They brought back many fond memories of my days in the press box. In the obit, I loved the phrase 'the sports editor of Canada.' I really, really enjoyed being around Milt. He was a sweet, sweet man. And a canny poker player! Jesse Outlar (the Atlanta columnist) could have claimed him as a dependent."
     
  7. friend of the friendless

    friend of the friendless Active Member

    Mr Kindred,

    Maybe I was the only one who made Milt fold.

    YD&OHS, etc
     
  8. Elliotte Friedman

    Elliotte Friedman Moderator Staff Member

    Friend of mine tells a great story:

    About 15 years ago, the Dodgers came to Toronto during spring training for a late-March SkyDome series. Tommy Lasorda saw Dunnell coming and said, "Holy Shit! Milt Dunnell! He was old when I played here."

    Didn't know the man, but certainly understand his impact.
     
  9. Huggy

    Huggy Well-Known Member

    Great tribute from Milt's son Mike, a terrific guy and a former newsman in his own right.

    http://www.thestar.com/Sports/article/289919
     
  10. JR

    JR Well-Known Member

    And Stephen Brunt from the Globe & Mail has a very nice tribute:

    http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080104.wspt-brunt-col-04/GSStory/GlobeSports/home

    As a writer, he was elegant and spare and to the point, perhaps less of a poet than some of his contemporaries in what was Canada's golden age of the ink-stained wretch, but always on the mark, always sharp, just about always right. And not a hint of narcissism.

    In what would become increasingly a world of the easy, first-person opinion, Milt was a happy anachronism, believing the one word that should never appear under his byline was "I."
     
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