Tim Horgan was one of the greats of the Boston Sports Media.
While I read plenty of Horgan’s stories towards the end of his career, most of my recollections of him are actually as a guest on sports radio shows in the late 80’s and early 90’s, but hearing him on those shows, and the history that he had in his 44-year run as a sports writer was a privilege. He could tell stories about Ted Williams:
From “Ted Williams: Remembering the Splendid Splinter.”
In the days before sports coverage was all about hotsportztakes, Horgan was in the business for another reason. Glenn Stout, in his forward to the 2010 edition of his The Best American Sports Writing series wrote:
Twenty years ago, in the forward to the inaugural edition of this book, I repeated an anecdote I heard Tim Horgan, long time sports columnist for The Boston Herald, tell at his retirement dinner. He said that when he was approached by aspiring students of sportswriting he always asked why he or she wanted to write about sports for a living. Invariably the students would respond to Horgan by saying, “Because I love sports.”
“Wrong,” Horgan would admonish. “You have to love the writing.”
Do modern sports columnists care about writing? Does Dan Shaughnessy? It’s a different era.
Tim Horgan passed away yesterday at the age of 88.
Tim Horgan penned a lifetime of memories – His friend and former colleague Joe Fitzgerald remembers Horgan. He closes the article with another sign of the changing times:
If he had a fitting epitaph it would be the one he gave himself: “I was a nag, a scold, and a great second-guesser, but I was never a hatchet man and I say that proudly.”
As news got around yesterday, various sports media figures paid tribute to Horgan.
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Derek Sanderson a fine subject for NBC’s documentary kickoff – Chad Finn looks at the first subject of NBC’s version of “30 for 30” which will feature a Boston legend. He also touches on the passing of Horgan.
Holy Cross football, basketball are heading to WEEI – Bill Doyle reports on the games switching over to 1440 AM WEEI. Broadcasts will also be streamed live on weei.com/holycross.
