Fred Russell | |
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 Fred Russell c. 1975 | |
| Born | Frederick McFerrin Russell (1906-08-27)August 27, 1906 |
| Died | January 26, 2003(2003-01-26) (aged 96) Nashville, Tennessee |
| Occupation | Sportswriter |
| Alma mater | Vanderbilt University |
| Spouse | Katherine Wyche Early (Kay) |
| Children | four girls |
Fred Russell (August 27, 1906 – January 26, 2003) was an Americansportswriter from Tennessee who served as sports editor for theNashville Banner newspaper for 68 years (1930–1998). He was a member of theHeisman Trophy Committee, president of theFootball Writers Association of America and a member of several sports-related Halls of Fame. He served for nearly 30 years as chairman of theCollege Football Hall of Fame Honors Court, a group responsible for selecting College Football Hall of Fame members. Known for his sense of humor and story-telling ability, Russell authored several books about sports and sports humor. Over his career he wrote over 12,000 sports columns under the title, "Sideline Sidelights".
Russell was a long-time friend and protégé of fellow sportswriter andVanderbilt University alumnusGrantland Rice. Vanderbilt established the "Fred Russell–Grantland Rice Sportswriting Scholarship" in their honor. For over fifty years, the scholarship has attracted some of the nation's top journalistic talent.
As a young reporter, he interviewedBabe Ruth,Ty Cobb, andLou Gehrig. Outliving most of his contemporaries, he counted as friends many sports greats of the twentieth century, includingJack Dempsey,Bobby Jones,Red Grange,Sparky Anderson,Bobby Knight,Bear Bryant,Archie Manning andGeorge Steinbrenner. He died in 2003 at age 96.
Born in 1906, Russell grew up inWartrace, Tennessee, about 50 miles southeast of Nashville, on the main line of the railroad to Chattanooga.[1] His parents were John E. Russell and Mable Lee McFerrin Russell, who in 1920 moved the family to Nashville.[2][3] John E. Russell Jr. was his older brother, who died in 1961.[2] Russell's father started a newspaper, theWartrace Tribune, but it was short-lived; he became a salesman for a wholesale grocery company and traveled the middle Tennessee territory with a horse and buggy in his early career.[1] Russell’s mother was a music composer[a] and author of the "Vanderbilt University Waltz".[3][5] Russell attended Nashville's Duncan College Preparatory School for Boys,[6] which was located at a site now occupied by Vanderbilt University'sMemorial Gymnasium.[7] Even from his youngest days, Russell had loved the sports pages.[8]: 6 He wanted a job as a newspaper office boy, but it only paid three dollars per week and he could make much more by working at a soda fountain downtown at theUnited Cigar Store.[1] One of his best friends around the cigar store wasPhil Harris, whose father was a musician at the adjacent Knickerbocker Theater.[1] Russell saved enough money over a year to enter Vanderbilt in the fall of 1923.[8]: 6 He was a member ofKappa Sigma fraternity, and a varsity baseball player.[9] He playedsecond base andpitched.[10]: 227 He attendedVanderbilt Law School, passed the state bar exam, and was listed in the class of 1929.[8]: 6 He did legal work at atitle company for 18 months and found out pretty quickly that "it was not the most exciting kind of work".[8]: 18 He was offered a job at theNashville Banner ; first writing obituaries, then working the police beat, then covering Vanderbilt football.[8]: 18 Regarding the football coverage Russell said, “I got the luckiest break in the world in June of '29. . . in weeks, I knew that I never wanted to do anything else."[8]: 18 The following year, he became the sports editor of theBanner, replacingRalph McGill who left to go to theAtlanta Constitution.[4] Russell would be a member of theBanner staff until the paper closed in 1998. Over the next 68 years, Russell wrote over 12,000 columns, most of them in his weekly column "Sideline Sidelights" later shortened to simply "Sidelines".
Russell's career began in the so-calledGolden Age of sports—a period beginning about the 1920s when newspapers and radio were a prominent form of media and news.[11][12] The events Russell regularly covered were:college football; amateur and probaseball; theMasters Golf Tournament; theKentucky Derby; championship boxing; college footballbowl games, including TheSugar Bowl and TheRose Bowl; and TheOlympic Games (1960–1976). Russell gained national exposure in the mid-twentieth century for writing a widely-read annual college football article, the "Pigskin Preview", forThe Saturday Evening Post. His relationship with thePost began when the magazine wanted to do a story on theUniversity of Tennessee's new football coach,Bob Neyland, who had in1939 created arguably one of the greatest football teams ever assembled: undefeated, untied, and un-scored-upon in the regular season.[8]: 67 The magazine wanted a southern writer, and chose Russell. His article, "Touchdown Engineer" appeared in the issue leading up to the highly anticipated1940 Rose Bowl (Tennessee vs.USC) and put Russell on the national scene in sportswriting. The article's popularity led thePost to hire him to write the Pigskin Preview series each year from 1949 to 1962.[8]: 67
Grantland Rice was an influential pioneer of the sportswriting world[13] and he was Russell's boyhood idol.[8]: 52 They first met in the 1930s and remained longtime friends even though Rice was 26 years older. They were both raised in Nashville and both graduates ofVanderbilt University. Rice worked for about three years at theTennessean from 1907 to 1910.[14]: 200
In May 1954, when Rice was in declining health, Russell recalled a memorable lunch with him at Rice's regular corner table atToots Shor's restaurant inNew York.[8]: 51 With sportswriterBill Corum, they swapped stories extending all afternoon until five o'clock with Schor himself in on some of them.[8]: 61 When Rice died two months later, Russell and Corum developed the idea of creating a Rice scholarship and, in 1956, theGrantland Rice Scholarship at Vanderbilt was begun.[8]: 205 Endowed by theThoroughbred Racing Association (TRA),[b] the scholarship is awarded annually to an incoming first-year student with an interest in sportswriting. The rules do not require recipients to be sportswriters; in addition, Vanderbilt did not have a school of journalism.[8]: 210 From the beginning, Russell was involved in the administration and selection process of the scholarship. In 1986, after Russell had been closely managing the endeavor for 30 years,Charles J. Cella, a past president of the TRA, further endowed the scholarship with a $500,000 gift in honor of Russell,[4] changing its name to theFred Russell-Grantland Rice Sportswriting Scholarship.[8]: 210 For over fifty years, the scholarship has attracted some of the nation's top journalistic talent coming out of high school.[8]: 205 Some of the more well-known recipients have includedSkip Bayless,Roy Blount, andAndrew Maraniss.[8]: 206 The scholarship fell on hard times in the 1990s when the university reduced the award to $10,000 yearly to prolong the life of scholarship.[8]: 214 With rising tuition costs, the later scholarship was roughly one quarter of the full package earlier recipients received.[8]: 214
For nearly three decades, Russell was the chairman of theNational Football Foundation (NFF)'s "Honors Court" which oversees theCollege Football Hall of Fame.[15] The organization was founded in 1947, and Russell became involved in it in the 1960s to become president in 1964. According to author Andrew Derr, the Honors Court is the most powerful group in college football.[8]: 80 Russell served its chairman from 1964 to 1991, a role perfectly suited for him because he had, according to Derr, "an instinctive sense of fairness and prudence" along with significant experience in college football and relationships with the coaches and administrators.[8]: 80 Derr said, "FromPaul Bryant toArchie Manning,Frank Broyles toLee Corso,Johnny Majors toLou Holtz, Russell had relationships with all of them."[8]: 81 A difficult decision came to Russell and the committee in 1959, whenLSU's Heisman-Trophy winnerBilly Cannon was scheduled to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, but pleaded guilty to a counterfeiting operation after FBI agents recovered $5 million in bogus $100 bills buried on Cannon's property.[16] Russell chose to rescind the hall of fame invitation. Cannon was eventually inducted in 2008.[16]
One of Russell's trademarks was his humorous and entertaining style of writing in his columns, books, speeches and stories. He was a unofficial ringleader of a group of friends who engaged in practical jokes, often ingeniously planned.[17]: 170 [8]: 1 New York Times sports columnistRed Smith said, "He is the first practical joker who never hurt anybody with his practical jokes".[4] Many of these are chronicled in a book about Russell,Confessions of a Practical Joker, written by Jim Harwell.[17] An example is anApril Fools joke in 1965: Russell published a story on the front page of theBanner sports page on April 1 (April Fool's Day) reporting that newly-passed legislation would mean that theNatchez Trace Parkway would be built directly across the golf course of a Nashville country club of which Russell was a member.[8]: 170 It was a skillfully-concocted story with a large map and details containing believable quotes from city officials.[8]: 170 Such exaggerated April fools stories had become a yearly tradition in the newspaper at the time.
Russell authored three sports humor books,I'll Go Quietly (1944),I'll Try Anything Twice (1945) andFunny Thing About Sports (1948). DuringWorld War II, theAmerican military distributedI'll Try Anything Twice to soldiers as one of 1300 titles in itsArmed Services Editions.[18][19]
In a two-newspaper town, competition between the journalists can be stiff. In Nashville, TheTennessean was the morning paper including Sundays; theNashville Banner was the afternoon paper. In 1937, the two papers formed a Joint Operating Agreement to reduce costs by putting both in the same building and using the same printing presses.[8]: 146 The result was that the competitors kept their separate editorial identities but worked in close proximity; the tension was palpable.[8]: 146 Russell, theBanner sports editor, had sources on the inside happenings of Vanderbilt athletics and many more contacts nationally than did theTennessean. Writing out his columns on his gray manualRoyal typewriter,[20]: 24 Russell's objectives were clear: get the story, protect your sources, and make sure nothingleaked from Saturday afternoon until Monday morning after theTennessean hit the stands.[8]: 153 If there was going to be a new coach hired, Russell knew it first, and possibly had a role in determining who the candidates would be.[8]: 153 Tennessean reporter Jimmy Davy, who endured theunderdog status longer than anyone at theTennessean, said "That kind of influence drove us crazy. . . that he was so inside with everything."[8]: 152
In 1955, on Russell’s 25th Anniversary of writing at theNashville Banner, the newspaper held an invitation-only gala for him that included more than 600 guests.[21] The celebration included a host of sports personalities, writers and stars such asBear Bryant,Red Smith,Bobby Jones,Jack Dempsey,Red Grange; the latter three gave speeches.[8]: 89 Invitees included a senator, two congressmen, the mayor,General Neyland, the general manager of theCincinnati Reds, the president of the Sugar Bowl, the commissioner of theSoutheastern Conference, and many coaches and athletes.[21] As for the secret of Russell's success in having friendships with top sports figures, biographer Andrew Derr said, "Confidentiality was the foundation for that type of friendship, and Russell was unwavering in his ability to keep his word".[8]: 137 College hall of fame player and coachJohnny Majors said, "You could talk off the record with him and you knew you wouldn't be reported unless he cleared it with you. I would tell something to him that I didn't want anybody else to know at the time. . ."[8]: 137
Russell covered major championship boxing and was a long-time friend of heavyweight championJack Dempsey. He covered more than 50 consecutive runnings of the Kentucky Derby.[8]: 33 Russell covered the first Masters golf tournament in1934 inAugusta, Georgia, and over 40 subsequent Masters'. He was a close friend ofBobby Jones (who preferred to be called "Bob").[8]: 43 [1] Russell got to know him before Jones' golfing success, when Jones was a part owner of the Atlanta Crackers, a minor league baseball team.[8]: 44 Like Russell, Jones was a great storyteller and this trait was part of the foundation for their friendship.[8]: 44
Paul "Bear" Bryant was a friend of Russell's for close to a half-century.[8]: 133 They first met in 1937 on a four-day train ride fromBirmingham toPasadena whenUniversity of Alabama went to play in the 1937 Rose Bowl.[8]: 133 Bryant was an unknown at the time who had only recently graduated from the University of Alabama and had stayed on as an assistant coach there.[8]: 133 They talked for hours on the trip and Bryant basically told his life story to Russell, who years later said, "I was never more favorably impressed by a young coach as I was by Bryant."[8]: 133 Russell helped Bryant get a job as assistant coach at Vanderbilt in 1940.[20]: 24 From this initial acquaintance, a friendship developed between the two men and they became trusted confidants over the years.[8]: 136 Their wives became close and the couples visited their respective cities in the summer through the 1960s and 1970s.[8]: 136 Bryant and his wife usually dined with the Russells before the annual Vanderbilt-Alabama games.[8]: 136
As a baseball writer for 30 years in the middle of the 20th century, Russell often spent an entire month coveringspring training in Florida each year. He often traveled with fellow sportswriterRed Smith, and they would frequently stay with players at venues such as the Soreno Hotel in St. Petersburg.[22] After the games, their wives drove to the next town while the two men sat in the back seat with typewriters creating their columns.[23]Sports Illustrated reported that in the 1930s, Russell interviewedBabe Ruth as Ruth played cards withLou Gehrig.[20]: 24 Russell as a young reporter also interviewedTy Cobb.[24][8]: 35 He spent the majority of his time covering theYankees,[8]: 35 and said "Casey Stengel was better than any show anywhere".[8]: 35
Russell was one of the primary journalists who coveredTennessee State University, anHBCU, whose women's track team, the "Tigerbelles", achieved international acclaim in the1960 Summer Olympics inRome.[25]Wilma Rudolph, coached by TSU'sEd Temple, became the first American woman to win threegold medals in a single Olympics.[26] Temple spent the 1950s building his program[27]: 309 even though thehistorically black college had run-down facilities[8]: 98 and lacked scholarships.[c] After Rudolph's olympic stardom, Temple said, "The biggest disappointment in all my 44 years was when we came back from Rome and [the university] didn't get a cent [for scholarships and facilities]"[8]: 99 He confided his frustration to Russell who personally called theGovernor of Tennessee,Buford Ellington and arranged for Temple to go downtown and meet with the governor. With Temple sitting in his office, Ellington phoned the commissioner of colleges and conditions at the university began to improve rapidly. When Wilma Rudolph died in 1980, Russell delivered her eulogy.[20]: 24 [28]
Russell received numerous honors from sports organizations throughout his life.[29] He was elected to theNational Sports Media Association Hall of Fame[30] and was a charter member of the Tennessee Sportswriters Hall of Fame.[31] He received the Distinguished American Award[29] given by theNational Football Foundation (NFF).[15] Two previous recipients wereVince Lombardi andBob Hope.[32]
Russell is a past president of theFootball Writers Association of America.[29] He was a member of theHeisman Trophy Committee for 46 years[15] and served as the Heisman's Southern chairman for 30 years.[29] He received theAmos Alonzo Stagg Award from theAmerican Football Coaches Association.[33] Other winners of this award were Bear Bryant andWoody Hayes.[33] In the same year he was awarded theBert McGrane Award from the Football Writers Association of America.[34]
In 1983,The National Turf Writers Association (horse-racing) awarded Russell the Walter Haight Award for Excellence in Turf Writing.[35] He received the Associated Press Editor'sRed Smith Award for “extended meritorious labor in the art of sportswriting.”[36] He received the first annual "Grantland Rice Memorial Award" (1957) by an organization of journalists, the Sportsmanship Brotherhood, Inc.[36][37] for "writing in the Grantland Rice Tradition".[1][38]
Russell was a member of theTennessee Sports Hall of Fame.[36] He was named to the Vanderbilt Athletics Hall of Fame as part of its inaugural class.[39] Russell was awarded the Distinguished Journalism Award by theU.S. Olympic Committee.[40]
Russell's legacy includes the following items named in his honor:
Russell and his wife, Katherine Wyche Early Russell, were married for 63 years until her death in 1996. They had four daughters, Katherine Early, Ellen Fall, Elizabeth Lee, Carolyn Evans. Russell worked past the age of 90 and lived until the age of 96. Two personal tragedies that Russell endured in his life were the death of his wife Kay in 1996 and the demise of the NashvilleBanner in 1998.[8]: 232 Kay died at age 87 when Russell was 90. He lived for six more years. The demise of theBanner came swiftly and painfully on February 16, 1998, when 100 staffers were called together by publisher and co-owner Irby Simpkins who told them that theBanner had been sold to theGannett Company, who already owned theTennessean.[8]: 223 Gannett would then immediately shut down the 122 year-oldBanner which had slowly been losing subscribers.[8]: 222 Its last issue would be that Friday, four days hence. The news took an unexpected mental toll on the 92 year-old Russell.[8]: 228 His daughter Carolyn said, "When mother died, he still had the column; when the Banner left, he had nothing."[8]: 228 Russell went into a deep depression, but over time recovered enough to take a writing job with his longtime rival, theTennessean, after being respectfully approached by the publisherJohn Seigenthaler and sports editor John Bibb.[8]: 229 Russell wrote a few articles for them, enough to make his 70th year as a journalist, then retired. Long-timeTennessean writer Jimmy Davy said, "You know, he just didn't have his heart in it— he was aBanner man."[8]: 230 Russell's final sports column is published in the multi-author book,Nashville: An American Self-Portrait (2001).[48]: 35 He died in 2003 at age 96.[4]
Johns Hopkins Sheridan Libraries & University Museums
Here, by invitation, one of the ablest sports editors in America, Fred Russell of the 'Nashville Banner' proudly speaks for his profession
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