Another legend has passed
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/sports/wp/2017/05/29/frank-deford-legendary-sports-writer-and-commentator-dies-at-78
RIP
I was wondering if anyone here was going to post something. I heard the news while I was at the pool and just got home a little bit ago.
http://www.espn.com/espn/story/_/id/19491064/legendary-sportswriter-frank-deford-dead-age-78
https://www.si.com/tech-media/2017/05/29/frank-deford-death-legendary-sports-writer
Richard Deitsch's post on FB
QuoteI first met Frank Deford in May 2000 and I remember it like it was yesterday because you remember when you meet Frank Deford. I was sitting my cube at SI — at the time I was a fact-checker/reporter and assigned to all the tennis stories — and this very tall and regal-looking man came up to me holding a giant folder. He had a mustache, perfectly combed hair, and looked, no lie, like Clark Gable. He introduced himself as Frank Deford and for an SI junkie like me it was like meeting someone larger than life. Sort of like Shoeless Joe Jackson walking out of the Iowa cornfields except this was the Time & Life Building in Manhattan and I imagine he came up in the elevator.
The story I worked with Frank on was a cover story on Anna Kournikova (https://www.si.com/vault/2000/06/05/282062/she-wont-win-the-french-open-but-who-cares-anna-kournikova-is-living-proof-that-even-in-this-age-of-supposed-enlightenment-a-hot-body-can-count-as-much-as-a-good-backhand) and objectively it's not going to go down as Deford's best. The editors over-sexed the cover and the piece was way too much Lolita. But on a personal level, I got to marinate in Deford's brain — he was an inveterate note-taker — and we got to talk tennis, which was one of my favorite sports. He told me about his Jimmy Connors profile – my favorite piece he ever wrote – and he was such a gentleman of the highest order. He knew he was Frank Deford but his ego was still among the living, which was nice.
That experience led me to an email relationship with Frank over the years — we might exchange one every couple of months. Then around 2007 I became SI.com's first-ever special projects, which was a fancy title that really meant come up with projects for the magazine writers to contribute to for the web. At that time, SI's magazine writers were note exactly flocking to SI's dotcom. So I started coming up with projects to get everyone involved, from the writers writing about the greatest game they ever saw to their favorite venues. And here is where I can never repay Frank Deford. Given I knew many of the writers did not want to write for the web – especially for free – I started all of these projects by making Frank the first person I'd ask to write. He never turned me down in the first couple of years. Once I had Deford, I was able to use him as my chip. If anyone starting saying they didn't want to write, I could pull out that Frank Fucking Deford is writing so you can too. Unfortunately, we have changed CMS's many times over the years at SI so most of these Deford links are now in the web heavens. But he was such a prince to me on these assignments and it helped me get some traction at the web, which ultimately got me out of editing (for everyone's sake) and back to writing full-time.
He was a writing giant, and one of the reasons I wanted to work at SI as a kid. Thank you, Frank Deford. Rest in peace before you next profile up there.
My favorite Deford piece: https://www.si.com/tennis/2014/11/25/raised-women-conquer-men-jimmy-connors-frank-deford-si-60
RIP Frank.
one of his better pieces
https://www.si.com/vault/1984/04/30/630220/the-toughest-coach-there-ever-was
RIP Mr. Deford
It took me a bit to look it up, but this obscure piece was always one of my favorites for whatever reason. Yes, I realize that I am showing my age. https://www.si.com/vault/1988/01/25/116965/frank-deford-goes-bowling (https://www.si.com/vault/1988/01/25/116965/frank-deford-goes-bowling)