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Dick Schaap, whose humorous, often brutally honest approach to sports made him one of the most beloved, respected and honored journalists of the past half century, died Friday 12/21/2001 from post-operative complications after hip replacement surgery. He was 67.
Schaap had most recently been the host of "ESPN Magazine's Sports Reporters" on television and "The Sporting Life" on ESPN Radio with his son, Jeremy -- one of his six children. His career in journalism began more than 50 years ago and included work in television, radio, newspapers, magazines and books.
Dick Schaap wrote 33 books, a dozen of them autobiographies "as told to Dick Schaap."
While sports journalism, aided and abetted by talk radio, has become louder, harsher and more judgmental over the years, Schaap stuck to the basics: a pointed quip, a poignant quote, an amusing anecdote to give his audience a special insight into the people he knew. He was a master storyteller who changed the way we thought about sports and the people who entertain us in stadiums and arenas.
Schaap had a politician's knack for remembering people, and he could drop more names in one sentence than someone reading from Who's Who in America. Richard Sandomir of the New York Times actually counted how many names that Schaap dropped in his best-selling autobiography, "Flashing Before My Eyes: 50 Years of Headlines, Deadlines & Punchlines." The final count: 531. |
