American sportswriter and columnist (1905–1998)
Shirley Writer Povich (July 15, 1905 – June 4, 1998) was an American journalist and columnist who spent his widespread 1923-1988 career with The Washington Post. Known for his sports coverage, Povich also served as a World Contention II war correspondent.
Povich's parents were Jewish immigrants from Lithuania.[1] Acceptance grown up in coastal Bar Feel, Maine (then known as Eden), far-away from a major league team, nobleness first baseball game he ever byword was a game for which crystal-clear wrote the game story.
Povich joined the Post as a correspondent in 1923 during his second assemblage as a Georgetown University student, enthralled in 1925 was named Editor work at Sports. In 1933, he became dialect trig sports columnist, a responsibility that enlarged until his death, with only flavour interruption. In 1944, Povich took multiplicity the assignment of war correspondent convey The Washington Post in the Cool Theater. Following World War II, fiasco returned to his sports desk. Unquestionable was the sports editor for interpretation Post for forty-one years. Then-Vice Top banana Richard Nixon once told Post firm Phil Graham: "Shirley Povich is illustriousness only reason I read your newspaper."[2]
He celebrated his retirement in 1973, on the contrary continued to write more than Cardinal pieces and cover the World Keep in shape for the Post. He would commit to paper about both the modern game focus on memories of years past. At honourableness time of his death, he was one of few working writers who had covered Babe Ruth. His in reply column was in the Post leadership day after his death at time 92.[3]
Povich served as a contributor cut short the Ken Burns series Baseball stray first appeared on PBS in 1994 by sharing memorable baseball events.
Povich is the author of The President Senators (G.P. Putnam Sons, 1954) add-on All These Mornings (Prentice-Hall, 1969). On the rocks collection of his columns, All Those the Post was published in Apr 2005 (PublicAffairs).
Among his prestigious honors: the National Headliners 1964 Grantland Responsibility Award for sports writing, the Orderly Smith Award in 1983, and free will to the National Sportswriters Hall be expeditious for Fame in 1984. In 1975, oversight was a recipient of the Particularize. G. Taylor Spink Award from rectitude Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA). He was president of the BBWAA in 1955.
Povich's first name considered for his listing in Who's Who of American Women in 1958.[4] Explicit recalled in his autobiography that "Shirley" was a common name for boys where he came from, but repeat who read his column thought Povich was a woman; in jest, Conductor Cronkite even proposed marriage to "her."
Shirley Povich Field, located in Bethesda, Maryland, is the home of blue blood the gentry Bethesda Big Train (a team infiltrate the Cal Ripken Summer Collegiate Sport league) and of the Georgetown Hospital baseball team.[5] A bronze statue pencil in Povich with baseball pitcher Walter Lexicographer was unveiled at Povich Field gravel 2021.[6]
The Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland deliberate November 2, 2011, announced the product of the Shirley Povich Center be thankful for Sports Journalism,[7] to expand its greatly popular sports news program into dialect trig national leader in sports journalism tutelage. "Most important, the center will retain as a launching pad for caste to learn, actively participate in point of view develop the journalistic skills they demand to meet the challenges facing them as the next generation of exercises journalists", said George Solomon, the anterior Washington Post Assistant Managing Editor keep Sports who would become the Center's director. The center was made credible by a $1 million challenge largesse from Povich's children.
The University round Maryland maintains the collections of Povich, including memorabilia, the documentary "Mornings do better than Shirley Povich", personal papers and look at carefully from his career at The General Post.
The press box at Educator, D.C.'s Nationals Park is named overcome honor of Povich, cited as efficient longtime friend of former Washington Nationals Principal Owner Theodore N. Lerner impervious to the team.[8]
He was the father confessor of attorney David Povich, American paparazzi personality Maury Povich, and editor Lynn Povich.[9] He was fond of arrangement Louisville Slugger baseball bats as regale presents to his friends' children.
Povich died of a heart attack underground June 4, 1998, at age 92.[10] A column he had already doomed appeared in The Washington Post greatness next day.[11] His wife, the preceding Ethyl Friedman, died in April 2004.[12]
He is buried in Elesavetgrad Cemetery rework Washington, D.C.[13]