American sportswriter
Ira Berkow (born January 7, 1940) is an American sports reporter, columnist, and writer. He shared the 2001
Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting , which was awarded to the staff of
The New York Times for their series
How Race Is Lived in America .
Life
Berkow earned his BA in English Literature at
Miami University , and his MA from the
Medill School of Journalism ,
Northwestern University .
[1]
[2]
He was a reporter for the
Minneapolis Tribune , a syndicated features writer, sports and general columnist, and sports editor for the
Newspaper Enterprise Association .
[3]
From 1981 to 2007 he was a sports reporter and columnist for
The New York Times
[4]
[5] and has written for Esquire, The New York Times Magazine, Art News, Seventeen, Chicago Magazine, The Chicago Tribune Magazine, National Strategic Forum Review, Reader's Digest, and Sports Illustrated, among others.
[6]
Pulitzer Prize
He shared the 2001
Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for his article "The Minority Quarterback"
[7] in The New York Times series How Race Is Lived in America.
[8]
[9] His work has been reprinted or cited over six decades in the annual anthologies Best Sports Stories and its successor Best American Sports Writing, and a column of his was included in Best American Sports Writing of the Century (1999). The novelist Scott Turow wrote, "Ira Berkow is one of the great American writers, without limitation to the field of sports."
He was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 1988, "For thoughtful commentary on the sports scene."
[10]
In 2006, he was inducted into the
International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame .
[11] He holds an honorary doctorate degree from Roosevelt University (Chicago), 2009.
Berkow is the author of 26 books including the
Edgar Allan Poe Award nominated non-fiction The Man Who Robbed The Pierre: The Story of Bobby Comfort and the Biggest Hotel Robbery Ever .
[12]
Works
Books
It Happens Every Spring: DiMaggio, Mays, the Splendid Splinter, and a Lifetime at the Ballpark , Triumph Books, 2017,
ISBN
978-1-6293-7318-8
Giants Among Men: Y.A., L.T., the Big Tuna, and Other New York Giants Stories , Triumph Books, 2015,
ISBN
978-1-6293-7046-0
Counterpunch: Ali, Tyson, the Brown Bomber, and Other Stories of the Boxing Ring , Triumph Books, 2014,
ISBN
978-1-6007-8973-1
Autumns in the Garden: The Coach of Camelot and Other Knicks Stories , Triumph Books, 2013,
ISBN
978-1-6007-8866-6
Summers at Shea: Tom Seaver Loses His Overcoat and Other Mets Stories , Triumph Books, 2013,
ISBN
978-1-6007-8775-1
Summers in the Bronx: Attila the Hun and Other Yankee Stories , Triumph Books, 2009,
ISBN
978-1-6007-8392-0
The Corporal Was a Pitcher: The Courage of Lou Brissie , Triumph Books, 2009,
ISBN
978-1-6007-8104-9
Hank Greenberg: The Story of My Life , Times Books, 1989, editor
ISBN
978-0-8129-1741-3
Red: A Biography of Red Smith, Rockin Steady , University of Nebraska Press, 2007,
ISBN
978-0-8032-6040-5
Court Vision, To The Hoop: The Seasons of a Basketball Life , University of Nebraska Press, 2004,
ISBN
978-0-8032-6229-4
The Gospel According to Casey , (with Jim Kaplan), St. Martin's Press, 1992,
ISBN
978-0-312-06922-3
The Minority Quarterback & Other Lives In Sports , I.R. Dee, 2002,
ISBN
978-1-56663-422-9
Full Swing; Hits, Runs and Errors in a Writer's Life , Ivan R. Dee Publisher, 2007,
ISBN
978-1-56663-755-8
Maxwell Street, Survival in a Bazaar. Doubleday & Co., 1977,
ISBN
0-385-06723-2 .
To the Hoop The Seasons of a Basketball Life , Basic Books, 1997.
How to Talk Jewish , by Jackie Mason (with Ira Berkow), St. Martin's Press, 1990
Hank Greenberg: Hall-of-Fame Slugger , juvenile, The Jewish Publication Society, 1991
Pitchers do Get Lonely, and Other Sports Stories , Atheneum, 1988
Carew , by Rod Carew (with Ira Berkow), Simon and Schuster, 1979.
The DuSable Panthers: The Greatest, Blackest, Saddest Team from the Meanest Street in Chicago , 1978
Beyond the Dream: Occasional Heroes of Sports , (foreword by Red Smith), Atheneum,1975
Oscar Robertson: The Golden Year 1964 , Prentice-Hall, 1971
Rockin' Steady: A Guide to Basketball and Cool , by Walt "Clyde" Frazier (with Ira Berkow), 1974
Wrigley Feld: An Oral and Narrative History of the Home of the Chicago Cubs (with Josh Noel), Stewart, Tabori and Chang, 2014.
Full Swing: Hits, Runs and Errors in a Writer's Life , Ivan R. Dee, 2006.
Baseball's Best Ever: A Half Century of Covering Hall of Famers , Sports Publishing, 2022.
Film
References
^
"Ira H. Berkow" . Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University. Retrieved May 24, 2019 .
^
"Ira Berkow Papers at the American Jewish Historical Society" . American Jewish Historical Society. Retrieved July 22, 2015 .
^
"Sportswriter Ira Berkow Reminiscence" . Evesmag.com. Retrieved December 22, 2010 .
^
"Ira Berkow" . Retrieved June 5, 2011 .
^
"Sportswriter Ira Berkow Reminiscence" . Evesmag.com. Retrieved December 22, 2010 .
^
"Ira Berkow" . Retrieved June 5, 2011 .
^ Ira Berkow (July 2, 2000).
"The Minority Quarterback" . The New York Times . Retrieved June 5, 2011 .
^
"Ira Berkow" . Jewishsports.net. January 7, 1940. Retrieved December 22, 2010 .
^
"Pulitzer Series" . Nl.edu. Retrieved December 22, 2010 .
^
"The Pulitzer Prizes | Finalists" . Pulitzer.org. February 20, 1988. Retrieved December 22, 2010 .
^ International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame (2010).
"Ira Berkow" . Retrieved December 22, 2010 .
^
"Edgar Award Winners and Nominees" . Mystery Writers of America. Archived from
the original on October 22, 2014. Retrieved June 5, 2011 .
Further reading
External links
International National Other