Pouring one out for the great sports journalist Bud Shrake

Bud Shrake started working at TheFort Worth Press in 1951, when newspapers ruled -- especially what is called the sports world. The Press has long since gone, unmourned. Ah, but when Shrake worked there, he and his sports-page pals, like Dan Jenkins, imagined they were the last live remnants of The Front Page, the Hecht-MacArthur play that celebrated manic newspaper life. It was Fort Worth, but they called it "their Chicago days."

Sadly, Bud died Friday at this sad time when even the nation's best newspapers seem to be holding on by a thread. So, I suppose Bud Shrake's as good a representative as anyone of a whole era in sports print journalism.

After all, he worked for the man, Blackie Sherrod, who is generally held to be the best sportspage editor, and then at Sports Illustrated for the man, Andre Laguerre, who's the greatest magazine sports editor ever. With an old golf pro, Bud wrote Harvey Penick's Little Red Book, which is the largest-selling sports book in history. That's some trifecta.

Of course, Shrake had one of those lives that couldn't be restricted to the friendly confines of the sports world. He wrote movies and novels, the last of which was entitled Custer's Brother's Horse, and let me tell you, it's a terrific yarn. Like a cagey, good old Texas quarterback, old Bud could still find his receivers after he lost something off his arm. And, like most of his novels, this last one takes place in Texas.

Bud was tall and laconic and carried something of Texas wherever he went. He was very good indeed with the ladies. He was going out with a stripper at Jack Ruby's club when Ruby gunned down Oswald, and in the last years of their lives, Bud and Governor Ann Richards were soulmates. He was buried next to her in Austin.

As Texas as Shrake was, he and Jenkins longed for the big-time, New York. Laguerre brought Jenkins in first, Shrake later, 1965. They fit right in, largely because Sports Illustrated under Laguerre was something of a last throwback to The Front Page. Trust me, I was there. Laguerre was a Frenchman who was plucked out of the Channel off Dunkirk, near bleeding to death, and then became DeGaulle's press secretary. He was a beguiling continental who liked American sportswriters with jagged edges.

Laguerre conducted a lot of business at the bar, and when his favorite closed he chose Shrake for the magazine's most crucial assignment: find a proper new watering hole. Among other things, the chosen joint couldn't have a juke box, and had to give every drinker the fourth one on the house. It took Shrake a couple weeks and a careful testing of about a hundred bars, but, ace reporter that he was, he found the saloon that pleased the boss.

Laguerre always called the last drink of the evening the ABF. That, you see, followed one for the road. It meant: the Absolute Bloody Final. I learned of Bud's death, reading a newspaper on an airplane. I called the flight attendant over and asked for another drink. "But we'll be landing soon," she said.

"I know," I said, "but I have to have an ABF for Bud Shrake."

Published May 13, 2009 | Modified May 13, 2009

FRANK DEFORD

Frank Deford is among the most versatile of American writers. His work has appeared in virtually every medium, including print, where he has written eloquently for Sports Illustrated since 1962. Deford is currently the magazine's Senior Contributing Writer and contributes a weekly column to SI.com. Deford can be heard as a commentator each week on Morning Edition. On television he is a regular correspondent on the HBO show Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel. He is the author of 15 books, and his latest,The Enitled, a novel about celebrity, sex and baseball, was published in 2007 to exceptional reviews. He and Red Smith are the only writers with multiple features in The Best American Sports Writing of the Century. Editor David Halberstam selected Deford's 1981 Sports Illustrated profile on Bobby Knight (The Rabbit Hunter) and his 1985 SI profile of boxer Billy Conn (The Boxer and the Blonde) for that prestigious anthology. For Deford the comparison is meaningful. "Red Smith was the finest columnist, and I mean not just sports columnist," Deford told Powell's Books in 2007. "I've always said that Red is like Vermeer, with those tiny, priceless pieces. Five hundred words, perfectly chosen, crafted. Best literary columnist, in any newspaper, that I've ever seen." Deford was elected to the National Association of Sportscasters and Sportswriters Hall of Fame. Six times at Sports Illustrated Deford was voted by his peers as U.S. Sportswriter of The Year. The American Journalism Review has likewise cited him as the nation's finest sportswriter, and twice he was voted Magazine Writer of The Year by the Washington Journalism Review. Deford has also been presented with the National Magazine Award for profiles; a Christopher Award; and journalism honor awards from the University of Missouri and Northeastern University; and he has received many honorary degrees. The Sporting News has described Deford as "the most influential sports voice among members of the print media," and the magazine GQ has called him, simply, "The world's greatest sportswriter." In broadcast, Deford has won a Cable Ace award, an Emmy and a George Foster Peabody Award for his television work. In 2005 ESPN presented a television biography of Deford's life and work, You Write Better Than You Play. Deford has spoken at well over a hundred colleges, as well as at forums, conventions and on cruise ships around the world. He served as the editor-in-chief of The National Sports Daily in its brief but celebrated existence. Deford also wrote Sports Illustrated's first Point After column, in 1986. Two of Deford's books, the novel, Everybody's All-American, and Alex: The Life Of A Child, his memoir about his daughter who died of cystic fibrosis, have been made into movies. Two of his original screenplays have also been filmed. For 16 years Deford served as national chairman of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and he remains chairman emeritus. He resides in Westport, CT, with his wife, Carol. They have two grown children – a son, Christian, and a daughter, Scarlet. A native of Baltimore, Deford is a graduate of Princeton University, where he has taught American Studies.

Home/More Sports