Former sports writer and publicist Jack Disney dies at 80

ARCADIA, Calif. (AP) Jack Disney, a longtime sports writer with the old Los Angeles Herald Examiner who later worked in publicity at two Southern California

ARCADIA, Calif. (AP) Jack Disney, a longtime sports writer with the old Los Angeles Herald Examiner who later worked in publicity at two Southern California horse racing tracks, has died. He was 80.

Officials at Santa Anita Park said Wednesday that Disney died Monday at his home in Irvine after a long fight with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Disney started at the Herald Examiner at age 19 in 1954 and for the next 35 years he covered Southern California football and basketball, the Angels, Dodgers, Lakers, Raiders and boxing.

Known as ''Diz'' to close friends and press box colleagues, Disney was the product of a bygone era when sports writers were often close to the athletes they covered.