Ira berkow biography

Previously, from 1965 to 1967, he was a sports writer with the Minneapolis Tribune and from 1967 to 1976 he was a sports columnist and sports editor for Newspaper Enterprise Association, a feature syndicate in New York. He had been a freelance writer since 1976.

A collection of his articles and columns for The Times was published in 1988 under the title, "Pitchers Do Get Lonely, and Other Sports Stories." Since joining The Times he has written two other books, the best-selling "Red: A Biography of Red Smith," the noted sports columnist, and "The Man Who Robbed the Pierre," a finalist for the Edgar Award for Best True Crime Book of 1988. Among his earlier books, "Rockin' Steady: A Guide to Basketball and Cool," with Walt Frazier, was chosen in 1974 by the American Library Association as one of the best books published for young adults in the previous 15 years. He also wrote "Carew," with Rod Carew; "Beyond the Dream," a collection of sports columns, "Maxwell Street: Survival in a Bazaar," and "The DuSable Panthers: The Greatest, Blackest, Saddest Team from the Meanest Street in Chicago."

Mr. Berkow was a runner-up for the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for distinguished commentary.

In addition to his publishing credits, Mr. Berkow wrote the HBO documentary film, "Champions of American Sports," which was a finalist for the cable ACE Award for Best Sports Documentary in 1983.

Benjamin DeMott once wrote in the New England Monthly, "Over the years the sports page has been hyped as a literary showcase. Its first writing star was Ring Lardner, next came Red Smith and lately, The New York Times's Ira Berkow wins acclaim."

Born in Chicago on January 7, 1940, Mr. Berkow received a bachelor of arts degree in English literature from Miami

PERSONAL:

Born January 7, 1940, in Chicago, IL; son of Harold and Shirley Berkow; married three times; divorced twice. Education: Miami University (Oxford, Ohio), B.A., 1963; Northwestern University, M.S.J., 1965.

ADDRESSES:

Home—New York, NY. Office—New York Times, 229 W. 43rd St., New York, NY 10036.

CAREER:

Minneapolis Tribune, Minneapolis, MN, sports reporter and book reviewer, 1965-67; Newspaper Enterprise Association, New York, NY, sports columnist, 1967-76, senior editor, 1974-76; freelance writer, 1976-81; New York Times, New York, NY, sports feature writer and columnist, 1981—, senior writer, 1997—. Appeared as himself on ESPN Sports Century, 2001-03; consultant and interviewer on 1998 film The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg.

MEMBER:

Authors Guild, Baseball Writers of America, PEN.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Rockin' Steady was named among "best books" by American Library Association, 1974; DuSable Panthers was named among "best books" by New York Public Library, 1977; Cable ACE Award nomination for best sports documentary, 1983, for Champions of American Sports; Edgar Award finalist, 1988, for The Man Who Robbed the Pierre; Pulitzer Prize finalist, 1988, for distinguished commentary; Pulitzer Prize, 2001, for national sports reporting; inductee, International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, 2006.

WRITINGS:

Oscar Robertson: The Golden Year, Prentice-Hall (Englewood Cliffs, NJ), 1971.

(With Walt Frazier) Rockin' Steady: A Guide to Basketball and Cool, Prentice-Hall (Englewood Cliffs, NJ), 1974.

Beyond the Dream: Occasional Heroes of Sports, Atheneum (New York, NY), 1975.

The DuSable Panthers: The Greatest, Blackest, Saddest Team from the Meanest Street in Chicago, Atheneum (New York, NY), 1977.

Maxwell Street: Survival in a Bazaar, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1978.

(With Rod Carew) Carew, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1979.

The Man Who Robbed the Pierre: The Story of Bobby Comfort, Lion Books

American sportswriter (born 1940)

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.

He was a reporter for the Minneapolis Tribune, a syndicated features writer, sports and general columnist, and sports editor for the Newspaper Enterprise Association.

From 1981 to 2007 he was a sports reporter and columnist for The New York Times 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.

He shared the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for his article "The Minority Quarterback" in The New York Times series How Race Is Lived in America. 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."

In 2006, he was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. 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 Bobb