Fred Russell

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This article is about the sportswriter. For other uses, see Fred Russell (disambiguation).
Fred Russell
Fred Russell c. 1975
Fred Russell c. 1975
BornFrederick McFerrin Russell
(1906-08-27)August 27, 1906
Wartrace, Tennessee
DiedJanuary 26, 2003(2003-01-26) (aged 96)
Nashville, Tennessee
OccupationSportswriter
Alma materVanderbilt University
SpouseKatherine Wyche Early (Kay)
Childrenfour girls

Fred Russell (August 27, 1906 – January 26, 2003) was an American sportswriter from Tennessee who served as sports editor for the Nashville Banner newspaper for 68 years (1930–1998). He was a member of the Heisman Trophy Committee, president of the Football Writers Association of America and a member of several sports-related Halls of Fame. He served for nearly 30 years as chairman of the College Football Hall of Fame Honors Court, a group responsible for selecting College Football Hall of Fame members. Known for his sense of humor and story-telling ability, Russell authored several books about sports and sports humor. Over his career he wrote over 12,000 sports columns under the title, "Sideline Sidelights".

Russell was a long-time friend and protégé of fellow sportswriter and Vanderbilt University alumnus Grantland Rice. Vanderbilt established the "Fred Russell–Grantland Rice Sportswriting Scholarship" in their honor. For over fifty years, the scholarship has attracted some of the nation's top journalistic talent.

As a young reporter, he interviewed

Bobby Knight, Bear Bryant, Archie Manning and George Steinbrenner
. He died in 2003 at age 96.


Early life

Born in 1906, Russell grew up in

Atlanta Constitution.[4]
Russell would be a member of the Banner staff until the paper closed in 1998. Over the next 68 years, Russell wrote over 12,000 columns, most of them in his weekly column "Sideline Sidelights " later shortened to simply "Sidelines".

The Saturday Evening Post

Russell's career began in the so-called

Bob Neyland, who had in 1939 created arguably one of the greatest football teams ever assembled: undefeated, untied, and un-scored-upon in the regular season.[8]: 67  The magazine wanted a southern writer, and chose Russell. His article, "Touchdown Engineer" appeared in the issue leading up to the highly anticipated 1940 Rose Bowl (Tennessee vs. USC) and put Russell on the national scene in sportswriting. The article's popularity led the Post to hire him to write the Pigskin Preview series each year from 1949 to 1962.[8]
: 67 

Sportswriting scholarship

Grantland Rice was an influential pioneer of the sportswriting world[13] and he was Russell's boyhood idol.[8]: 52  They first met in the 1930s and remained longtime friends even though Rice was 26 years older. They were both raised in Nashville and both graduates of Vanderbilt University. Rice worked for about three years at the Tennessean from 1907 to 1910.[14]: 200 

In May 1954, when Rice was in declining health, Russell recalled a memorable lunch with him at Rice's regular corner table at

Roy Blount, and Andrew Maraniss.[8]: 206  The scholarship fell on hard times in the 1990s when the university reduced the award to $10,000 yearly to prolong the life of scholarship.[8]: 214  With rising tuition costs, the later scholarship was roughly one quarter of the full package earlier recipients received.[8]
: 214 

College Football Hall of Fame

For nearly three decades, Russell was the chairman of the National Football Foundation (NFF)'s "Honors Court" which oversees the College Football Hall of Fame.[15] The organization was founded in 1947, and Russell became involved in it in the 1960s to become president in 1964. According to author Andrew Derr, the Honors Court is the most powerful group in college football.[8]: 80  Russell served its chairman from 1964 to 1991, a role perfectly suited for him because he had, according to Derr, "an instinctive sense of fairness and prudence" along with significant experience in college football and relationships with the coaches and administrators.[8]: 80  Derr said, "From Paul Bryant to Archie Manning, Frank Broyles to Lee Corso, Johnny Majors to Lou Holtz, Russell had relationships with all of them."[8]: 81  A difficult decision came to Russell and the committee in 1959, when LSU's Heisman-Trophy winner Billy Cannon was scheduled to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, but pleaded guilty to a counterfeiting operation after FBI agents recovered $5 million in bogus $100 bills buried on Cannon's property.[16] Russell chose to rescind the hall of fame invitation. Cannon was eventually inducted in 2008.[16]

Sense of humor

One of Russell's trademarks was his humorous and entertaining style of writing in his columns, books, speeches and stories. He was a unofficial ringleader of a group of friends who engaged in practical jokes, often ingeniously planned.

New York Times sports columnist Red Smith said, "He is the first practical joker who never hurt anybody with his practical jokes".[4] Many of these are chronicled in a book about Russell, Confessions of a Practical Joker, written by Jim Harwell.[17] An example is an April Fools joke in 1965: Russell published a story on the front page of the Banner sports page on April 1 (April Fool's Day) reporting that newly-passed legislation would mean that the Natchez Trace Parkway would be built directly across the golf course of a Nashville country club of which Russell was a member.[8]: 170  It was a skillfully-concocted story with a large map and details containing believable quotes from city officials.[8]
: 170  Such exaggerated April fools stories had become a yearly tradition in the newspaper at the time.

Russell authored three sports humor books, I'll Go Quietly (1944), I'll Try Anything Twice (1945) and Funny Thing About Sports (1948). During

American military distributed I'll Try Anything Twice to soldiers as one of 1300 titles in its Armed Services Editions.[18][19]

The Banner vs. the Tennessean

An example of Russell's column in the Nashville Banner, October 29, 1936

In a two-newspaper town, competition between the journalists can be stiff. In Nashville, The Tennessean was the morning paper including Sundays; the Nashville Banner was the afternoon paper. In 1937, the two papers formed a Joint Operating Agreement to reduce costs by putting both in the same building and using the same printing presses.[8]: 146  The result was that the competitors kept their separate editorial identities but worked in close proximity; the tension was palpable.[8]: 146  Russell, the Banner sports editor, had sources on the inside happenings of Vanderbilt athletics and many more contacts nationally than did the Tennessean. Writing out his columns on his gray manual Royal typewriter,[20]: 24  Russell's objectives were clear: get the story, protect your sources, and make sure nothing leaked from Saturday afternoon until Monday morning after the Tennessean hit the stands.[8]: 153  If there was going to be a new coach hired, Russell knew it first, and possibly had a role in determining who the candidates would be.[8]: 153  Tennessean reporter Jimmy Davy, who endured the underdog status longer than anyone at the Tennessean, said "That kind of influence drove us crazy. . . that he was so inside with everything."[8]: 152 

Influence in various sports

In 1955, on Russell’s 25th Anniversary of writing at the Nashville Banner, the newspaper held an invitation-only gala for him that included more than 600 guests.

General Neyland, the general manager of the Cincinnati Reds, the president of the Sugar Bowl, the commissioner of the Southeastern Conference, and many coaches and athletes.[21] As for the secret of Russell's success in having friendships with top sports figures, biographer Andrew Derr said, "Confidentiality was the foundation for that type of friendship, and Russell was unwavering in his ability to keep his word".[8]: 137  College hall of fame player and coach Johnny Majors said, "You could talk off the record with him and you knew you wouldn't be reported unless he cleared it with you. I would tell something to him that I didn't want anybody else to know at the time. . ."[8]
: 137 

Boxing, horse racing, and golf

Russell covered major championship boxing and was a long-time friend of heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey. He covered more than 50 consecutive runnings of the Kentucky Derby.[8]: 33  Russell covered the first Masters golf tournament in 1934 in Augusta, Georgia, and over 40 subsequent Masters'. He was a close friend of Bobby Jones (who preferred to be called "Bob").[8]: 43 [1] Russell got to know him before Jones' golfing success, when Jones was a part owner of the Atlanta Crackers, a minor league baseball team.[8]: 44  Like Russell, Jones was a great storyteller and this trait was part of the foundation for their friendship.[8]: 44 

Football

Paul "Bear" Bryant was a friend of Russell's for close to a half-century.[8]: 133  They first met in 1937 on a four-day train ride from Birmingham to Pasadena when University of Alabama went to play in the 1937 Rose Bowl.[8]: 133  Bryant was an unknown at the time who had only recently graduated from the University of Alabama and had stayed on as an assistant coach there.[8]: 133  They talked for hours on the trip and Bryant basically told his life story to Russell, who years later said, "I was never more favorably impressed by a young coach as I was by Bryant."[8]: 133  Russell helped Bryant get a job as assistant coach at Vanderbilt in 1940.[20]: 24  From this initial acquaintance, a friendship developed between the two men and they became trusted confidants over the years.[8]: 136  Their wives became close and the couples visited their respective cities in the summer through the 1960s and 1970s.[8]: 136  Bryant and his wife usually dined with the Russells before the annual Vanderbilt-Alabama games.[8]: 136 

Baseball

As a baseball writer for 30 years in the middle of the 20th century, Russell often spent an entire month covering spring training in Florida each year. He often traveled with fellow sportswriter Red Smith, and they would frequently stay with players at venues such as the Soreno Hotel in St. Petersburg.[22] After the games, their wives drove to the next town while the two men sat in the back seat with typewriters creating their columns.[23] Sports Illustrated reported that in the 1930s, Russell interviewed Babe Ruth as Ruth played cards with Lou Gehrig.[20]: 24  Russell as a young reporter also interviewed Ty Cobb.[24][8]: 35  He spent the majority of his time covering the Yankees,[8]: 35  and said "Casey Stengel was better than any show anywhere".[8]: 35 

Track and field

Russell was one of the primary journalists who covered

Rome.[25] Wilma Rudolph, coached by TSU's Ed Temple, became the first American woman to win three gold medals in a single Olympics.[26] Temple spent the 1950s building his program[27]: 309  even though the historically black college had run-down facilities[8]: 98  and lacked scholarships.[c] After Rudolph's olympic stardom, Temple said, "The biggest disappointment in all my 44 years was when we came back from Rome and [the university] didn't get a cent [for scholarships and facilities]"[8]: 99  He confided his frustration to Russell who personally called the Governor of Tennessee, Buford Ellington and arranged for Temple to go downtown and meet with the governor. With Temple sitting in his office, Ellington phoned the commissioner of colleges and conditions at the university began to improve rapidly. When Wilma Rudolph died in 1980, Russell delivered her eulogy.[20]: 24 [28]

Awards and honors

Russell received numerous honors from sports organizations throughout his life.[29] He was elected to the National Sports Media Association Hall of Fame[30] and was a charter member of the Tennessee Sportswriters Hall of Fame.[31] He received the Distinguished American Award[29] given by the National Football Foundation (NFF).[15] Two previous recipients were Vince Lombardi and Bob Hope.[32]

Russell is a past president of the Football Writers Association of America.[29] He was a member of the Heisman Trophy Committee for 46 years[15] and served as the Heisman's Southern chairman for 30 years.[29] He received the Amos Alonzo Stagg Award from the American Football Coaches Association.[33] Other winners of this award were Bear Bryant and Woody Hayes.[33] In the same year he was awarded the Bert McGrane Award from the Football Writers Association of America.[34]

In 1983,

The National Turf Writers Association (horse-racing) awarded Russell the Walter Haight Award for Excellence in Turf Writing.[35] He received the Associated Press Editor's Red Smith Award for “extended meritorious labor in the art of sportswriting.”[36] He received the first annual "Grantland Rice Memorial Award" (1957) by an organization of journalists, the Sportsmanship Brotherhood, Inc.[36][37] for "writing in the Grantland Rice Tradition".[1][38]

Russell was a member of the

U.S. Olympic Committee.[40]

Legacy

Russell's legacy includes the following items named in his honor:

Personal life and final years

Russell and his wife, Katherine Wyche Early Russell, were married for 63 years until her death in 1996. They had four daughters, Katherine Early, Ellen Fall, Elizabeth Lee, Carolyn Evans. Russell worked past the age of 90 and lived until the age of 96. Two personal tragedies that Russell endured in his life were the death of his wife Kay in 1996 and the demise of the Nashville Banner in 1998.

John Siegenthaler and sports editor John Bibb.[8]: 229  Russell wrote a few articles for them, enough to make his 70th year as a journalist, then retired. Long-time Tennessean writer Jimmy Davy said, "You know, he just didn't have his heart in it— he was a Banner man."[8]: 230  Russell's final sports column is published in the multi-author book, Nashville: An American Self-Portrait (2001).[48]: 35  He died in 2003 at age 96.[4]

Works by Fred Russell

  • Big Bowl Football: The Great Season Classics, (1963) with George Leonard
  • Bury Me in an Old Press Box, (1955)
  • Vol Feats, (1950) with George Leonard
  • Funny Thing About Sports, (1948)
  • I'll Try Anything Twice, (1945)
  • I'll Go Quietly, (1944)
  • 50 Years of Vanderbilt Football (1938), by Maxwell E. Benson, Edited by Fred Russell

Notes

  1. Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt was presented to the university.[4]
  2. ^ TRA is the Thoroughbred Racing Association, an organization that funded the scholarship initially because of Grantland Rice's love of horse racing and his writing about the industry.[8]: 207 
  3. ^ Rudolph paid for her education by working on the TSU campus two hours each day as part of a work-study program.[8]: 99 

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 9781789125719
    . Retrieved September 1, 2021.
  2. ^ a b "Russell, Fred McFerrin/Obituary". Vol. 99, no. 28. The Tennessean. January 28, 2003. p. 5–B. Retrieved September 13, 2021.
  3. ^ a b "Removed to Their Country Home". Vol. 31, no. 143. Nashville Banner. September 22, 1906. Retrieved August 31, 2021.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Normand, Tom (January 28, 2003). "Mr. Russell: End of an Era". Vol. 99, no. 28. The Tennessean. pp. 1–A, 1–C, 3–C. Retrieved September 2, 2021.
  5. ^ McFerrin, Mabel Lee (1898). "Vanderbilt University Waltz". levysheetmusicmse.jhu.edu. H.A. French. Retrieved August 31, 2021. Johns Hopkins Sheridan Libraries & University Museums
  6. ^ "Duncan College Preparatory School for Boys". hmdb.org. The Historical Marker Database. Retrieved August 28, 2021.
  7. ^ Fox, David (January 27, 2003). "Legendary Sports Reporter Fred Russell Dies". nashvillepost.com. Nashville Post.
  8. ^
    ISBN 9780881462784
    .
  9. ^ Traughber, Bill (August 23, 2006). "Fred Russell Was A Vanderbilt Man". vucommodores.com. Vanderbilt University. Retrieved August 25, 2021.
  10. ISBN 9780786430505
    . Retrieved August 24, 2021.
  11. ^ Summer, Jim (January 1, 2004). "Sports in the 1920s:The Golden age of Sports". ncpedia.org. NCpedia (State Library of North Carolina). Retrieved September 2, 2021.
  12. ISBN 0807826502
    . Retrieved August 30, 2021.
  13. ^ "Grantland Rice/ Vanderbilt University Athletics". vucommodores.com. 13 May 2019. Retrieved August 29, 2021.
  14. ^ Egerton, John (1979). Nashville: The Faces of Two Centuries, 1780–1980 (First ed.). PlusMedia.
  15. ^ a b c "National Football Foundation/ NFF Distinguished American Award Recipients/Fred Russell/Bio". footballfoundation.org. Retrieved September 9, 2021.
  16. ^ a b Schudel, Matt (May 23, 2018). "Billy Cannon, 1959 Heisman Trophy winner later convicted of counterfeiting, dies at 80". The Washington Post. Retrieved August 29, 2021.
  17. ^
    ISBN 9780985594305
    .
  18. ^ Giaimo, Cara (22 September 2017). "How Books Designed for Soldiers' Pockets Changed Publishing Forever". Atlas Obscura. Retrieved 29 December 2018.
  19. ISBN 9780544535176
    .
  20. ^ a b c d "Byline for the Ages: Fred Russell's Banner Career". Sports Illustrated. 88:9 (March 2, 1998). Retrieved September 3, 2021.
  21. ^ a b Horick, Randy (March 26, 1998). "The Time of his Life: How Fred Russell Got the Story". nashvillescene.com. The Nashville Scene. Retrieved September 3, 2021.
  22. ^ Romano, John (June 6, 2020). "Once upon a time, St. Pete was the center of baseball's fight for civil rights". tampabay.com. Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved August 31, 2021.
  23. ^ Biddle, Joe (January 28, 2003). "Missing an Old Friend on the Sidelines". Vol. 99, no. 28. The Tennessean. p. 1–C. Retrieved September 2, 2021.
  24. ^ Bell, Rick C. (October 8, 2017). "Fred McFerrin Russell". tennesseeencyclopedia.net. The Tennessee Historical Society. Retrieved September 3, 2021.
  25. ^ "Heroines of the Track: TSU's Tigerbelles Bring Home the Gold". library.nashville.org. Nashville Public Library. July 25, 2021. Retrieved August 30, 2021.
  26. ^ "On this Day:1950–2005/11 September/1960: Rudolph takes third Olympic gold". news.bbc.co.uk. BBC. 11 September 1960. Retrieved September 1, 2021.
  27. ISBN 9780820339016
    . Retrieved October 11, 2021.
  28. ^ "Russell, Frederic McFerrin 1906–2003". encyclopedia.com. Retrieved September 3, 2021.
  29. ^ a b c d "Russell, Sports Columnist, Is Cited by Football Hall". The New York Times. April 27, 1980. p. S–9. Retrieved September 3, 2021.
  30. ^ "National Sports Media Association (NSMA)/Hall of Fame/". nationalsportsmedia.org. Retrieved September 9, 2021.
  31. ^ "Tennessee Sports Writers Hall of Fame features quotes, jokes". williamsonherald.com. Williamson Herald (Franklin, Tennessee). July 27, 2006. Retrieved September 9, 2021.
  32. ^ "NFF Distinguished American Award Recipients". footballfoundation.org. National Football Foundation (NFF). Retrieved September 9, 2021.
  33. ^ a b "Longtime College Head Coach Dick Tomey to Receive 2020 Amos Alonzo Stagg Award". afca.com. American Football Coaches Association. Retrieved September 9, 2021.
  34. ^ "Bert McGrane Award". sportswriters.net. Football Writers Association of America. Retrieved September 9, 2021.
  35. ^ "Walter Haight Award". ntwab.org. National Turf Writers and Broadcasters. Retrieved September 5, 2021.
  36. ^ a b c "Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame/Inductees/Fred Russell". tshf.net. Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame. Retrieved September 4, 2021.
  37. ^ "The Sportsmanship Brotherhood". New York Times. November 4, 1925. p. 22. Retrieved September 24, 2021.
  38. ^ Russell, Fred (May 4, 1959). "An Expert Defends the Sports Page". vault.si.com. Sports Illustrated. Retrieved September 3, 2021. Here, by invitation, one of the ablest sports editors in America, Fred Russell of the 'Nashville Banner' proudly speaks for his profession
  39. ^ "Vanderbilt Athletics Announces Inaugural Hall of Fame Class". Vanderbilt University. 2008-06-26. Archived from the original on 2008-06-28. Retrieved 2008-06-26.
  40. ^ "Longtime Sports Editor Fred Russell Dies". apnews.com. Associated Press. January 27, 2003. Retrieved September 10, 2021.
  41. ^ a b "Fred Russell Distinguished American Award". nffnashville.org. The National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame, Inc. (NFF). Retrieved September 5, 2021.
  42. ^ Kreager, Tom (June 28, 2021). "Fitzgerald earns Lifetime Achievement honor". Vol. 17, no. 79. The Tennessean. p. 1–B. Retrieved August 31, 2021.
  43. ^ "Hayes earns Fred Russell Lifetime Achievement Award". murfreesboropost.com. Murfreesboro Post. Retrieved September 24, 2021.
  44. ^ Ammenhauser, Dave (May 23, 2016). "Legacy honors added to Middle Tennessee Sports Awards". Vol. 112, no. 144. The Tennessean. Retrieved September 24, 2021.
  45. ^ "Young Gets Person of the Year Award". Vol. 103, no. 72. The Tennessean. March 13, 2007. p. 3–C. Retrieved September 24, 2021.
  46. ^ Hopp, Jessica (February 14, 2006). "Cutler Is Given Pair of Awards". Vol. 102, no. 45. The Tennessean. p. 4–C. Retrieved September 24, 2021.
  47. ^ 2010 Vanderbilt Baseball Media Guide, p. 14 at issuu.com, URL accessed September 24, 2021. Archived 12-24-2010
  48. ISBN 0970670214
    .
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