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Dave Kindred
Dave Kindred
Dave Kindred
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Dave Kindred (born April 12, 1941) is an American sportswriter.

Early life and education

[edit]

Kindred was born on April 12, 1941, in Atlanta, Illinois, USA.[1] When he was a teenager his mother bought him a typewriter for his birthday and he wrote about Stan Musial.[2] At around the same age, he aspired to become a sportswriter like Red Smith and would pick up his columns from the train station every Sunday morning.[3]

Kindred attended Atlanta High School where he played on their basketball team, leading them to the 1959 regional championship.[4] He continued his aspirations to become a sportswriter although he was discouraged by his English teacher who said, "Maybe one day you can grow up and be a foreign correspondent."[3] After graduating, Kindred attended Illinois Wesleyan University on a journalism scholarship[2] and competed on their Division III baseball team.[4] While in school and for two years after, he worked full-time on the sports section of The Pantagraph.[2] He found his time at the paper challenging for he was in charge of covering all basketball games across the city and keeping track of scores.[5]

Career

[edit]

Kindred left The Pantagraph in 1965 to become a staff writer and columnist for The Courier-Journal.[2] During his tenure at the paper, he followed Muhammad Ali and eventually published a condensed dual biography of Howard Cosell and Ali in 2006.[4] In his first year at the Courier-Journal, while working at the copy desk, he was informed that Ali was in town and told to find him. Upon finding him, Kindred and Ali drove around Louisville to his neighborhood and hometown hangouts for the day. As they became more familiar with one another, Ali nicknamed Kindred "Louisville" for he was his hometown guy.[3] Kindred estimates that he interviewed Ali around 300 times across numerous locations including Madison Square Garden and his various homes.[6] Along with covering Ali, Kindred also reported on the 1972 Summer Olympics, and the subsequent Munich massacre, and the 1976 Summer Olympics.[7] As a result of his journalism work, he received a 1971 general interest National Headline Award[8] and numerous "Sportswriter of the Year" awards.[9]

Kindred eventually left to join The Washington Post in the summer of 1977 as their new sports columnist.[1] Speaking of his time there he said, "I wrote four or five times per week from everywhere in the world on every major sporting event, every time trying to make the column the best one I ever wrote."[10] His first column for the Post was on George Allen as coach of the Washington Redskins.[1] Kindred stayed at the Washington Post until 1984 before writing for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and The National Sports Daily.[11] In his first year with the Sports Daily, Kindred received the Red Smith Award for outstanding contributions to sports journalism.[12] He continued to write for the National Sports Daily and Golf Digest from the 1990s through the turn of the 21st century.[11]

Kindred was inducted into the U.S. Basketball Writers Hall of Fame[13] and National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association Hall of Fame.[14] In 2000, he was recognized by the Basketball Hall of Fame with the Curt Gowdy Print Media Award.[15] Eleven years later, he was named the recipient of the Dick Schaap Award for Outstanding Journalism[16] and received the 2010 PGA Lifetime Achievement Award in Journalism.[2] In 2019, Kindred donated his sports journalism collection of over 50 years to his alma maters Tate Archives and Special Collections.[17]

He is the author of many books, most recently Leave Out the Tragic Parts,[18] published in 2021, about the death of his grandson Jared, and My Home Team,[19] published in 2023, about returning to his home-town after retirement and finding connection and community in covering the girls' high school basketball team, the Lady Potters of Morton, Illinois.

Personal life

[edit]

Kindred met his wife Cheryl Liesman while attending Atlanta High School and they have one son together.[4] She died in 2021.[20]

References

[edit]
Revisions and contributorsEdit on WikipediaRead on Wikipedia

Dave Kindred

View on Grokipedia
from Grokipedia
Dave Kindred is an American sportswriter and author known for his distinguished career spanning more than five decades, during which he produced over 7,000 columns for major publications including The Washington Post, The Sporting News, and Golf Digest, and for his intimate, long-term coverage of Muhammad Ali as well as his literary books on sports and journalism. Born in Atlanta, Illinois, in 1941, Kindred developed an early interest in writing and sports while growing up in central Illinois, attending Illinois Wesleyan University on a journalism scholarship and beginning his professional career at the Bloomington Illinois Daily Pantagraph. He joined the Louisville Courier-Journal in 1965, where he first encountered Muhammad Ali and covered many of the boxer’s fights over the years, eventually becoming a columnist for the paper in 1969. Kindred went on to hold prominent columnist positions at The Washington Post from 1977 to 1984, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution during multiple periods, The National Sports Daily, and later as a senior writer for Golf Digest, earning a reputation for his storytelling approach and literary style influenced by Red Smith. Among his notable books are Sound and Fury, a dual biography of Muhammad Ali and Howard Cosell, and My Home Team: A Sportswriter’s Life and the Redemptive Power of Small-Town Girls Basketball, a 2023 memoir reflecting on his career alongside his volunteer coverage of the Morton High School Lady Potters girls basketball team after retiring and returning to central Illinois in 2010. Kindred has received major honors including the Red Smith Award in 1991, National Sportswriter of the Year in 1997, the Curt Gowdy Award in 2007, the PGA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010, and induction into the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Hall of Fame in 2007.

Early life and education

Birth and family background

Dave Kindred was born on April 12, 1941, in Lincoln, Illinois, to Marie Maloney (later Marie Cheek, 1914–2008) and John D. Kindred (died 1963). He grew up in Atlanta, Illinois, a small town in central Illinois. As a child, Kindred dreamed of becoming a major league baseball player and played the sport extensively from a young age. His first job was detasseling corn, a typical summer task in rural Illinois. He remained an avid St. Louis Cardinals fan, influenced by radio broadcasts and his hero, Stan Musial. When he was 15, Kindred's mother bought him a typewriter for his birthday, inspiring his early writing efforts. The first words he typed were "Stanley Frank Musial," reflecting his admiration for the Cardinals star. His exposure to professional journalism began with weekly visits to the local train station to pick up Chicago newspapers, where he read sports columns avidly.

Education and early interest in journalism

Dave Kindred attended Atlanta High School in Atlanta, Illinois, where he played point guard on the basketball team that captured the 1959 regional championship as an undefeated squad in that tournament. He also played baseball as a shortstop and pitcher during his high school years. His high school English teacher discouraged aspirations in sportswriting, deeming it "silly" and urging him instead to pursue a career as a foreign correspondent someday. Kindred's interest in journalism emerged early through avid reading of Chicago newspapers and admiration for sportswriting masters Red Smith and Jimmy Cannon. By age 15, he had resolved to emulate Smith's literary approach, which emphasized the flavor and texture of events over mere play-by-play accounts, and he routinely collected Sunday editions of Chicago papers to study the columnist's work. He met his future wife, Cheryl Liesman, during his time at Atlanta High School. He enrolled at Illinois Wesleyan University on a journalism scholarship from the Bloomington Daily Pantagraph that covered half his tuition and graduated in 1963 with a B.A. in English. While at the university, he competed on the Division III baseball team. To help finance his education, Kindred worked full-time on the sports and city desks of the Daily Pantagraph throughout his college years and continued there for two years after graduation.

Journalism career

Early positions (1959–1976)

Dave Kindred began his professional journalism career in 1959 at The Daily Pantagraph in Bloomington, Illinois, while attending Illinois Wesleyan University on a scholarship from the newspaper. He worked there full-time during his college years and continued after graduation, handling sports coverage that included running a one-man sports desk on high school basketball nights and tracking local scores and games. Kindred left The Pantagraph in 1965 after six years to join the Louisville Courier-Journal and the affiliated Louisville Times in Kentucky. At the Louisville papers, Kindred started on the copy desk as a copy editor and golf writer. In 1966, shortly after arriving, he received an assignment from his sports editor to find Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) in the boxer's hometown; Kindred located him and spent a day riding around Louisville's west end with Ali, marking the start of extensive coverage that included more than 300 interviews with the fighter over the ensuing decades. Ali, in turn, nicknamed Kindred "Louisville." Kindred advanced to columnist in 1969 for the Louisville Times and also served as sports editor of the afternoon paper until 1976. During this period, he covered major international events, including the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich—where he reported on both the games and the terrorist massacre—and the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. His work at the Courier-Journal and Louisville Times earned him multiple Sportswriter of the Year awards as well as a 1971 National Headline Award in general interest.

The Washington Post years (1977–1984)

Dave Kindred joined The Washington Post in 1977 as a sports columnist, marking a significant step in his career after his time at the Louisville Courier-Journal. His first column for the paper focused on George Allen's role as coach of the Washington Redskins, an insightful and humorous piece that reportedly drew the ire of Allen himself. Kindred produced four to five columns per week during his tenure, covering major sporting events around the world and filing from diverse locations. He emphasized an honest, personal voice in his writing, aspiring to capture the flavor, texture, and romance of sports through literary language, expressed opinions, and a commitment to making every column stronger than the last, drawing inspiration from Red Smith’s approach of providing readers with enjoyment akin to attending the event itself. This period also saw him continue his longstanding coverage of Muhammad Ali. Kindred remained at The Washington Post until 1984.

Later career and ongoing contributions (1984–present)

After his tenure at The Washington Post, Kindred continued his column-writing career with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, serving as a sports columnist from 1984 to 1989 and again from 1995 to 1997. In 1989, he joined The National as a sports columnist through 1991, a period that included his receipt of the Red Smith Award from the Associated Press Sports Editors. From 1991 to 2007, Kindred wrote as a columnist for The Sporting News. In 1997, he began contributing to Golf Digest as a senior writer, a role he has maintained since then. Through Golf Digest, he has sustained his long-standing coverage of golf, including attending 52 Masters tournaments by 2019 after first covering the event in 1967 and missing only the 1986 tournament due to a family commitment. Kindred retired in 2010 at age 69 and relocated to the Morton, Illinois, area. There, he began covering the Morton High School girls basketball team, known as the Lady Potters, initially volunteering to write game accounts for the team's fan website after attending a game that season. He has since attended hundreds of their games and written approximately 500,000 words about the team—more than on any other subject in his career—posting detailed recaps and self-publishing yearbooks for players and fans while receiving only nominal compensation such as boxes of Milk Duds per game. This local coverage has provided Kindred with ongoing community engagement and a continued outlet for his journalism in retirement.

Notable coverage and subjects

Muhammad Ali and boxing

Dave Kindred's coverage of Muhammad Ali spanned five decades, beginning with their first meeting in 1966 while Kindred worked at the Louisville Courier-Journal. He covered 17 of Ali's fights, including 10 heavyweight championship bouts, and conducted more than 300 interviews with the champion. Ali nicknamed Kindred "Louisville" in recognition of his early reporting from Ali's hometown, often treating him with special access as his local journalist. Kindred regarded Ali as his favorite interview subject, noting that "every word [was] quotable," and described him as a sportswriter's dream because "he never shut up," enabling seamless documentation of his thoughts without prompting. In 2006, Kindred published Sound and Fury: Two Powerful Lives, One Fateful Friendship, a dual biography exploring Ali's influential relationship with broadcaster Howard Cosell.

Golf, The Masters, and other major events

Kindred's coverage of golf, particularly The Masters tournament, stands out as a defining aspect of his career. He has attended The Masters 52 times (as of 2021), describing the event as an annual pilgrimage and Augusta National as one of his favorite arenas in all of sports. Since joining Golf Digest as a columnist in 1997, he has continued to produce insightful writing on the sport. Among his notable contributions to golf journalism is his 1997 column on Tiger Woods' groundbreaking victory at the Masters, which addressed the racial history and broader significance of Woods becoming the first Black champion at Augusta National in the context of American history. In 2019, Kindred wrote a piece on the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach that emphasized non-golf elements, including fans watching from the beach below the course and the surrounding community atmosphere. In addition to his golf reporting, Kindred has covered an extraordinary range of other major sporting events over the decades, including 9 Olympic Games, 37 World Series, 44 Super Bowls, and 41 Kentucky Derbys.

Books

Major published works

Dave Kindred has authored several significant books that reflect his deep engagement with sports, journalism, and personal storytelling. His works range from biographical explorations and industry analyses to intimate memoirs, often drawing on his decades of reporting experience. One of his notable earlier books is ''Basketball: The Dream Game in Kentucky'' (1975), which examines the cultural significance of basketball in the state. In 1995, Kindred published ''The Colorado Silver Bullets for the Love of the Game: Women Who Go Toe-To-Toe With the Men'', chronicling the pioneering women's professional baseball team that competed against men's squads. In 2006, Kindred released ''Sound and Fury: Two Powerful Lives, One Fateful Friendship'', a dual biography detailing the unlikely but influential relationship between Muhammad Ali and broadcaster Howard Cosell, whose contrasting backgrounds and personalities produced memorable cultural moments in sports and media. Kindred's 2010 book ''Morning Miracle: Inside the Washington Post'' provides an insider's account of the newspaper's newsroom dynamics, leadership, and struggles amid the shifting media landscape of the early 21st century. His 2021 memoir ''Leave Out the Tragic Parts: A Grandfather's Search for a Boy Lost to Addiction'' recounts the devastating impact of his grandson Jared's struggles with addiction, homelessness, and eventual death, while exploring themes of grief, family secrets, and the narratives people construct. Most recently, Kindred published ''My Home Team: A Sportswriter's Life and the Redemptive Power of Small-Town Girls Basketball'' in 2023, a personal account of his involvement with the Morton High School Lady Potters basketball team in his Illinois hometown, illustrating how their story offered solace and meaning amid his own losses.

Awards and honors

Key recognitions and inductions

Dave Kindred's exceptional contributions to sports journalism have earned him a wide array of major awards, honors, and hall of fame inductions. He received the National Headliner Award in 1971 for his general-interest columns while working in Louisville. During his tenure at the Courier-Journal, Kindred earned multiple Sportswriter of the Year honors, including five times as Kentucky Sportswriter of the Year. In 1991, he won the Red Smith Award from the Associated Press Sports Editors, widely regarded as one of the highest honors in the field, for his lifetime contributions to sports journalism. Kindred continued to accumulate prestigious recognitions in subsequent decades. He received the Curt Gowdy Print Media Award from the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2000. In 2007, he was inducted into the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association Hall of Fame. He was honored with the PGA Lifetime Achievement Award in Journalism in 2010. Kindred won the Dick Schaap Award for Outstanding Journalism in 2011. In 2012, the Boxing Writers Association of America presented him with the Nat Fleischer Memorial Award for excellence in boxing journalism. He is also a member of the U.S. Basketball Writers Hall of Fame. Later in his career, Kindred received dual lifetime achievement honors in 2018 with the Dan Jenkins Medal for Excellence in Sportswriting and the PEN/ESPN Lifetime Achievement Award for Literary Sports Writing. He is one of only two writers to have earned sportswriting's three highest honors: the Red Smith Award, the PEN America ESPN Lifetime Achievement Award for Literary Sports Writing, and the Dan Jenkins Medal for Excellence in Sportswriting.

Broadcast and media appearances

Television and documentary contributions

Dave Kindred has made numerous appearances as himself in television series and documentaries, primarily as an expert commentator and interviewee drawing on his extensive background in sports journalism. These contributions have focused on historical sports moments, controversies, and especially the life and career of Muhammad Ali, where his firsthand reporting has provided authoritative insights. Kindred's most extensive television work came through ESPN productions, including 19 episodes of SportsCentury between 1999 and 2006, where he offered commentary on landmark athletes and events. He also appeared in seven episodes of The Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame... from 2005 to 2006 and three episodes of ESPN 25: Who's #1? in 2004. He contributed to several other programs as a sports journalist expert, including the TV movie :03 from Gold (2002), Ali's Dozen (2006), one episode of 30 for 30 (2018), and one episode of In Their Own Words (2015, credited as Self - Sports Journalist). More recently, Kindred featured in four episodes of the 2021 Muhammad Ali mini-series as Self - Journalist and in two episodes of 60 Minutes in 2021. These roles have been limited to on-camera appearances as an interviewee and commentator, with no credits in acting, directing, or production.

Personal life

Family and later years

Dave Kindred married his high school sweetheart Cheryl Liesman on February 24, 1962. The couple, who met in Atlanta, Illinois, where she was a cheerleader and he played sports, had one son, Jeffrey. In his later years, Kindred faced significant personal losses. His grandson Jared Kindred's life and death due to addiction are detailed in the 2021 memoir Leave Out the Tragic Parts: A Grandfather's Search for a Boy Lost to Addiction. After retiring in 2010, Kindred and Cheryl returned to central Illinois, settling near Morton in a log cabin in the countryside, closing what he described as a long "road trip" away from their hometown roots. Cheryl suffered a massive stroke on December 6, 2015, which left her noncommunicative and bedridden in a nursing facility for the next five and a half years. Kindred visited her frequently, often discussing his days with her despite her inability to respond fully. She died on June 24, 2021, at age 79. In the post-retirement period, Kindred began voluntarily covering the Morton High School girls basketball team, the Lady Potters, starting in late 2010 after attending a game at the encouragement of family friends. He continued attending every game for over a decade, writing extensively for the team's fan website and producing hundreds of thousands of words on the players and program. This involvement provided community support and purpose during Cheryl's illness and after her death. Kindred's experiences with the team and reflections on his marriage are central to his 2023 memoir My Home Team: A Sportswriter's Life and the Redemptive Power of Small-Town Girls Basketball.

References

  1. https://nationalsportsmedia.org/awards/hall-of-fame/2007-dave-kindred
  2. https://povichcenter.umd.edu/still-no-cheering-press-box/chapter/Dave-Kindred/index.html
  3. https://www.aarp.org/money/retirement/dave-kindred-interview/
  4. https://iwu.libraryhost.com/repositories/3/resources/11
  5. https://mrbiofile.com/2024/01/05/biofile-dave-kindred-interview/
  6. https://www.shawlocal.com/bureau-county-republican/sports/2021/11/05/four-sportswriters-one-small-town/
  7. https://www.lincolncourier.com/story/sports/high-school/2014/06/25/on-sports-beat-kindred-s/36956516007/
  8. https://www.iwusports.com/news/2010/1/13/ALUM_0113105703
  9. https://www.wglt.org/local-news/2023-09-25/small-town-team-comes-up-big-for-renowned-writer-dave-kindred
  10. https://evergreenpodcasts.com/press-box-access/dave-kindred-taking-us-along-with-ali-tiger-and-secretariat
  11. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/dave-kindred-muhammad-ali-60-minutes-2021-08-22/
  12. https://www.courier-journal.com/story/sports/2023/03/29/dave-kindred-among-kentucky-journalism-hall-of-fame-2023-inductees/70052916007/
  13. https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/books/my-home-team-review-small-town-hoops-big-time-story-2628272e
  14. https://www.golfdigest.com/story/the-incomparable-dave-kindred-celebrates-another-birthday-at-the-masters-still-lamenting-the-one-he-missed
  15. https://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/awards_distinguished/49/
  16. https://www.golfdigest.com/contributor/dave-kindred
  17. https://www.si.com/media/2021/07/07/dave-kindred-where-are-they-now-2021
  18. https://www.wglt.org/show/wglts-sound-ideas/2016-06-09/author-with-central-illinois-roots-interviewed-ali-in-bed
  19. https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Sound-and-Fury/Dave-Kindred/9780743262125
  20. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/dave-kindred-local-sportswriter-60-minutes-2021-03-28/
  21. https://peninsulapress.com/2024/07/24/dave-kindred-on-writing-about-sports-and-witnessing-extraordinary-people-doing-unimaginable-things/
  22. https://www.golfdigest.com/story/us-open-2019-on-the-beach-below-pebble-golf-fans-dog-walkers-and-an-underrated-view
  23. https://www.sportingnews.com/us/golf/news/tsn-archives-1997-masters-tiger-woods-showed-golf-would-never-be-same/igktvaocoi3oggoq4lr6vxwa
  24. https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/10448.Dave_Kindred
  25. https://www.amazon.com/Sound-Fury-Powerful-Fateful-Friendship/dp/0743262115
  26. https://www.amazon.com/Leave-Out-Tragic-Parts-Grandfathers/dp/1541757068
  27. https://www.amazon.com/Home-Team-Sportswriters-Redemptive-Small-Town/dp/1541702204
  28. https://www.courier-journal.com/story/sports/2018/02/07/dave-kindred-wins-lifetime-achievement-award/317285002/
  29. https://www.hoophall.com/awards/curt-gowdy-media-awards/
  30. https://gwaa.com/gwaa-awards-and-contests/pga-of-america-lifetime-achievement-in-journalism/
  31. https://www.golfdigest.com/story/golf-digests-dave-kindred-wins-2011-dick-schaap-award
  32. https://www.boxingscene.com/articles/dave-kindred-2012-nat-fleischer-award-winner
  33. https://www.simonandschuster.com/authors/Dave-Kindred/23773730
  34. https://moody.utexas.edu/centers/sports-communication-media/year-two-jenkins-medal-dinner
  35. https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/contributor/dave-kindred/
  36. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1235294/
  37. https://www.cbsnews.com/video/dave-kindred-local-sportswriter-60-minutes-video-2021-08-22/
  38. https://newherald.news/cheryl-a-kindred-p17168-96.htm
  39. https://www.espn.com/espnw/culture/feature/article/22406558/legendary-sportswriter-dave-kindred-returns-roots-covering-local-girls-basketball
  40. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52511382-leave-out-the-tragic-parts
  41. https://forum.ib.tv/forum/index.php?threads/thomas-hauser%E2%80%99s-literary-notes-dave-kindred-and-robert-seltzer.23325/
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