March 10, 1918

Heywood Hale Broun, (March 10, 1918 to September 5 2001) was, according to his New York Times obituary, a "television commentator and writer who cast an irreverent eye on the world of sports with a flair reflecting yet another career as an actor." And here is what Garrison Keillor remembered, according to his Writers' Almanac.

'....Heywood Hale Broun, .... [was] born in New York City. His mother, Ruth Hale, fought for women's suffrage, and was the first female film critic in the United States; his father, Heywood Broun, was a sports writer and a columnist, and the founder of the Newspaper Guild. Both parents were members of the famed Algonquin Round Table.

'Young Heywood followed in his parents' journalistic footsteps, becoming a sports correspondent himself. He joined the staff of the New York tabloid PM in 1940 as a sportswriter. The war interrupted his career, and he left the paper to join the Army, returning as a columnist at the war's end. He began his television career in 1966 when he joined CBS as a color commentator. Known for his loud sport coats and lush, drooping mustache, his prose was as witty and eloquent as his jackets were garish. Baseball, golf, and horse racing were subjects he returned to frequently, and he often drew parallels between sports and Greek mythology. In The New York Times in 1994, Mr. Broun wrote of thoroughbreds: ''To be great, a horse must have metaphorical wings. In mythology we punished wax-winged Icarus for flying too close to the sun, but in recognition of the nobility of their single-mindedness, mythology has let the chariot horses of Apollo traverse the sky. Race horses do not chaffer over money, get into bar fights or endorse horse blankets and aluminum shoes. They combine strength, grace, beauty and speed as perhaps no other link in the Darwinian chain can manage (cheetahs have funny-looking shoulders).'''

We miss Garrison Keillor.


Heywood pursued acting as a sideline, and he appeared in several Broadway plays and movies, among them The Odd Couple, For Pete's Sake, Housesitter, and It Should Happen to You. He died on September 5th, 2001, in Kingston, New York.