Friday, March 03, 2006

Bill Dwyre Steps Down As Times Sports Editor

Bill Dwyre, a fair minded man and a fine sports editor, is stepping down as sports editor at the L.A. Times after 25 years and will be succeeded by Randy Harvey. Congratulations to both.

Bill will continue for a while longer as a sportswriter.

It was my privilege to be a colleague of Dwyre as the Times' Olympic writer for the 1984 Games and, after that, to work for him in Sports for some months and also write a book on the history of the 1984 Games. This was one of the most cherished of my relationships in 39 years at the Times.

Bill has grown grey in the company's service, and it could not have been easy in recent years, with cutbacks in the Sports section as well as other sections of the paper. He said last night that he had been trying to retire as sports editor for the past year and a half.

Always conscientious, Dwyre was unfairly criticized, sometimes jokingly and other times not, aa being a Notre Dame booster (he was a Notre Dame graduate), and as biased against USC. This was absolute tripe. In his years as sports editor, Dwyre was fair to everyone and he stood for absolute integrity in sports. His dislike of gambling and drugs in sport was legendary and did him credit.

Knowing him and his wife, Jill, was always a pleasure. Not only was he considerate as a boss, he was a good, self-deprecating commentator when he chose to be, had an excellent sense of humor and was always a class act. At the Times, he became an institution.

The Times was lucky to have him as sports editor and he will be missed. But Randy Harvey is a promising replacement. His replacement of Dwyre was arranged, it's my understanding, after Dave Morgan left for Yahoo, and Harvey was obtained back from the Baltimore Sun, which has suffered even more from Tribune cutbacks than the L.A. Times has.

On the Olympics, Dwyre was always their great booster and believed thoroughly in the international fellowship the Olympics represented. The special Olympic sections he put together were superb and after I stepped down as an Olympics writer, he made a good choice of Alan Abrahamson as my successor.

He will always be at the top of my list. It was both an honor and a pleasure to work for him.

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I always thought it was the job of the newspaper to give fair and balanced reporting on what's happening locally, not blindly "support" the local teams. Columnists can support or not, but not the paper.

3/05/2006 9:55 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Good riddance. I doubt that anyone could have been more biased in the sports/teams that he had the staff cover and the WAY he had the staff cover them.

His anger towards USC and the Coluseum were plapable. He should have been a sport editor in Chicago so he could worship Notre Dame from a more convenient place.

Bill, don't let the door slap you in the @ss on the way out...and don't expect many tears from L.A.

8/12/2006 12:41 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Too bad he didnĀ“t get the inside story on such noteables like the not so nice Freddy Couples. Sports ink and good smut to most wagging tounges!

2/17/2008 1:41 PM  

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