"Randy was a great writer and a wonderful friend to all of us," Journal Inquirer Publisher Elizabeth Ellis said. "He has been a wonderful contributor to this newspaper. We will miss him."
Smith's columns were a mainstay in the paper's sports section.
"His integrity and fearlessness made him the best at what he did for 30 years," Managing Editor Chris Powell said.
Smith, who was only 61, was a great, great friend to women's basketball. Says today's JI editorial, "The man who wrote well:"
Smith was part of a tradition that is almost forgotten in sports writing now. For him sports writing was not about contracts, gossip, celebrity endorsements, or technique. He saw sports as a healthy slice of the human drama. Sports, for him, were about heroes and bums; failure and aspiration; brotherhood, courage, and hope.
Therefore the concept of sports writing as a form of technical writing was totally alien to him. To Randy Smith, sports writing was supposed to be a kind of literature.
In his hands it was.
posted by Helen at 8:06 AM
