Famed Author David Halberstam Dies At The Age Of 73

David Halberstam Dies At Age Of 73

Pulitzer Prize-winning author DAVID HALBERSTAM died yesterday in a car accident in the Bay Area at the age of 73. His wife, JEAN, said that at the time of the accident, her husband was on his way to interview Pro Football HOFer Y.A. TITTLE for a book he was researching called “The Game,” about the Colts’ NFL Championship win against the Giants in ’58. The contest was the first nationally-televised NFL title game, and Halberstam “planned to show how football was transformed into a vastly more popular spectator sport” (L.A. TIMES, 4/24). In S.F., Cote & Stannard note the game is “widely regarded as having contributed to pro football’s modern popularity” (S.F. CHRONICLE, 4/24).

LIFE’S WORK: Halberstam’s voluminous sports credits include “The Breaks of the Game” (about the ’79 Trail Blazers), “Summer of ’49” (Yankees-Red Sox pennant chase), “October 1964” (Yankees-Cardinals World Series) and “Playing For Keeps: MICHAEL JORDAN and the World He Made.” He won the Pulitzer Prize in ’64 for his Vietnam War coverage written for the N.Y. Times. “The Coldest Winter,” which is about the Korean War, is due out this fall (THE DAILY). Halberstam appeared on 18 episodes of ESPN’s “SportsCentury” discussing Jordan, TED WILLIAMS, JOE DIMAGGIO, JOE LOUIS, CASEY STENGEL, PETE ROSE, BILL WALTON and JOHN MCENROE, among others. He also occasionally wrote for ESPN’s Page 2 (HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, 4/24). Read Halberstam's November ’05 One-on-One with THE DAILY, in which he discussed a number of issues, including the impending release of “The Education of a Coach,” about the Patriots’ BILL BELICHICK.

THOSE ARE THE BREAKS: USA TODAY’s Bob Minzesheimer called “The Breaks of the Game” “perhaps the best book on pro basketball” (USA TODAY, 4/24). In Seattle, Steve Kelley calls it “one of the most important sports books ever written.” During the season he followed the team, Halberstam “occasionally ... would be invited into private meetings, by coaches or front-office people. He always refused. If no other reporters were invited into the Blazers’ inner sanctum, David wouldn’t go” (SEATTLE TIMES, 4/24). In a column appearing in ’80, the L.A. TIMES’ Mark Heisler described Halberstam’s tenacity in researching the book. Heisler: “Blazer [GM] HARRY GLICKMAN became defensive enough to accuse David Halberstam, who is in town doing a book on the franchise, of taking the club’s accountant to lunch so he could learn the payroll” (L.A. TIMES, 4/24).

DELICATE BALANCE: In N.Y., Clyde Haberman notes Halberstam “developed a pattern of alternating a book with a weighty theme with one that might seem of slighter import. ... Almost invariably, [he] wrote about sports in those alternate books.” Jean Halberstam: “They were his entertainments. They were his way to take a break” (N.Y. TIMES, 4/24). Halberstam several years ago “spoke about how and why he chose to shift from such weighty topics as Vietnam and the Persian Gulf” to sports. Halberstam: “Writers don’t get sabbaticals, but you could come off a hard, serious book and do a sports book and be operative from day one” (BOSTON GLOBE, 4/24).

PAYING TRIBUTE: In Baltimore, Larry Williams writes that in his sports books, Halberstam “described how the growing popularity of major sports reflected significant changes in American society in recent decades” (Baltimore SUN, 4/24). In Detroit, Mitch Albom writes Halberstam “was important to the sports pages. Because, in a world where too many of us use our mouths, David used his mind.” His books “were never just about sports,” they “were about time, friendship, culture, history” (DETROIT FREE PRESS, 4/24). MARKETWATCH’s Jon Friedman writes Halberstam “wrote brilliantly about sports -– well enough to reach the New York Times best seller list again and again. Even though each of his sports reporting sojourns amounted to a busman’s holiday, he could put lifelong sportswriters to shame with his dogged reporting — and those endless anecdotes” (MARKETWATCH.com, 4/24).