Over Time: My Life as a Sportswriter is as unconventional and wide-ranging as Frank Deford’s remarkable career, in which he has chronicled the heroes and the characters of just about every sport in nearly every medium. Deford joined Sports Illustrated in 1962, fresh, and fresh out of Princeton. In 1990, he was Editor-in-Chief of The National Sports Daily, one of the most ambitious—and ill-fated—projects in the history of American print journalism. But then, he’s endured: writing ten novels, winning an Emmy (not to mention being a fabled Lite Beer All-Star), and last week he read something like his fourteen-hundredth commentary on NPR’s “Morning Edition.”
From the Mad Men-like days of SI in the ‘60s, and the “bush” years of the early NBA, to Deford’s visit to apartheid South Africa with Arthur Ashe, and his friend’s brave and tragic death, Over Time is packed with intriguing people and stories. Interwoven through his personal history, Deford lovingly traces the entire arc of American sportswriting from the lurid early days of the Police Gazette, through Grantland Rice and Red Smith and on up to ESPN. This is a wonderful, inspired book—equal parts funny and touching—a treasure for sports fans. Just like Frank Deford.
*Starred Review* Deford went to work for Sports Illustrated in 1962, fresh out of college. Since then, in addition to magazine work, he’s won a Peabody and an Emmy, written 10 novels, and delivered more than 1,500 commentaries on NPR’s Morning Edition. His accomplishments are many, but in this wildly entertaining and informative memoir, he refers to himself only as the scrivener. His subjects are what matters, and he gives them their due, as in a poignant chapter on the late Wilt Chamberlain, which offers more insight into that enigmatic basketball icon than any half-dozen books. Fortunately, despite the self-deprecating tone, Deford does portray the highlights of his remarkable career, including his early stint covering the NBA at a time when players flew commercial, played doubleheaders to boost the gate, and hung out with sportswriters because they could expense the bar tab. He was also ahead of the pack in covering women’s sports, especially tennis, and he offers some insight into why women’s team sports have never moved beyond a niche level of popularity in the U.S. A lifetime sportswriter, he’s very aware of the history of his craft, and, along the way, he shares his thoughts on “then-and-now,” including pointed anecdotes on some sportswriting legends from the past. Put this one on the shelf alongside such other classic sportswriters’ memoirs as Robert Lipsyte’s An Accidental Sportswriter (2011), Roger Kahn’s Into My Own (2006), and Ira Berkow’s Full Swing (2006). --Wes Lukowsky
