Jim Murray

Haggle all you want about the greatest basketball player--Jordan, Russell or whoever. Were the 1927 Yankees the best? Lombardi's Packers? You take Ali. Give me Joe Louis. You're entitled to your opinion. But don't try to tell me Jim Murray was not the greatest sportswriter of his generation. He wasn't voted "America's Best Sportswriter" 14 times because the other guys used crayons. ROLAND WRINKLE Newhall Maybe because his columns were timeless, I assumed Jim Murray was as well.

Each day the sports pages teem with wins and losses, statistics and scores, victors and runners-up. But that's not all. "Sports don't just have to be about touchdowns and three-point shots and goals," said Los Angeles Times sportswriter David Wharton while moderating the panel discussion "Great Balls of Fire: Sports & Sports Writing" at the L.A. Times Festival of Books on Sunday morning. "We can find some real true things about life in what we see on the field. " The three panelists in attendance -- Celia Walden, Steven Travers and John Rosengren -- shared Wharton's philosophy.

TEN years ago, when an editor discovered me shivering underneath a pile of one-sentence paragraphs and inexplicably made me a Times sports columnist, I knew there would be changes. I knew I would finally begin receiving e-mail from people other than exiled Nigerian businessmen. I knew I would be asked to appear on television, my presence serving as indisputable evidence why this newspaper does not run columnist photos. I knew the job would change my wardrobe (I started wearing socks)

There is nothing like listening to Stephen A. Smith drop names, places and other various references to his many friends in the sporting world when he's on ESPN's First Take morning program or breaking down the NBA on various other broadcasts. A lot of people don't like his shtick, but let's face it, most of the big-time personalities on sports television mimic talk radio these days: the louder and more emphatic you say it, the better. You don't have to be right. Or wrong.

There is nothing like listening to Stephen A. Smith drop names, places and other various references to his many friends in the sporting world when he's on ESPN's First Take morning program or breaking down the NBA on various other broadcasts. A lot of people don't like his shtick, but let's face it, most of the big-time personalities on sports television mimic talk radio these days: the louder and more emphatic you say it, the better. You don't have to be right. Or wrong.

Congratulations to The Times for all your wonderful columnists, and especially to Jim Murray, without whose delightful writings the Sports Section would be a vast wasteland to this little old lady. GENNIE BONE Banning

The late, great Times columnist Jim Murray opined about all the superstar athletes in the second half of the 20th century. It's what he did as well as anyone that came before or after him in America. So, on Michael Jordan's 50th birthday, we give you a column that Mr. Murray wrote for the Feb. 4, 1996, edition about the man most believe is the greatest basketball player of all time. ALL THE NBA WORLD WAS A STAGE FOR THIS PLAYER By Jim Murray You go to see Michael Jordan play basketball for the same reason you went to see Astaire dance, Olivier act or the sun set over Canada.

Once again Jim Murray performs a great writing job (Feb. 16). From him we can learn how to battle the highs and lows of life. May he write a million more articles. TONY D'AMICO Hacienda Heights Murray's readers didn't know how much they missed him until his column ran (again). JOE LYOU Gardena St. Louis may have the Rams but we have Jim Murray. MARK BERGLAS Irvine

Jim Murray dedicated one of his books to "every guy who ever struck out with the bases loaded, took a 10 count, fumbled on the goal line, pulled a three-foot putt or bet into a pat hand of aces full . . . and every guy who ever closed a bar alone at 2 o'clock in the morning." In other words, Jim Murray's kind of guys, from Boston to L.A., and each of them lost a best friend when Murray died Sunday night at 78. His Times column was a must read in the morning, or in that bar at 2 a.m.

Jim Murray, The Times' Pulitzer Prize-winning sports columnist, is recovering from extensive heart surgery at Cedars-Sinai Hospital. Murray, 75, remains in the intensive care unit but doctors report his progress as excellent. Rest has been prescribed, but Murray intends to resume writing his thrice-weekly column when his condition allows.

The late, great Times columnist Jim Murray opined about all the superstar athletes in the second half of the 20th century. It's what he did as well as anyone that came before or after him in America. So, on Michael Jordan's 50th birthday, we give you a column that Mr. Murray wrote for the Feb. 4, 1996, edition about the man most believe is the greatest basketball player of all time. ALL THE NBA WORLD WAS A STAGE FOR THIS PLAYER By Jim Murray You go to see Michael Jordan play basketball for the same reason you went to see Astaire dance, Olivier act or the sun set over Canada.

Acclamation cruised to a seven-length victory in the Grade II $150,000 Jim Murray Memorial Handicap at Hollywood Park on Saturday, winning the 11/2-mile turf marathon for the second consecutive year. Falcon Rock was second and Haimish Hy third. What made the performance under jockey Joel Rosario so impressive is that the 5-year-old son of Unusual Heat usually likes to go to the front from the outset but settled comfortably into second place behind pacesetter All Saint until Rosario put him into gear around the final turn.

Boxing is the gift that keeps on giving. It is why the great wordsmiths gravitated to it. It is why Red Smith could easily find poetry in its violence, why Jim Murray scoffed at anybody wishing for the departure of Mike Tyson. "Lord, no," Murray would say. "He's 10 columns a year. " Damon Runyon painted such wonderful word pictures of boxing characters that, over time, his name was used as a category for those with special quirks. It hasn't changed, only gotten better.

This column on John Wooden, written by the late Jim Murray, was originally printed in the Aug. 10, 1972 edition of the Los Angeles Times. You picture the man who is, demonstrably, the world's greatest basketball coach, and there comes to view a guy with lots of diamonds on stubby fingers, a Rolls-Royce illegally parked outside the gym with his driver reading a comic book in the front seat. Guys leap to light his cigarettes, the president of the college is on the phone seeking an appointment, maybe so is the president of the United States.

If all who were touched by John Wooden could attend his memorial, the Rose Bowl wouldn't be big enough. … The principled, Indiana-bred Wooden was "so square," Jim Murray once wrote, "he was divisible by four." … Wooden was a smoker — he picked up the habit while serving in the Navy during World War II — but never smoked during the season and had quit altogether by the time he retired in 1975. … He did not drink. … His musical tastes ran to Lawrence Welk and the Mills Brothers, the latter of whom he saw perform on his wedding night.

Life goes on and all that stuff, but I feel so ridiculous trying to write a Manny Ramirez column planned for Sunday about his post-drug slump and boorish behavior at a time when we're still celebrating the inspiring life of John Wooden . It doesn't seem fair to mention the two in the same sentence, but if fair was always the case, Jim Murray would have been here to give Wooden the proper send-off. When someone is 99, and I'm not referring to Manny's number or his batting average these days, it's really odd to say you were surprised when he dies.

Times sports columnist Jim Murray has been named best sportswriter in the Washington Journalism Review's seventh annual "Best in the Business" readers' poll. Murray, who won a Pulitzer Prize last year, was selected along with winners in 13 other print and broadcast journalism categories.

Take another look, Bill Dwyre, don't let the wool get pulled over your eyes by this Jim Murray guy [Feb. 18]. Sports columnist? What a con! What Jim Murray really has been doing was teaching principles of morality, ethics and values. As well as philosophy, history and literature. OK, so he has a deft hand with wit and humor. Sure, he wrote about sports and athletes, but that's in addition. Let me tell you what Jim Murray really is. He is a master and a sage--disguised as a columnist.

Neil Drysdale spent four years working for Hall of Fame trainer Charles Whittingham, who was known for producing lots of outstanding turf horses. Now Drysdale is on a hot streak with marathon grass runners, and he unveils his latest promising import in Saturday's Grade II $150,000 Jim Murray Memorial Handicap at 1 1/2 miles on the turf at Hollywood Park. There's an early 11 a.m. first post, and the Jim Murray will be run as the eighth race on an 11-race card. Scintillo, a 5-year-old English-bred son of Fantastic Light, makes his American debut under jockey Rafael Bejarano in a race named after the Pulitzer Prize-winning sports columnist for the Los Angeles Times.

The Los Angeles Rams of the 1960s and early '70s were more fun to watch when their opponents had the ball.... The great Merlin Olsen and his flashier and no-less-dominant teammate, Deacon Jones , helped make defense cool.... Olsen, who sat out only two games in 22 years of high school, college and professional football, once told Sports Illustrated of his ability to play with pain: "Man is an adaptable creature and one finds out what one can and cannot do. It's like walking into a barnyard.