Sportswriter

Jeff Prugh, a former Times sportswriter and national correspondent who was a coauthor of books on UCLA's basketball dynasty and a controversial murder case in Atlanta, has died. He was 69. Prugh died Saturday in Chattanooga, Tenn., of cancer, said his brother, Vince Prugh. Prugh worked for the Times from 1962 to 1981. His sports assignments included UCLA basketball, the Dodgers and college football. With fellow Times staff writer Dwight Chapin, Prugh wrote "The Wizard of Westwood: Coach John Wooden and His UCLA Bruins," which documented the rise of the basketball program under Wooden.

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.

Over Time My Life as a Sportswriter Frank Deford Atlantic Monthly Press: 288 pp., $25

Baseball's greatest story will be rewritten again Monday as the sport celebrates the 66th anniversary of Jackie Robinson's breaking the major leagues' color barrier. Yet the man who wrote the story will be forgotten. In every game, players from every team will wear 42, the number on the back of Robinson's jersey when he debuted for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947. Yet nobody will sit in the stands with a manual typewriter atop their knees in memory of the man who, even as he wrote about integration on the field, was barred from the press box because he was black.

Armed with a full tank of gas, a press pass, a video camera and a good night's sleep, I set off last weekend on a prep football adventure to watch five games over three days. So much driving and so much fun, even if it was exhausting. Day 1 First stop was Palos Verdes High, located in one of the most picturesque neighborhoods in the world. I stopped on the side of the road and looked out at Bluff Cove and saw a calm, soothing Pacific Ocean. What a great way to lower stress by standing on the side of a cliff and watching sailboats cruise by. Off to the Palos Verdes-Narbonne game I went.

Mike Penner, a longtime Los Angeles Times sportswriter who made headlines in 2007 when he announced that he was transsexual, has died. He was 52. Penner was pronounced dead Friday evening at Brotman Medical Center in Culver City, a Los Angeles County coroner's official said. The cause of death has not been determined but was believed to be suicide. "Mike was a first-rate journalist, a valued member of our staff for 25 years, and we will miss him," Times Editor Russ Stanton said.

As a former sportswriter for United Press International, I take umbrage at Mike Downey's July 6 satire on Billy Martin. In it, Downey poked fun at UPI and its groundless reputation for embellishing facts and statistics. Wrote Downey: "The Associated Press said Martin was fired for having kicked dirt on the groundskeeper. United Press International said Martin was fired for having kicked ground on the dirtkeeper." I was there, and Martin actually kicked home plate into the left-field bleachers.

La Jolla resident Fred Tupper, who covered 13 summer and winter Olympics for the New York Times and was a renowned tennis and golf writer, died in an El Cajon convalescent home Thursday after a long illness. He was 75. A London-based executive with Pan American World Airways for more than 20 years, Tupper founded Pan Am's magazine and wrote a gossip column for a London newspaper.

First of all, I'd like to thank the little people in Buena Park who attended a sneak preview of my new movie, "The Game Plan," for respecting my privacy -- not a single person stopping me later for an autograph or a picture. I can only imagine how hard it was to restrain themselves, although I suspect it had something to do with the wife, laughing, sobbing and rolling around the theater floor like some kind of crazed nut.

In late April 2007, Mike Penner published an article unlike any of the thousands he had written for the Los Angeles Times . It was brief, just 823 words, and placed without fanfare on the second page of the Sports section that had been his home for 23 years. Under the headline "Old Mike, new Christine," Penner explained that he would soon assume a female identity and byline, a decision that followed "a million tears and hundreds of hours of soul-wrenching therapy." It was "heartache and unbearable discomfort" to remain a man, he explained.

Jack Klugman, the three-time Emmy Award-winning actor best known for his portrayals of slovenly sportswriter Oscar Madison on TV's “The Odd Couple” and the title role of the murder-solving medical examiner on “Quincy, M.E.,” died Monday at his home in Woodland Hills. He was 90. Klugman had been in declining health for the last year, his son Adam said. He had withdrawn from a production of “Twelve Angry Men” at the George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick, N.J., in Marchfor undisclosed health reasons.

The Angels are in the process of converting their press box to a luxury seating area that will feature upgraded dining opportunities and amenities for about 80 fans, a move that will push writers covering the team to a new press box down the right-field line in Angel Stadium. There will be no changes to the radio and television broadcast booths, which will remain on the club level behind home plate, or in the Diamond Club restaurant and seating areas on the lower level behind home plate.

An athlete plays 15 or 20 years, retires and there is great fanfare upon his departure. Maybe tears, maybe gifts given, maybe his number hung in honor. Los Angeles' very own Jack Disney calls it a day and he's just gone. Disney is good people. There is no announcement when he leaves Santa Anita, some 3-year-old horses drawing more attention than he does as he ends almost 60 years as a sports reporter and horse racing publicist. He's John McKay's first beat man at USC; the first reporter the Lakers would know upon their arrival; he is working as a colorful scribe before the Dodgers are here and before the Angels go major league.

Armed with a full tank of gas, a press pass, a video camera and a good night's sleep, I set off last weekend on a prep football adventure to watch five games over three days. So much driving and so much fun, even if it was exhausting. Day 1 First stop was Palos Verdes High, located in one of the most picturesque neighborhoods in the world. I stopped on the side of the road and looked out at Bluff Cove and saw a calm, soothing Pacific Ocean. What a great way to lower stress by standing on the side of a cliff and watching sailboats cruise by. Off to the Palos Verdes-Narbonne game I went.

WIMBLEDON, England - No one ever asked and the chance never came up, but I have always wanted to cover Wimbledon. I wanted to taste the strawberries and cream, drink in the history of a place civil enough to call athletes "Mister" and "Miss," and see the court where Chris Evert, Jimmy Connors, Bjorn Borg, Martina Navratilova and so many champions lifted those wonderful plates. But my career took me in different directions and I never got closer than my TV. After a while I accepted the idea that Wimbledon would be one event I'd never check off my bucket list of professional accomplishments.

Over Time My Life as a Sportswriter Frank Deford Atlantic Monthly Press: 288 pp., $25

A bio on NPR's website of its commentator Frank Deford notes that the magazine GQ christened him, quite simply, "the world's greatest sportswriter. " (Is he?) A story on ESPN's companion website, Grantland, referred to Deford as "a writer who had achieved legendary status by the age of 50. " (Did he?) OK. Maybe he is, and maybe he did. Wikipedia's entry for Sports Illustrated - if no one overnight has deleted it - alludes to an editor at that magazine who helped "launch the careers of such legendary writers as Frank Deford.

MEMPHIS, Tenn -- Imagine waking up here Monday morning and realizing you really are a loser. And now everyone in the country who watches TNT or ESPN knows you're a loser, your team built on grit, grind and "Believe Memphis," but rolling over like a submissive dog when pressured. I was a Memphian. I worked in this Mid-South sweatbox 32 years ago, never returning until forced to do so now. But I can tell you after all these years the place still smells like no one showers. Elvis is buried here forever and I cannot imagine how upset he must be. The city's highlight is Beale Street, a rundown slab of bars with police running a wand over anyone wanting to enter the area Saturday night.

A bio on NPR's website of its commentator Frank Deford notes that the magazine GQ christened him, quite simply, "the world's greatest sportswriter. " (Is he?) A story on ESPN's companion website, Grantland, referred to Deford as "a writer who had achieved legendary status by the age of 50. " (Did he?) OK. Maybe he is, and maybe he did. Wikipedia's entry for Sports Illustrated - if no one overnight has deleted it - alludes to an editor at that magazine who helped "launch the careers of such legendary writers as Frank Deford.