Jim Murray ...

Well, there you have it.

 

I'll tell you my favorite Jim Murray story --- the next one I hear. Always. So enjoyable. What an amazing gift he was to all of us.

 

BUMP! It was 25 years ago today. We lost Jim Murray.

 

Teary-eyed reading Dwyre's story. I went to high school with Murray's daughter (she was two years older, I didn't know her except who she was). One of their neighbor kids was in my grade and he arranged for Murray to visit our Journalism class. Some of my best days at the L.A. Open were sitting next to him in the media tent -- listening and learning as EVERYBODY came over to say hello. Attending his funeral was an event -- a sad event, but an event.

 

Even 2007 (the beginning of this thread) feels like a lifetime ago. Twenty-five years? I was still a newlywed with two intact legs and a flat belly in August 1998.

 

Aug. 16, 1948: Babe Ruth dies

Aug. 16, 1977: Elvis Presley dies

Aug. 16, 1998: Jim Murray dies

 

Is it crazy to think that many sports writers who entered the business in the last five years have no idea who Jim Murray is?

 

What sportswriters have entered the business in the past five years? Poor saps.

 

Murray was masterful, of course.

But Dwyre is pretty good, too.

 

And in 2018, Aretha Franklin.

 

Quite the roster of kings (and a queen) for one day ...

 

Madonna's birthday too.