Sapakoff leaves Post & Courier ...

Gene and I worked together in Santa Monica for a few years. A total quality person. I was in Vero Beach for Dodgers spring training when he was hired. Our boss called and said, "Now I've got to explain how Mitch Chortkoff hired Gene Sapakoff." It was a great hire. Also, when Gene left for South Carolina, his replacement was Jon Heyman.
This story does not say what Gene's future plans are, but in a video interview I saw, he said he is going to do some non-journalism volunteer work and also has a couple of writing ventures he is thinking about. He is leaving on his own terms.



Award-winning columnist Gene Sapakoff announces departure from Post and Courier
Post and Courier Staff report
Award-winning columnist Gene Sapakoff has announced his departure from the Post and Courier after a distinguished 38-year career with the Charleston newspaper.
Sapakoff, 64 and a native of Denver, Colo., came to the Post and Courier in 1986 from the Santa Monica (Calif.) Outlook.
At the Post and Courier, his work as a columnist and reporter has been recognized with numerous awards on both a national and state level.
He’s been named the S.C. Sportswriter of the Year a record eight times by the National Sports Media Association, and three times he won the S.C. Press Association’s Judson Chapman Award for work that addresses community concerns.
Among the causes championed by Sapakoff was the story of the Cannon Street YMCA baseball team of 1955, an all-Black Little League squad from Charleston that all-White teams refused to play against.
He’s also written about the U.S. Border Patrol from both sides of the Mexican border, and about the use of painkillers in college football among many other important stories.
“I have read and admired Gene’s work at The Post and Courier for decades as someone who grew up in South Carolina and then from afar as I moved to work elsewhere,” Post and Courier managing editor Jason Cato said. “Since coming to work here, that admiration has only deepened in being able to talk to Gene and know him more.”
Sports editor Jeff Hartsell said of his longtime colleague: “We are in the word business, but words can't fully describe what Gene has meant to the Post and Courier over the years. A great reporter and talented writer, and a more than worthy successor to Ken Burger as voice of the best sports section in the state.”
As Sapakoff reflected on his long Post and Courier journey, he had this to say:
“It’s been a blessing and a privilege, every day for 38 years, to work at The Post and Courier. From the stewardship of our owners to the leadership of publishers such as PJ Browning to bold newsroom leaders in a long line starting with Larry Tarleton, to amazing editors, reporters, and photographers. Of course, Post and Courier culture goes well beyond the newsroom.
“Good fortune? Who gets to be a sports columnist in Charleston but also work alongside nationally renowned reporters on news projects? Who gets to cold-call recruit eight college sports beat reporters, see them hired and win major awards here? Who gets to work with sports editors as terrific as James Beck, Ken Burger, Frank Wooten, Malcolm DeWitt and Jeff Hartsell? What a lucky person.”

 

Sapakoff started there right after I left for Fort Lauderdale. So did Hartsell.

James Beck, the sports editor who hired me in Charleston, was covering the Orange Bowl one night. After the game he calls in with a hurried voice, "It's midnight here. What time is it there?"

Uh, you're on the Atlantic Coast. We're on the Atlantic Coast . . .

 

He didn’t get out much, did he?

 

I can picture him saying that.lol