Al Laney
{{Short description|American sportswriter}}
{{infobox person
| name = Al Laney
| image =
| caption =
| image_size = 250px
| birth_name = Albert Gillis Laney
| birth_date = {{birth date|1896|1|11}}
| birth_place = Pensacola, Florida
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1988|1|31|1896|1|11}}
| death_place = Spring Valley, New York
| occupation = journalist
| employer = New York Evening Mail
New York Herald Tribune
| awards = Elmer Ferguson Memorial Award (1984)
[https://www.tennisfame.com/hall-of-famers/inductees/al-laney Int. Tennis HoF Member Page] (1979)
| years_active = 1920s–1966
| alma_mater =
| spouse =
}}
Albert Gillis Laney (January 11, 1896 – January 31, 1988) was an American sportswriter who specialized in tennis and golf but also covered baseball, boxing and American football.{{cite book|last=Collins|first=Bud|authorlink=Bud Collins|title=The Bud Collins History of Tennis|year=2010|publisher=New Chapter Press|location=[New York]|isbn=978-0942257700|page=599|edition=2nd}}
Biography
Laney was born on January 11, 1896{{cite book|last1=Orodenker|first1=Richard|title=Twentieth Century American Sportswriters|date=1996|publisher=Gale Research Inc|isbn=978-0810399341|page=179|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h8oUAQAAIAAJ&q=Al+Laney+1896}} in Pensacola, Florida, the son of an attorney and one of six children.{{cite book|editor1-last=Holtzman|editor1-first=Jerome|title=No Cheering in the Press Box|url=https://archive.org/details/nocheeringinpres00holt|url-access=registration|date=1995|publisher=H. Holt|location=New York|isbn=978-0805038248|pages=[https://archive.org/details/nocheeringinpres00holt/page/81 81–97]|edition=1st rev.}} He served as a lieutenant in World War I and saw action at The Battle of the Argonne Forest.
After World War I, Laney became a correspondent at the New York Evening Mail. In 1924 he went to Europe and joined the Paris Herald, as the European edition of the New York Herald was known. During his period in Europe he also started working for the New York Herald Tribune. In the summer months he would travel between Paris and England to cover the Wimbledon tennis tournament, the Davis Cup and the British golf tournaments. In 1930 he returned to the United States to join the Tribune's sports staff, where he covered baseball, tennis and golf.{{Cite news |last=Ap |date=1988-02-03 |title=Al Laney, Sportswriter, 92 |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/02/03/obituaries/al-laney-sportswriter-92.html |access-date=2023-06-26 |issn=0362-4331}} He retired when the Tribune ceased publication in 1966.
In 1947, Laney published an account of the Paris Herald newspaper titled Paris Herald: The Incredible Newspaper and in 1968 he published Covering the Court; a 50-Year Love Affair With the Game of Tennis, a memoir on his experience as a tennis correspondent from World War I through to the start of the Open era.{{cite news|author1=W.J. Hurlow|title=Under The Reading Lamp|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=nf4uAAAAIBAJ&pg=5681%2C5021456|work=Ottawa Citizen|date=January 23, 1948}}
Laney was regarded as one of the leading American tennis journalists of the first half of the 20th century together with Allison Danzig of The New York Times. In 1979, Laney was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island, for his contributions to tennis.{{cite web|title=Hall of Famers – Al Laney |url=https://www.tennisfame.com/hall-of-famers/al-laney |website=www.tennisfame.com |publisher=International Tennis Hall of Fame |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20141007211419/http://www.tennisfame.com/hall-of-famers/al-laney |archivedate=2014-10-07 }}{{cite news|title=Six Inducted Into Tennis Hall of Fame|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=B2AaAAAAIBAJ&pg=5064%2C6028698|work=The Times-News|agency=AP|date=June 21, 1979|page=14}} He received the Elmer Ferguson Memorial Award in 1984 and is a member of the media section of the Hockey Hall of Fame.{{cite web|url=https://www.hhof.com/html/leg_writers.shtml|title=Legends of Hockey – Elmer Ferguson Memorial Award Winners|work=hhof.com|accessdate=19 May 2015|archive-date=8 February 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140208004534/http://www.hhof.com/html/leg_writers.shtml|url-status=dead}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{Tennishof|al-laney}}
- [http://sports.nyhistory.org/al-laney Bill Shannon Biographical Dictionary of New York Sports biography]
{{International Tennis Hall of Fame members}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Laney, Al}}
Category:Elmer Ferguson Memorial Award recipients
Category:International Tennis Hall of Fame inductees
Category:New York Herald Tribune people
Category:People from Pensacola, Florida