Gwen Knapp

Born in Wilmington, Delaware, on November 18, 1961, Gwen was the daughter of Laurence Knapp, a ship pilot, and Eleanor Knapp ({{née|Agnew}}), director at Hagley Museum and Library. She had three sisters. Her mother was an avid Philadelphia Phillies fan. Gwen Knapp majored in history at Harvard University, where she was a varsity swimmer,{{Cite news |date=July 9, 1995 |title=Gwen Knapp joins Examiner's sports team |work=San Francisco Examiner |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/270381417 |access-date=January 22, 2023 |id={{ProQuest|270381417}} |via=ProQuest}} and sports editor for The Harvard Crimson, a student newspaper.

Knapp began her journalism career at The News-Journal in Wilmington, Delaware, covering high school sports.

In 1985, she moved to The Philadelphia Inquirer, where she stayed for nearly ten years, and covered the Philadelphia Eagles as a beat reporter.{{Cite news |last=Padecky |first=Bob |date=April 14, 1999 |title=Reggie Has No Clue About Female Writers |work=The Press Democrat |location=Santa Rosa, California |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/280789845 |access-date=January 23, 2023 |id={{ProQuest|280789845}} |via=ProQuest}} One of her most popular articles at the Inquirer was published on July 4, 1993, when she wrote about a historic doubleheader played by the Philadelphia Phillies which finished at 4:40 in the morning, and interviewed the fans, umpires, groundskeepers, and the announcer, in addition to the baseball players.{{Cite news |last=Knapp |first=Gwen |date=July 4, 1993 |title='Let's play two': Phillies flirt with daybreak |work=The Philadelphia Inquirer |url=https://www.inquirer.com/archive/phillies-padres-doubleheader-july-3-1993-19930704.html |access-date=January 24, 2023}}

In 1995, Knapp joined the San Francisco Examiner as a sports columnist, despite not having written columns previously, after impressing sports editor Glenn Schwarz, who said it was clear she was "loaded with opinions". At the time, she was one of only a handful of women with that title across newspapers in the U.S.{{Cite book |last=Lipsyte |first=Robert |title=An Accidental Sportswriter |publisher=Ecco |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-06-176913-9 |location=New York |pages=221}} When Tiger Woods won his first major championship, the 1997 Masters Tournament in Augusta, Georgia, she interviewed four African American golfers in their 50s and 60s who watched and celebrated at the Chuck Corica Golf Complex in Alameda, California, about what his victory meant to them.{{Cite news |last=Knapp |first=Gwen |date=April 14, 1997 |title=Woods' monumental victory opens floodgates of emotion |work=San Francisco Examiner |url=https://www.sfgate.com/sports/knapp/article/Woods-monumental-victory-opens-floodgates-of-3330980.php |access-date=January 24, 2023 }}

In 1998, Knapp won two awards in the Associated Press Sports Writers contest, including first place in column writing on topics such as the "anti-gay posturing" of NFL football player Reggie White,{{Cite news |last=Knapp |first=Gwen |date=May 3, 1998 |title=White should hear tales of The City |work=San Francisco Examiner |url=https://www.sfgate.com/sports/article/White-should-hear-tales-of-The-City-3091882.php |access-date=January 23, 2023 }} and the near-disqualification of Canadian snowboarder and Olympic gold medalist Ross Rebagliati for testing positive for marijuana use.{{Cite news |last=Knapp |first=Gwen |date=February 13, 1998 |title=Mixed messages: Rebagliati, the IOC and graffiti |work=San Francisco Examiner |url=https://www.sfgate.com/sports/article/Mixed-messages-Rebagliati-the-IOC-and-graffiti-3319298.php |access-date=January 23, 2023 }} She also won fourth place in the game story category that year,{{Cite news |date=April 11, 1999 |title=Knapp wins top AP award |work=The San Francisco Examiner |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/117036817/examiners-knapp-wins-top-ap-award/ |access-date=January 23, 2023 |via=Newspapers.com}} and was a finalist for best feature story.

From 2000 to 2012, Knapp was writing for the San Francisco Chronicle,{{Cite news |last=Kroichick |first=Ron |date=January 22, 2023 |title='Brilliant, funny, quirky': Former Chronicle columnist Gwen Knapp dies at 61 |work=San Francisco Chronicle |url=https://www.sfchronicle.com/sports/article/Brilliant-funny-quirky-Former-Chronicle-17734255.php |access-date=January 23, 2023}} after the staffs of the Examiner and Chronicle were combined. Noted for her coverage of doping in sports, Knapp was often cited and interviewed by other media outlets on drug-related topics.{{Cite news |date=October 20, 2003 |title=Analysis: Scandal involving track athletes using designer steroids |work=Day to Day |publisher=NPR |url=https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&u=mlin_oweb&id=GALE%7CA162146883&v=2.1&it=r |access-date=January 24, 2023 |via=Gale OneFile}} As early as 2001, Knapp started expressing concern that cyclist Lance Armstrong might be taking performance-enhancing drugs, and drew an angry letter to the editor from Armstrong himself in 2004, denying her allegations. In 2013, Armstrong finally admitted to taking drugs during his seven consecutive Tour de France wins.

Knapp wrote multiple columns on Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants and the BALCO scandal, complementing the investigative reporting of her colleagues, Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams. Her columns criticized the government's handling of his drug tests,{{Cite news |last=Zinser |first=Lynn |date=February 5, 2009 |title=Outrage in Some Quarters, Sentiment in Others |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/06/sports/06zinser.html |url-access=subscription |access-date=January 23, 2023}} and analyzed the ongoing media "obsession" with his pursuit of an all-time home-run record and induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, as well as the twist and turns of his legal saga.{{Cite news |last=Knapp |first=Gwen |date=July 23, 2006 |title=EXTREME MEASURES: Athletes willing to do anything to excel are at root of problem |work=San Francisco Chronicle |url=https://www.sfgate.com/sports/knapp/article/EXTREME-MEASURES-Athletes-willing-to-do-2515590.php |access-date=January 23, 2023 }}

In 2009, Knapp was one of the few American sports journalists who commented on tennis star Andy Roddick's decision to boycott the Dubai Tennis Championships and forego defending his title,{{Cite journal |last=Butterworth |first=Michael J. |year=2014 |title=The athlete as citizen: judgement and rhetorical invention in sport |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17430437.2013.806033 |journal=Sport in Society |volume=17 |issue=7 |pages=867–883 |doi=10.1080/17430437.2013.806033 |s2cid=144375104 }} commending him for taking a stand against the United Arab Emirates government's refusal to grant a visa to Israeli player Shahar Pe'er to play in the women's tournament.{{Cite news |last=Knapp |first=Gwen |date=February 25, 2009 |title=Roddick protest worthy of praise |work=San Francisco Chronicle |url=https://www.sfgate.com/sports/article/Roddick-protest-worthy-of-praise-3170205.php |access-date=January 23, 2023}}

When Sports on Earth, a new venture between USA Today and MLB Advanced Media, launched in 2012, Knapp was one of the nationally recognized writers hired to help with its stated mission to "restore the great tradition of sports writing and great storytelling". In a column in 2014, Knapp criticized the public backlash against sportscaster Erin Andrews, whom CBS Sports and others had suggested had somehow "provoked" an emotional outburst by NFL player Richard Sherman, because she was an attractive woman.{{Cite news |last=Davidson |first=Kathina A. |date=January 31, 2014 |title=Blaming the Woman on the Sidelines |publisher=Bloomberg L.P. |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2014-01-31/blaming-the-woman-on-the-sidelines |access-date=January 24, 2023}}

In 2014, Knapp joined The New York Times as editor, writing for the foreign and national desks before returning to sports as a senior staff editor.

In awarding her "Best Sports Columnist" in 2007, the SF Weekly described Knapp as "a smart, sharp observer of the sporting life", and "that rare breed of columnist who – gasp! – does her own reporting", arguing that her "legwork" made her "one of the country's best".{{Cite news |title=Best Sports Columnist – Gwen Knapp, San Francisco Chronicle |work=SF Weekly |url=https://archives.sfweekly.com/sanfrancisco/best-sports-columnist/BestOf?oid=2203817 |access-date=January 23, 2023}}

Knapp continued to live in San Francisco while writing for Sports on Earth, but later moved to the East Coast to be closer to her family. She died of lymphoma in New York on January 20, 2023, aged 61.{{Cite news |last=Holleran |first=Andrew |date=January 22, 2023 |title=Sports World Reacts to Death of Beloved Reporter |work=The Spun |url=https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/family/sports-world-reacts-to-death-of-beloved-reporter/ar-AA16CCat |access-date=January 23, 2023}}

{{reflist}}

• [https://www.sfgate.com/search/?action=search&firstRequest=1&searchindex=solr&query=%22Gwen+Knapp%22 Articles by Gwen Knapp on SF Gate]
• [https://www.sfchronicle.com/search/?action=search&searchindex=solr&query=%22gwen+knapp%22 San Francisco Chronicle articles by Gwen Knapp]
• [https://www.thecrimson.com/writer/388/Gwen__Knapp/ The Harvard Crimson articles by Gwen Knapp]
• {{IMDb name}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Knapp, Gwen}}

Category:1961 births

Category:2023 deaths

Category:20th-century American journalists

Category:20th-century American women journalists

Category:20th-century American women writers

Category:American women sportswriters

Category:Deaths from lymphoma in New York (state)

Category:Harvard Crimson women's swimmers

Category:Harvard University alumni

Category:Sportswriters from Delaware

Category:The New York Times people

Category:The Philadelphia Inquirer people

Category:San Francisco Chronicle people

Category:San Francisco Examiner people

Category:Writers from Wilmington, Delaware

Category:Sportswriters from California

Category:Writers from San Francisco