Ira Berkow
{{Short description|American sportswriter (born 1940)}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Ira Berkow
| image=
| image_size=
| caption =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1940|1|7}}
| birth_place = Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
| alma_mater = Miami University (B.A.)
Northwestern University (M.A.)
| occupation = Sportswriter, Biographer
| spouse = Dolly Berkow
| children =
| website =
}}
Ira Berkow (born January 7, 1940) is an American sports reporter, columnist, and writer. He shared the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting, which was awarded to the staff of The New York Times for their series [https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/national/race/textindex.html How Race Is Lived in America].
Life
Berkow earned his BA in English Literature at Miami University, and his MA from the Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University.{{cite web|url=https://www.medill.northwestern.edu/about-us/awards/hall-of-achievement/ira-h-berkow.html |title=Ira H. Berkow |publisher=Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University |access-date=May 24, 2019}}{{cite web|url=http://digifindingaids.cjh.org/?pID=1016949 |title=Ira Berkow Papers at the American Jewish Historical Society |publisher=American Jewish Historical Society |access-date=July 22, 2015}}
He was a reporter for the Minneapolis Tribune, a syndicated features writer, sports and general columnist, and sports editor for the Newspaper Enterprise Association.{{cite web|url=http://www.evesmag.com/berkow.htm |title=Sportswriter Ira Berkow Reminiscence |publisher=Evesmag.com |access-date=December 22, 2010}}
From 1981 to 2007 he was a sports reporter and columnist for The New York Times{{cite web|url=http://www.jewsandbaseball.com/team/ira.html |title=Ira Berkow |access-date=June 5, 2011}}{{cite web|url=http://www.evesmag.com/berkow.htm |title=Sportswriter Ira Berkow Reminiscence |publisher=Evesmag.com |access-date=December 22, 2010}} and has written for Esquire, The New York Times Magazine, Art News, Seventeen, Chicago Magazine, The Chicago Tribune Magazine, National Strategic Forum Review, Reader's Digest, and Sports Illustrated, among others.{{cite web|url=http://www.jewsandbaseball.com/team/ira.html |title=Ira Berkow |access-date=June 5, 2011}}
He shared the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for his article "The Minority Quarterback"{{cite web|url=http://partners.nytimes.com/library/national/race/070200berkow-sports.html|author=Ira Berkow |title=The Minority Quarterback |work=The New York Times |date=July 2, 2000 |access-date=June 5, 2011}} in The New York Times series How Race Is Lived in America.{{cite web|url=http://www.jewishsports.net/BioPages/IraBerkow.html |title=Ira Berkow |publisher=Jewishsports.net |date=January 7, 1940 |access-date=December 22, 2010}}{{cite web|url=http://www.nl.edu/academics/cas/writtencomm/Pulitzer-Series.cfm |title=Pulitzer Series |publisher=Nl.edu |access-date=December 22, 2010}} His work has been reprinted or cited over six decades in the annual anthologies Best Sports Stories and its successor Best American Sports Writing, and a column of his was included in Best American Sports Writing of the Century (1999). The novelist Scott Turow wrote, "Ira Berkow is one of the great American writers, without limitation to the field of sports."
He was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 1988, "For thoughtful commentary on the sports scene."{{cite web|url=http://www.pulitzer.org/finalists/1988 |title=The Pulitzer Prizes | Finalists |publisher=Pulitzer.org |date=February 20, 1988 |access-date=December 22, 2010}}
In 2006, he was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.{{cite web |url=http://www.jewishsports.net/BioPages/IraBerkow.html |title=Ira Berkow |access-date=December 22, 2010 |author=International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame |year=2010}} He holds an honorary doctorate degree from Roosevelt University (Chicago), 2009.
Berkow is the author of 26 books including the Edgar Allan Poe Award nominated non-fiction The Man Who Robbed The Pierre: The Story of Bobby Comfort and the Biggest Hotel Robbery Ever.{{cite web |url=http://www.theedgars.com/edgarsDB/ |title=Edgar Award Winners and Nominees |publisher=Mystery Writers of America |access-date=June 5, 2011 |archive-date=October 22, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141022004917/http://www.theedgars.com/edgarsDB/ |url-status=dead }}
Works
=Books=
- [https://books.google.com/books?id=rigjvgAACAAJ&q=9781629373188 It Happens Every Spring: DiMaggio, Mays, the Splendid Splinter, and a Lifetime at the Ballpark], Triumph Books, 2017, {{ISBN|978-1-6293-7318-8}}
- [https://books.google.com/books?id=KSlpCgAAQBAJ&q=9781629370460 Giants Among Men: Y.A., L.T., the Big Tuna, and Other New York Giants Stories], Triumph Books, 2015, {{ISBN|978-1-6293-7046-0}}
- [https://books.google.com/books?id=v9L0AgAAQBAJ&q=9781600789731 Counterpunch: Ali, Tyson, the Brown Bomber, and Other Stories of the Boxing Ring], Triumph Books, 2014, {{ISBN|978-1-6007-8973-1}}
- [https://books.google.com/books?id=ZaVuAAAAQBAJ&q=9781600783920 Autumns in the Garden: The Coach of Camelot and Other Knicks Stories], Triumph Books, 2013, {{ISBN|978-1-6007-8866-6}}
- [https://books.google.com/books?id=dMHKMgEACAAJ&q=9781600787751 Summers at Shea: Tom Seaver Loses His Overcoat and Other Mets Stories], Triumph Books, 2013, {{ISBN|978-1-6007-8775-1}}
- [https://books.google.com/books?id=AXmhQgAACAAJ&q=9781600783920 Summers in the Bronx: Attila the Hun and Other Yankee Stories], Triumph Books, 2009, {{ISBN|978-1-6007-8392-0}}
- [https://archive.org/details/corporalwaspitch0000berk The Corporal Was a Pitcher: The Courage of Lou Brissie], Triumph Books, 2009, {{ISBN|978-1-6007-8104-9}}
- Hank Greenberg: The Story of My Life, Times Books, 1989, editor {{ISBN|978-0-8129-1741-3}}
- [https://books.google.com/books?id=k4deu7vT86sC&q=Ira+Berkow Red: A Biography of Red Smith, Rockin Steady], University of Nebraska Press, 2007, {{ISBN|978-0-8032-6040-5}}
- [https://books.google.com/books?id=U1o7nptu3fsC&q=Ira+Berkow Court Vision, To The Hoop: The Seasons of a Basketball Life], University of Nebraska Press, 2004, {{ISBN|978-0-8032-6229-4}}
- The Gospel According to Casey, (with Jim Kaplan), St. Martin's Press, 1992, {{ISBN|978-0-312-06922-3}}
- The Minority Quarterback & Other Lives In Sports, I.R. Dee, 2002, {{ISBN|978-1-56663-422-9}}
- Full Swing; Hits, Runs and Errors in a Writer's Life, Ivan R. Dee Publisher, 2007, {{ISBN|978-1-56663-755-8}}
- Maxwell Street, Survival in a Bazaar. Doubleday & Co., 1977, {{ISBN|0-385-06723-2}}.
- To the Hoop The Seasons of a Basketball Life, Basic Books, 1997.
- How to Talk Jewish, by Jackie Mason (with Ira Berkow), St. Martin's Press, 1990
- Hank Greenberg: Hall-of-Fame Slugger, juvenile, The Jewish Publication Society, 1991
- Pitchers do Get Lonely, and Other Sports Stories, Atheneum, 1988
- Carew, by Rod Carew (with Ira Berkow), Simon and Schuster, 1979.
- The DuSable Panthers: The Greatest, Blackest, Saddest Team from the Meanest Street in Chicago, 1978
- Beyond the Dream: Occasional Heroes of Sports, (foreword by Red Smith), Atheneum,1975
- Oscar Robertson: The Golden Year 1964, Prentice-Hall, 1971
- Rockin' Steady: A Guide to Basketball and Cool, by Walt "Clyde" Frazier (with Ira Berkow), 1974
- Wrigley Feld: An Oral and Narrative History of the Home of the Chicago Cubs (with Josh Noel), Stewart, Tabori and Chang, 2014.
- Full Swing: Hits, Runs and Errors in a Writer's Life, Ivan R. Dee, 2006.
- Baseball's Best Ever: A Half Century of Covering Hall of Famers, Sports Publishing, 2022.
=Film=
- Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story, 2010 documentary film; writer
- Champions of American Sport, HBO documentary, 1983; film writer
References
{{reflist}}
Further reading
- {{cite book |last=Ruttman |first=Larry |author-link=Larry Ruttman |title=American Jews and America's Game: Voices of a Growing Legacy in Baseball |isbn=978-0803264755 |chapter=Ira Berkow: New York Times Journalist, Author, Pulitzer Prize Winner, and Jewish Son |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/americanjewsamer0000rutt/page/146/mode/2up |date=2013 |publisher=University of Nebraska Press}}
External links
- {{IMDb name|id=0075458|name=Ira Berkow}}
- [https://archives.cjh.org//repositories/3/resources/13280 Ira Berkow Papers] at the American Jewish Historical Society
{{Portal bar|Biography|Baseball|Journalism|Chicago}}
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Category:20th-century American Jews
Category:21st-century American Jews
Category:American male biographers
Category:Miami University alumni
Category:Medill School of Journalism alumni
Category:International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame inductees
Category:Jewish American journalists
Category:Journalists from Chicago
Category:Sportswriters from Illinois
Category:Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting winners