Way Back Wednesday (Early Night Lede): Lefty Was Puns of Fun
Induction of Late Daily Herald, Chicago Tribune Sportswriter Bob Logan Into US Basketball Writers Association Hall of Fame Sparks Many Fond Memories
The United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) got it right with its induction of Bob “Lefty” Logan into its Hall of Fame as part of its seven-person Class of 2023.
Lefty was a fixture in the Chicago-area sports pages for 41 years - 28 with the Tribune and 13 with the Daily Herald. While he is being recognized posthumously (he passed away Jan. 5, 2006 at 74) by the USBWA for his coverage of basketball, the Philadelphia native could and likely did cover it all during a career where he also worked at his hometown Inquirier, the Levittown Times and the Illinois State Journal in Springfield. He was the beat writer for the Bulls’ first team in 1966 and wrote eight books.
He was definitely a link to a different era of sportswriting where the focus on observing and writing for the next day’s paper and not the next-minute’s tweet. That was perfect for Lefty’s ability to “turn a phrase,” which included a prolific use of puns. Retired Daily Herald sportswriter and editor Marty Stengle said one of his favorite Lefty phrases in print was, “It’s a dome shame,” from a game at the old Metrodome in Minneapolis.
Lefty also wasn’t afraid to use them when questioning a coach. Longtime Bloomington Pantagraph columnist Randy Kindred called Lefty “a treasure” and said after a loss to Purdue, he asked Illinois basketball coach Lou Henson, “Lou, how come every time you play Purdue you Purdon’t.” Since Lefty enlisted in the US Army in 1949 and served in the Korean Conflict, he likely wasn’t too concerned about how a coach, manager or athlete was going to react.
Our paths would cross occasionally in the Daily Herald toy department and it was always fun to talk with him about what was happening on the college and pro scene. Usually it was accompanied some sort of pun and chuckle. And I’m convinced if he didn’t write his own advance of his obit - which starts that he got his nickname from being born the same day Hall of Fame pitcher Lefty Grove won a World Series game for the Philadelphia A’s - then it was definitely done by someone who fully understood his sense of humor.
Lefty will be among the honorees that include Seth Davis, Lesley Visser and the late Grant Wahl at the USBWA Awards Luncheon on Monday morning in Houston. So here are some fun memories from some of the people who spent a lot of time on the beaten Midwestern paths of covering sports with the one and only Bob “Lefty” Logan.
Mike Korcek - Retired Northern Illinois University Sports Information Director
Bob was receptive to Northern Illinois and gave us exposure. Bob was excellent on the phone and would call regularly. He was always cracking puns.
Tom Quinlan - Retired Daily Herald Sports Editor
Bob was a real trooper with a passion for college sports. He didn't come into the office very often, but when he did you felt his presence and heard that booming voice. His hands were too big for the tiny keyboards, but he made it work. And his work ethic was amazing. He could drive from Champaign to cover a Cubs or Sox weekend series, then leave to cover a press conference at Notre Dame the next morning and be back in Champaign the same day. He never complained about a single assignment and he generally put more on his plate than I would ask. He wanted to cover it all and he did.
Mike Walsh - Daily Southtown Sportswriter
I was stringing a Cubs game for the Southtown at Wrigley. Bob asked me if I had a quote from one of the players or the manager that he could use. Bob always was nice to me and I figured “Hey. He’s Bob Logan” so I gave him a quote. He was grateful and said that he had some leftover Jerry Hester (ex-Illinois basketball star) quotes if I ever needed one. I just thought it was pretty cool that a legendary Chicago sportswriter asked me for help and that he was overall very nice to me.
Cheryl Raye-Stout - WBEZ Radio, Longtime Chicago Sports Radio Journalist
My paths crossed with Bob often, and as far as stories, Bob was a story. I can still hear his Phiily voice, his friendly demeanor and his sportcoat. He covered everything in Chicago sports and you always felt he loved and enjoyed doing it. With a legal pad, he would scribble his post game interviews and was direct with his questions and always seemed to get what he was asking. Lefty loved basketball and he gave the same level of professionalism to all levels.
I'm just so happy to see this long overdue honor.
Bruce Miles - Retired Daily Herald Sportswriter and Copy Editor
Lefty was one of a kind, a throwback to the glory days of sports writing. No one had more fun with words than Lefty. In a world that has grown more serous, including in sports, Lefty knew that writing about games should be fun. If you worked the desk and read Lefty's copy, filled with puns, you would smile, laugh and shake your head. And then you would say, “I wish I would have thought of that.”
In summing up himself, this lede by Lefty said it all: “Most of the time over the years, I've felt more at ease with assistant coaches than with their bosses. Maybe that's because I understand what it's like to be a role player. In this era of ‘stardom,’ just telling the story and doing the pick-and-shovel reporting job, day after day, is more important to me than getting my mug on TV to spout cliches. That's what assistant coaches do, too. They operate outside the limelight, and in the shadow of the head coach."
Lefty was the ultimate role player. Sure, he was known for his coverage of college sports, but he could cover baseball, pro football, golf, preps and even hockey.
He referred to the Milwaukee Brewers as "the bier und brat boys." If you sat next to him in the press box, you were subjected to an endless stream of puns and one-liners. And if you came up with a good one yourself, Lefty always saluted you. I remember saying the White Sox needed a big clue or a Big Klu (1959 World Series slugger Ted Kluszewski) at the plate. He loved it, so I used it. When Loyola played at the International Amphitheatre, in the shadow of the old Chicago stockyards, Lefty talked about an opposing team being "meat on the hoof." Nobody else comes up with that.
Lefty was a fierce defender of decent people like Illinois basketball coach Lou Henson, but the respect he commanded was such that he could get a one-on-one with Henson's chief antagonist, former Indiana coach Bob Knight. He saw through the hypocrisy of the NCAA.
On Oct. 7, 1989, Lefty covered the Notre Dame-Stanford football game at Palo Alto. He then drove to Candlestick Park to contribute a sidebar to the Daily Herald's coverage of the NLCS between the Cubs and Giants. Nobody, but nobody, does that. But Lefty did.
This award is a long time in coming.
Tim Cronin - Daily Southtown Sportswriter
I can’t recall seeing him in summer, but he was always old-school in dress, sports jacket, not necessarily matching anything, and an overcoat in winter. Always. The sports jacket often matched the light brown briefcase, come to think of it.
The briefcase was a bottomless pit of paper and whatnot, plus his laptop. Who else would open his briefcase and offer you a donut? Another time, he was looking to eat healthy so carried rice cakes about. Plus new and old newspapers, stray credentials, a media guide or three, and a notebook or four. Lefty invented remote work long before the rest of us.
He sat to my immediate left at Notre Dame football. The newspapers often came in handy at Notre Dame when a fly came by on a hot September day. He’d roll it up and WHAP! went Lefty with the paper, sometimes hitting the fly, but always smacking the window in the first row of the press box. Thankfully it was well-caulked and never fell out upon an unsuspecting Irish fan. “It was running the fly pattern,” Lefty would say.
I could not begin to remember how many puns per minute he tossed my way on the fly. More than I could counter with. If Joe Mooshil (of the Associated Press) was within earshot, he’d complain. Joe hated puns.
Lefty loved his phrases. They went beyond the immortal, “I expect a hard-fought contest between two evenly-matched teams.” One I heard more than once on Big Ten teleconferences: “Coach, can you bag the whole bundle of boodle?” It was hard not to laugh.
He always had a question or two after games, but once, at the 1989 Final Four with Lou Henson in the docket, Lefty, like Olivier, with his lines. “Coach; coach; went Lefty, and then he went blank. Henson bailed him out: Now Bob, you were probably going to ask about the defense, and you’re exactly right.”
Lefty occasionally didn’t arrive on time. He’d come into the press box in the second or third quarter. At least once he said, “My car drove into a ditch.” To which one wag (maybe Mark Tupper from the Decatur Herald & Review) said, “The car was driving itself?”
I only rode with him a couple of times, once at State College after a Northwestern-Penn State football game. We somehow made it back the mile to the hotel without incident, but not before he took a spill on ice and was lucky not to crack his head open.
A million times, Lefty would be covering one game and taking notes while writing about something else, the laptop often perched atop the briefcase. He’d file from Notre Dame or somewhere and call the office. It’s Bob Logan. You get the advance on the Illinois game? Then he would bat out a story after the game, and the call would go, It’s Bob Logan. You get the early night lead on Notre Dame? That had to go back to his Tribune days, filing for the early (Chicagoland) and late (Sports Final) editions.
Annually at the Illinois NCAA Tournament appearance, all of us (12 to 15 writers in the salad days before the Internet) would hit dinner together the night before to tell lies. Lefty would buy a round for the group and sometimes recite some bit of doggerel. Priceless times. Press boxes aren’t nearly as much fun without him.