Dick Schaap

Guide note:

In a career that encompassed over four decades of excellence in sports journalism, Dick Schaap was a noted author, sportswriter and sportscaster. He was the long time host of the ESPN Sunday morning program known as The Sports Reporters.

Fast Facts:

1. Born: September 27, 1934
2. Birthplace: Brooklyn, NY
3. Died: December 21, 2001
4. College: Cornell University
5. Only person ever to vote for both the Tony Awards and the Heisman Trophy

Schaap worked for several newspaper publications, beginning at the age of 14, before landing a job at Newsweek. He would author 33 different books during his life, including co-authoring autobiographies for many athletes including Joe Namath and Bo Jackson. His work on the 1968 best seller Instant Replay with former Green Bay Packers player Jerry Kramer is considered one of the finest sports biographies ever written. He would eventually segue into television, working as a correspondent at NBC for Today Show and NBC Nightly News. He would later move to ABC where he worked for ABC World News Tonight. In 1988, he began hosting The Sports Reporters on ESPN, a weekly 30-minute round-table discussion of the important topics in sports. Schaap died in 2001. His son Jeremy followed in his father's footsteps and is now a sports journalist for ESPN.