Ira Berkow Explained

Ira Berkow
Birth Date:	7 January 1940
Birth Place:	Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Alma Mater:	Miami University (B.A.) Northwestern University (M.A.)
Occupation:	Sportswriter, Biographer
Spouse:	Dolly Berkow

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 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.^{[1] [2]}

He was a reporter for the Minneapolis Tribune, a syndicated features writer, sports and general columnist, and sports editor for the Newspaper Enterprise Association.^[3]

From 1981 to 2007 he was a sports reporter and columnist for The New York Times^{[4] [5]} 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.^[6]

He shared the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for his article "The Minority Quarterback"^[7] in The New York Times series How Race Is Lived in America.^{[8] [9]} 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."^[10]

In 2006, he was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.^[11] 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.^[12]

Works

Books

• It Happens Every Spring: DiMaggio, Mays, the Splendid Splinter, and a Lifetime at the Ballpark, Triumph Books, 2017,
• Giants Among Men: Y.A., L.T., the Big Tuna, and Other New York Giants Stories, Triumph Books, 2015,
• Counterpunch: Ali, Tyson, the Brown Bomber, and Other Stories of the Boxing Ring, Triumph Books, 2014,
• Autumns in the Garden: The Coach of Camelot and Other Knicks Stories, Triumph Books, 2013,
• Summers at Shea: Tom Seaver Loses His Overcoat and Other Mets Stories, Triumph Books, 2013,
• Summers in the Bronx: Attila the Hun and Other Yankee Stories, Triumph Books, 2009,
• The Corporal Was a Pitcher: The Courage of Lou Brissie, Triumph Books, 2009,
• Hank Greenberg: The Story of My Life, Times Books, 1989, editor
• Red: A Biography of Red Smith, Rockin Steady, University of Nebraska Press, 2007,
• Court Vision, To The Hoop: The Seasons of a Basketball Life, University of Nebraska Press, 2004,
• The Gospel According to Casey, (with Jim Kaplan), St. Martin's Press, 1992,
• The Minority Quarterback & Other Lives In Sports, I.R. Dee, 2002,
• Full Swing; Hits, Runs and Errors in a Writer's Life, Ivan R. Dee Publisher, 2007,
• Maxwell Street, Survival in a Bazaar. Doubleday & Co., 1977, .
• 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

• , 2010 documentary film; writer
• Champions of American Sport, HBO documentary, 1983; film writer

Further reading

• Book: Ruttman, Larry . Larry Ruttman . American Jews and America's Game: Voices of a Growing Legacy in Baseball . 978-0803264755 . Ira Berkow: New York Times Journalist, Author, Pulitzer Prize Winner, and Jewish Son . https://archive.org/details/americanjewsamer0000rutt/page/146/mode/2up . 2013 . University of Nebraska Press.

External links

• • Ira Berkow Papers at the American Jewish Historical Society

Notes and References

1. Web site: Ira H. Berkow . Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University . May 24, 2019.
2. Web site: Ira Berkow Papers at the American Jewish Historical Society . American Jewish Historical Society . July 22, 2015.
3. Web site: Sportswriter Ira Berkow Reminiscence . Evesmag.com . December 22, 2010.
4. Web site: Ira Berkow . June 5, 2011.
5. Web site: Sportswriter Ira Berkow Reminiscence . Evesmag.com . December 22, 2010.
6. Web site: Ira Berkow . June 5, 2011.
7. Web site: The Minority Quarterback . Ira Berkow . The New York Times . July 2, 2000 . June 5, 2011.
8. Web site: Ira Berkow . Jewishsports.net . January 7, 1940 . December 22, 2010.
9. Web site: Pulitzer Series . Nl.edu . December 22, 2010.
10. Web site: The Pulitzer Prizes | Finalists . Pulitzer.org . February 20, 1988 . December 22, 2010.
11. Web site: Ira Berkow . December 22, 2010 . International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame . 2010.
12. Web site: Edgar Award Winners and Nominees . Mystery Writers of America . June 5, 2011 . October 22, 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20141022004917/http://www.theedgars.com/edgarsDB/ . dead .