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| Joe McGuff |
Born: Aug. 15, 1926
Died: Feb. 4, 2006
Career: Began at the Tulsa World before moving to Kansas City, where he spent 44 years as a sportswriter, columnist and eventually editor/vice president before retiring in 1992.
Highlights: He successfully lobbied owners to return major-league baseball to Kansas City after the Athletics left for Oakland. … His columns also swayed voters to approve funding for the Truman Sports Complex, home of the Chiefs and Royals, which remains a Kansas City icon today. … He covered 31 World Series, including one where he threw out the first pitch. It was Game 7 of the Royals-Cardinals series in 1985, and when former President Gerald Ford had to cancel at the last minute, Major League Baseball turned to Joe. … McGuff was also enshrined in the writers’ wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.
APSE connection: Was a founding father of the organization and served as president in 1977-78.
Other: In the same month that Joe retired as editor of the paper, The Star won the Pulitzer Prize for national reporting.
Quote: "He is and always will be a champion of all sports in Kansas City." — Lamar Hunt, Chiefs owner and charter member of the American Football League
