GREENVILLE, S.C. – Dan Foster, the longtime sports editor and columnist of The Greenville News, died Friday. He was 80.
The newspaper’s Web site did not list a cause of death.
Foster retired in 2000 after 52 years at The Greenville News and The Greenville Piedmont. He annually covered such events as the Super Bowl, World Series, Masters and Kentucky Derby. He also reported on his alma mater, Furman, and the state’s two big sports universities – Clemson and South Carolina.
"For many years, for many of our readers, he was the face of the newspaper," said Steve Brandt, publisher of The Greenville News. "He was always held in appropriately high regard by his sports writing colleagues around the South and around the country."
Foster fought racial injustice and helped civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, a star athlete at segregated Sterling High in Greenville, gain a football scholarship to Illinois.
"His role as a journalist, to open doors for all Americans, is just legendary," Jackson said. "I feel so respectful of him."
Foster was a president of the National Football Writers Association. In 1998, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the U.S. Basketball Writers Association.
His funeral is Sunday in Greenville at First Baptist Church with burial to follow at Woodlawn Memorial Park.
