Former Sun-Times sports writer Mike Downey had a way with words that seemed to flow naturally.
In the summer of 1978 he wrote of an injured Chicago Bear:
“It was painful to watch. Waymond Bryant wanted to play, but his shoulder and his doctors said no. So he knelt near the trees that caped the Bears’ training camp in Lake Forest and just watched — red stocking cap on his head, 50 on his jersey and an ache in his heart.”
The next summer he wrote about a Bulls big man predicament:
“Whether you’re talking about H-bombs, Playboy magazine, Tootsie Pops or basketball teams, the story’s the same. The important thing is the center.”
Mr. Downey worked at the Daily News until it closed in 1978. He then worked for the Sun-Times for several years in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
“He was one of those guys you wanted to read,” said Sun-Times columnist Rick Telander.
Mr. Downey died June 12 after suffering a heart attack at his home in Rancho Mirage, Cal. He was 72.
Mr. Downey went on to work at the Detroit Free Press and the Los Angeles Times, where took on a column that delved into topics beyond sports. He later returned to his hometown to work at the Chicago Tribune as a sports columnist.
He grew up in south suburban Steger and attended Bloom High School. He started working at Star Publications in the south suburbs when he was 16.
“He’s an old-fashioned guy like Mike Royko. He never went to college, he went straight to work at a suburban paper and he worked every beat and he shined, had real talent, and that became clear to people in the business,” said friend and former Sun-Times columnist Ron Rapoport.
Phil Arvia, a former sports columnist with the Daily Southtown, said Mr. Downey made an impression on him when he was a teenager, and years later, as a fellow sports journalist.
“I remember reading the paper in high school and thinking ‘This guy is awesome.’ He made me laugh and was just a fun read,” said Arvia, who also hails from the south suburb.
“The lunchroom of a sports stadium press box can be a little bit like a high school cafeteria, where you sit is important, who you sit with is important, and Mike always had a seat at his table for me, and I will always be grateful for that,” Arvia said.
While in Los Angeles, Mr. Downey met and started dating Gail Martin, the daughter of famed singer Dean Martin. A mutual friend, funnyman Tom Dreesen from Harvey, set them up after Martin relayed a message of how much she enjoyed reading Mr. Downey’s columns.
“The first time they met it was at an Italian restaurant in Sherman Oaks and before they even sat down at the table Gail was telling Mike “Oh, I just loved that column you wrote about this. Oh, and that column you wrote on this,'” recalled Dreesen, whose known Mr. Downey since he was a Cub reporter.
The couple married in Las Vegas months later. They were about to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary this summer.
Mr. Downey was selected Sportswriter of the Year eleven times. It’s a title awarded yearly in every state by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association. He won twice in Illinois, twice in Michigan and seven times in California.
Telander recalled a time when he was enjoying a post-work beer with Mr. Downey and others at a bar set up for press covering the Sidney Olympics in 2000, when a drunk journalist from New Zealand stumbled over and began harassing several women in the group.
“We’re telling him to leave and he wouldn’t and Downey finally had had enough and grabbed the guy and essentially threw him out the door. Everyone was absolutely thrilled. It was straight out of a cowboy movie. It was fabulous. I might have grabbed the guy’s briefcase and tossed it after him,” Telander said.
“Mike had such a sense of courtesy and respect and dignity, and he was a fun, funny guy and there were just so many good things about him. I’m really having a hard time wrapping my brain around this. He was too young. It just sucks,” Telander said.
Services are pending.