Frank Deford, one of America's most respected sportswriters, talks with the audience during Sunday's address.
CAMDEN (Feb 2, 2005): For about 40 minutes Sunday afternoon, Frank Deford, an award-winning journalist, author and sports commentator, hit on a potpourri of sports subjects. He entertained listeners at the Camden Opera House with topics that were funny, retrospective, informative and, in most cases, raised to make the audience stop and think.
Making his readers think is something Deford has done for decades with his wonderfully written prose for some of the country's most respected magazines and newspapers, and in books and film.
The 66-year-old Deford discussed "Sports: The Hype and the Hoopla." He was the third guest in the Camden Public Library's Arts and Lecture Series. The event was presented in collaboration with Bay Chamber Concerts.
Deford talked about many sports subjects, some meant to be humorous and others that talked about the direct reflection sports has on society.
Deford spoke about how the landscape of sports was dramatically evolving when he came into the business in the 1960s. With free agency and the emergence of women in sports, it was a great time.
He talked about the impact his stories had on people and, more importantly, the impact the American athlete has on society.
"Sports always played a prominent part in our lives," he said, adding that in the 1950s President Dwight Eisenhower talked about the "military-industrial complex," while today it is the "entertainment-amusement complex that looms above all. Basically, America produces leisure and sports has the dual advantage of being both for spectators and participants."
He said it is easy for Americans to think they have the market on being sports fans, but that is not true. The world is full of sports fans, some more fanatic then others.
Deford said there was a time when Americans, as a wealthy country, had more free time and sports was a way to use up that time. "But everybody has caught up with us now, " he said.
Deford said no matter where he has traveled, from Indonesia to India to Indiana, he hears from people that America has the best sports fans.
"We love sports more than anyone else and we want you to know it," he said. "It is a great point of pride."
He talked about his personal relationships with many of the great American athletes of the 20th century, including basketball player Bill Russell, tennis player Arthur Ashe and boxer Muhammad Ali.
Deford said he will never forget traveling to Africa with Ashe when the tennis player was going to cross the color barrier in that country. Deford talked to a young black boy who saw Ashe and could not believe there were, somewhere in the world, black men who were free.
Deford said the typical fan is conflicted about the issue of drugs in sports. Everyone wants them cleaned up but not if it affects their favorite teams or favorite athletes.
"For a long time we would rather catch those little gymnasts and take away their gold medals when they were caught using the wrong cough medicine, but leave our guys alone," he said.
Fans often complain about the amount of money paid athletes, but usually are the first to be upset when their owner doesn't pay to bring in the best players into the fold, he said.
Deford talked a lot about the history of sports in America, from the early part of the 20th century to today.
He likens the gambling in baseball in the early part of the 20th century, which ultimately led to the Black Sox scandal of 1919, to the way most have covered up steroid use in baseball today.
He said it was the Olympics that finally put its foot down about performance-enhancing drugs and only now are other sports coming into line with drug policies.
Deford said steroids tarnish the records that are being set. He said if Barry Bonds someday breaks Hank Aaron's career home run record of 755, people will look at it "as a numerical optical illusion."
He said drugs in sports takes the luster and fun out of the games.
Deford said much of American life is surrounded by some form of drug use -- illegal and legal. Most of us take some form of medication or drug. That dependence on drugs rubs off on our children. He said one million American teenagers have used some form of performance-enhancing drugs.
Deford made listeners laugh when he said beer commercials for televised sports have been replaced by those for drugs like Viagra, Levitra and Cealis.
He said a survey of American Olympic athletes taken several years ago revealed more than half would take a magical drug that would help them win a gold medal even if it meant they would become ill or even die in a few years.
Deford said it is fine for children to idolize pro athletes but he begins to worry when he sees adults worshipping those same athletes.
He cited a story he wrote about former Alabama football coach Bear Bryant. Deford wrote a glowing, 10,000-word piece about the coach, but did mention, in one line, that the revered coach had a problem that made him have to often go to the bathroom.
Deford received hundreds of "nasty" letters including one 5,000-name petition demanding Deford be fired. "Don't mess with heroes," he said.
Deford talked about the problems in college sports and said it is important that we do not let our high schools go down the same path, where winning is more important than other parts of the educational process.
He talked about how important sports -- especially football and basketball -- are to colleges and universities. He explained how one college president told the state Legislature that what his school wants "is a university that our football team can be proud of."
He said one change that would make sense would be to get rid of college athletic scholarships for all but the football and basketball players, because those two sports make enough money to fund the entire athletic programs.
He said football and basketball players should be paid because they are, essentially, performers. He said all other college athletic scholarships should be taken away because those who write, sing or act don't get scholarships to attend school.
All are extracurricular activities, he said. He said he has never had an athletic director or president of a big time college tell him why a tennis player should get a scholarship, but a piano player shouldn't.
"It makes sports seem so much more important than art, music or literature," he said. "It really fosters that anti-intellectual attitude."
Deford said one will never see a faculty member hanging around the admissions office talking about a "wonderful tenor" in Illinois whose grades are poor and who currently is in jail. "We could really use him in the glee club," he said. "Just athletes get that type of lobby."
Deford talked a lot about the importance of the teams in sports over the individuals who play the games. He said the team is the most important part of athletics.
He said too much pressure is put on young children by many members of society, especially parents who think their children will be the next Tiger Woods or Michelle Wie.
He talked about how sportswriters' relationships with players have changed because professional athletes now make millions of dollars and no longer need the "ink" writers provide.
Deford said when athletes stopped having to work for a living in the off season, they lost touch with reality and society, thus becoming, in a sense, overpaid, overimportant prima donnas.
Deford writes with style and grace. His eloquently crafted words create images in one's mind that no photo -- no matter how brilliantly composed -- can match. He always uses just the right word to describe a situation, an emotion, an event or a person.
Deford has been recognized by many as the quintessential sportswriter and commentator of the 20th century. An Emmy-winning commentator for ESPN Radio and National Public Radio, he spent nearly 30 years writing for Sports Illustrated magazine before moving to Newsweek in 1991.
As a journalist, Deford has been contributing editor to Vanity Fair and editor-in-chief to the National Sports Daily. He has been voted U.S. Sportswriter of the Year six times by his peers, and twice voted Magazine Writer of the Year by the Washington Journalism Review. He is the author of 14 books, including "Everybody's All-American" and "Alex: The Life of a Child," a memoir about his daughter, who died of cystic fibrosis. Both books have been made into movies.
For 16 years Deford was the president of the National Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. He speaks on the issues of sports today, from the corruption that has tarnished the glory and the gold of the Olympic movement to the disconcerting labor disputes that have ravaged America's pastime.
Deford is among the most honored and versatile writers in the country; his work appears in virtually every medium. He has written for newspapers, magazines, television, radio, the Internet, movies and Broadway. He is a senior contributing writer at Sports Illustrated and a longtime correspondent for HBO's "Real Sports." His commentary can be heard each Wednesday on National Public Radio's "Morning Edition."
Deford also wrote the original screenplay for the comedy film "Trading Hearts." Another of his novels, "Casey On the Loose," is presently being adapted as a Broadway musical.
His latest book, "The Old Ball Game," about Christy Mathewson and John McGraw and baseball at the turn of the century, will be published in April 2005 by Grove/Atlantic. His latest theatrical screenplay, "The Sister-In-Law," is a comedy being produced by Lions Gate, and ESPN will film his screenplay "Four Minutes" about Roger Bannister and the four-minute mile this spring.
Among his many honors, Deford is a member of the Hall of Fame of the National Association of Sportscasters and Sportswriters. His has been awarded both the Emmy and Peabody awards for his work as a writer and commentator.
As a journalist, Deford was most recently presented with the National Magazine Award for profiles for his story on Celtic basketball legend Bill Russell. The American Journalism Review has cited him as the nation's finest sportswriter.
Deford has been presented with a Christopher Award and journalism Honor Awards from the University of Missouri and Northeastern University, and has received a number of honorary degrees. The Sporting News has described Deford as "the most influential sports voice among members of the print media," and the magazine GQ has called him simply "the world's greatest sportswriter."
It's quite a resume for one of America's literary giants.
Deford, who lives in Westport, Conn. with his wife Carol, is a native of
Baltimore, Md. He is a graduate of Princeton University, where he has taught American studies.
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