Frank Deford
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Frank Deford (born December 16, 1938, in Baltimore, Maryland) is a senior contributing writer for Sports Illustrated, author, and commentator.
DeFord has been writing for Sports Illustratedsince the early 1960s. In addition to his Sports Illustrated duties, he is also a correspondent for HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel and a regular, Wednesday commentator for National Public Radio's Morning Edition.
In the early 1990s Deford took a brief break from NPR and other professional activities to serve as editor-in-chief of The National (newspaper), a short-lived, daily U.S. sports newspaper. It debuted January 31, 1990 and folded after 18 months. The newspaper was published Sundays through Fridays and had a tabloid format.
Deford is also the chairman emeritus of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. He became involved in cystic fibrosis education and advocacy after his daughter, Alexandra ("Alex") was diagnosed with the illness in the early 1970s. She died on January 19, 1980, at age 8, and her life was chronicled in Deford's book [[Alex: The Life of a Child]], which was made into a movie starring Craig T. Nelson and Bonnie Bedelia; the book has also been updated to show how the Defords and Alex's friends are doing today.
Deford grew up near Baltimore, Maryland, and attended the Gilman School in Baltimore. He is a graduate of Princeton University and now resides in Westport, Connecticut, with his wife, Carol. They have two children: Christian (b. 1969) and Scarlet (b. 1980).
Awards/accomplishments
- Member of the National Association of Sportscasters and Sportswriters
- Six-time U.S. Sportswriter of the Year winner
- Twice voted Magazine Writer of the Year by the Washington Journalism Review
- National Magazine Award recipient
- Christopher Award winner
- Winner of a 1988 Emmy Award for his work during the Seoul Olympics
- Winner of a CableACE in 1994 for writing the HBO Sports documentary Arthur Ashe: Citizen of the World
Selected books
- There She Is: The Life and Times of Miss America (1971) ISBN 067069858X
- Alex: The Life of a Child BS918 (1983) ISBN 0670111953
- Spy in the Deuce Court (1986) ISBN 0399131345
- The Best Of Frank Deford (2000) ISBN 1572433604
- The Old Ball Game (2005) ISBN 0871138859
External links
- [Frank Deford Archive] at SI
- [Frank Deford's Insider Archive] also at SI
- [Frank Deford, IMDB]
- [Frank Deford, NPR Biography]
- [Frank Deford] at Yahoo!
- [Deford Speech at CCC]
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