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Fred Russell
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- See also Fred Russell (disambiguation)
Fred McFerrin Russell (August 27, 1906–January 26, 2003) was an American sportswriter and a lifelong resident of Nashville, Tennessee.
Russell was the favored sports scribe in Nashville for nearly 70 years. After graduating from Duncan Preparatory School in Nashville and Vanderbilt University, Russell was hired for the police beat by the Nashville Banner after his graduation. The year was 1929. Russell would be a member of the Banner staff until the paper closed in 1998.
The following year, he was hired as sports editor, replacing Ralph McGill. Over subsequent 68 years, Russell wrote over 12,000 columns, mostly in a column named Sidelines. He was also a member of the Heisman Trophy committee for 46 years.
In 1998, the Banner folded and it was assumed that the 92-year old Russell would retire. Instead he was hired to write a weekly column for The Tennessean. He completed his 70th year as a journalist in 1999, then retired. Russell penned his last sports column for the multi-author book Nashville: An American Self-Portrait in 2001. His byline thus appeared in nine different decades.
Fred Russell won the Red Smith Award for his contributions to journalism in 1984.