10-18-2020, 07:38 PM
Star Tribune sports columnist Sid Hartman dies at age 100Sid Hartman, who started selling newspapers in 1928 and wrote about sports for the Star Tribune for the ensuing decades, died Sunday. He was 100.
"My father's extraordinary and resilient life has come to a peaceful conclusion surrounded by his family," his son, Chad Hartman, tweeted early Sunday afternoon.
Sid Hartman also was for decades a radio voice on WCCO.
Hartman was born on the north side of Minneapolis on March 15, 1920, and he worked for newspapers in his hometown for nearly his entire life. At the time of his death he was still writing three or four columns a week.
He gained a stature very few journalists have achieved, becoming one of this state's legendary public figures. He was for years a power broker in the local sports scene, playing an integral role in the early success of the Minneapolis Lakers pro basketball team while serving as the team's de facto general manager and working behind the scenes to help bring major league baseball to Minnesota.
He created a rags-to-riches story unlike any his hometown has seen, working his way from the very bottom of the newspaper industry to one of the most influential and popular figures ever to use a typewriter, and later computer, for his livelihood. He also became a popular radio personality for WCCO and for 20 years was a panelist on a Sunday night TV show. If Minnesotans referred to "Sid,'' there was no doubt who they were talking about, much the same as the greatest of those he covered, men like "Kirby'' and "Harmon'' and "Bud.''
According to a count by Star Tribune staffer Joel Rippel, Hartman produced 21,235 bylined stories in his career, from 1944 until the one that ran on C2 of Sunday's Sports section. That column was his 119th of 2020.
Much of Hartman's success can be traced to his relentless reporting style. He developed and nurtured contacts, and his vocation was a labor of love. Hartman had no false illusions about his writing ability, one of the few newspaper journalists who required another reporter to write his "autobiography."
Many of those he encountered in his job became his closest friends. Sports were Hartman's life, around the clock, although in his later years he showed his softer side by becoming a doting grandfather.
https://www.startribune.com/legendary-co...572788662/
"My father's extraordinary and resilient life has come to a peaceful conclusion surrounded by his family," his son, Chad Hartman, tweeted early Sunday afternoon.
Sid Hartman also was for decades a radio voice on WCCO.
Hartman was born on the north side of Minneapolis on March 15, 1920, and he worked for newspapers in his hometown for nearly his entire life. At the time of his death he was still writing three or four columns a week.
He gained a stature very few journalists have achieved, becoming one of this state's legendary public figures. He was for years a power broker in the local sports scene, playing an integral role in the early success of the Minneapolis Lakers pro basketball team while serving as the team's de facto general manager and working behind the scenes to help bring major league baseball to Minnesota.
He created a rags-to-riches story unlike any his hometown has seen, working his way from the very bottom of the newspaper industry to one of the most influential and popular figures ever to use a typewriter, and later computer, for his livelihood. He also became a popular radio personality for WCCO and for 20 years was a panelist on a Sunday night TV show. If Minnesotans referred to "Sid,'' there was no doubt who they were talking about, much the same as the greatest of those he covered, men like "Kirby'' and "Harmon'' and "Bud.''
According to a count by Star Tribune staffer Joel Rippel, Hartman produced 21,235 bylined stories in his career, from 1944 until the one that ran on C2 of Sunday's Sports section. That column was his 119th of 2020.
Much of Hartman's success can be traced to his relentless reporting style. He developed and nurtured contacts, and his vocation was a labor of love. Hartman had no false illusions about his writing ability, one of the few newspaper journalists who required another reporter to write his "autobiography."
Many of those he encountered in his job became his closest friends. Sports were Hartman's life, around the clock, although in his later years he showed his softer side by becoming a doting grandfather.
https://www.startribune.com/legendary-co...572788662/
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