A sports-writing legend heads for Hall of Fame

by Ron Kaplan
NJJN Staff Writer

Jerry Izenberg can be forgiven if he gets a little impatient with the state of sports these days. At his age, and with all he’s meant to those who enjoy the sports pages over their morning coffee, he shouldn’t have to put up with prima donnas and knuckleheads.
Izenberg, 74, has been a newspaperman for more than a half century and is syndicated in more than 40 newspapers. A long-time columnist for the Newark Star-Ledger, he has published nine books and hundreds of magazine features and was instrumental in the production of Channel 5’s Sports Extra, a precursor of the ESPN generation. He is one of only five sportswriters to have covered every Super Bowl.

In recognition for his contributions to the world of sports, Izenberg will join five other local legends as they are inducted into the MetroWest Jewish Sports Hall of Fame at a dinner and ceremony on Wednesday, June 22 at the Crystal Plaza in Livingston.

In addition to Izenberg, the “class of ‘05” includes Gerald Greenspan, Harold “Hesh” Cohen, and Herbert “Herbie” Kay, Charlie Schneider, and major league catcher Moe Berg. Kay, Schneider, and Berg will be honored posthumously.

These ceremonies are getting to be old hat for Izenberg, who is enshrined in eight other “halls,” including the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Hall of Fame in Salisbury, NC; the NJ State Athletic Hall of Fame in Newark; the Rutgers University’s Hall of Distinguished Alumni; and the NJ Literary Hall of Fame, in which he is the only sportswriter. He is most proud, however, of his Red Smith Award from the Associated Press.

“That was the biggest because there’s only one a year and Red’s desk was next to mine at the [Herald] Tribune….He was very helpful to me and meant a lot to me.

“There is no Pulitzer for sportswriting,” he added. “You go into a category with commentary. This is kind of the Pulitzer for sportswriters. It’s the highest thing you can win.”

Izenberg began his sportswriting career in 1951, making his debut along with a couple of kids named Mantle and Mays. But life might have taken a different turn if not for some pyrotechnical intervention.

“The first two years at Newark-Rutgers, I worked 40 hours a week at night in a chemical plant off South Street not far from the Newark Bears ballpark. We made dehydrated red dye for a religious sect in India. Mostly, I lugged barrels of the stuff.

“One night after closing, the plant caught fire. It put the guy out of business and me out of work. I got a part-time job as the grill man at a luncheonette at night. I was the worst cook in epicurean history. Then a friend who worked at the Ledger got me an interview. I went full time night at the paper and Lord only knows how many diners were saved.”

How times have changed

Baseball, with its slow pace, used to be an easy gig. ”Young sportswriters used to want to cover the baseball beat, but now they don’t, once they have a little taste of it, because what it means is all night games, three time zones… the deadlines are absolutely horrendous.”

Football is the easiest to cover now, he believes, since most of the games are played during the daytime. “It’s the night that has changed the newspaper animal.

“When I first came into the business we traveled by train, we sometimes ate with the players, played cards,” a familiarity he claimed never got in the way of doing his job.

He compared those players with today’s millionaires. “Those guys did not measure us by money,” he said. “They didn’t feel the money made them superior as [present players] do.”

The nature of the job has changed, as well. “It was a different world, and people wanted to know different things and had no interest in others things,” he said, referring to today’s “tell-all” journalism.

He also admitted that advanced age may have something to do with it. “I’m going to be 75 in September and they’re [like] grandchildren to me. So we don’t share a lot of common interests.”

After more than 50 years, does he still enjoy it? “I guess I do,” he said, with a suggestion of fatigue in his voice. “It’s what I do. I realized that artistry is defined by viewer or by the beholder or by the reader. You don’t need a paint brush, you don’t need a trumpet, you don’t even need a typewriter… to be an artist. Artistry carries its own worth and its own message.

“What elevates something to an art form? It’s people who do something with magnificence and with grace that other people can’t do at all.”

Despite their physical artistry, Izenberg was adamant when asked if athletes are appropriate role models for young people: “No, absolutely not.” The only situation he might reconsider is someone who overcomes a tremendous handicap, such as a Billy Mills, the native American who won the 10,000 meter race in the 1964 Olympics, or Jim Eisenreich, a major leaguer who attained a level of success despite suffering from Tourette’s syndrome.

Izenberg is a role model himself, although he would never admit it. He is president of Project Pride, a Newark-based organization that provides kids with recreational opportunities, after-school tutoring, and college scholarships through proceeds from the annual Pride Bowl football game. The program has raised nearly $4 million and provided almost 1,000 college scholarships since its creation more than 25 years ago.

“My volunteers are heroes,” Izenberg said, deflecting attention from his own good works. “They’re role models…. It’s the reason — and this is very presumptuous of me to say, but …when you’re 75 you can say anything you want — I believe that that’s why I’m a Jew and that’s why Jews are here. And too many Jews have forgotten it.

“Charity is a horrible word, I don’t like it at all” he said, “But caring, maybe that’s the word — caring and Jews should go hand in hand. And I think the concept that if you race to the suburbs whatever is down there in the inner city is not going to come your way … is wrong.

“In making other people the best they can be, you’re making yourself better. That’s what I think role models are.”

Izenberg grew up as a Conservative Jew in Newark, where he became a bar mitzva at Bnai Abraham, then under the leadership of Rabbi Joachim Prinz. He still recalls being chased by anti-Semitic bullies from the nearby Catholic school. He acknowledged a degree of anti-Semitism in his industry, but with a caveat. “I have to see it myself, I can’t hear it from someone else,” although he claimed never to have an incident with any of his interviews or people he worked for. “It never helped me and it never hurt me, and that’s just the way I like it.”

Nowadays the resident of Shark River Island in Neptune says, “My appointments with structured religion are not overwhelming. I’m a High Holy Day goer generally. Sometimes I find the urge to go on a Friday night.

“But I will say this: I really am happy that I’m Jewish.”

The MetroWest Jewish Sports Hall of Fame Induction Dinner begins at 6 p.m. Tickets are $136 with proceeds going to support JCC MetroWest’s Early Childhood and Camp Scholarship Fund. For further information, contact Jules Greenwald, director of development, at 973-530-3466 or jgreenwald@jccmetrowest.org.

Ron Kaplan can be reached at RKaplan@njjewishnews.com.