SIMMONS: 50 years of Toronto Sun sports, a personal journey

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The yellowed newspapers sit in a field within the basement, not getting old significantly nicely: The final version of the Toronto Telegram ; the primary version of the Toronto Solar , from 50 years in the past Monday.

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I don’t know why I used to be compelled to maintain them as souvenirs after I was simply 14 years previous and starting Grade 9. However I already had the ‘Man On The Moon’ paper and added it to my sparse assortment, not realizing as a child the route my life would take.

I used to be hooked on the Solar nearly from Day 1. The completeness of its sports activities protection. The cheekiness of the headlines and information show. Paul Rimstead’s column grew to become a part of my each day studying. Whether or not he was writing it, or somebody was inserting just a few phrases in a field indicating that Rimmer had too many refreshments the evening earlier than and wouldn’t be showing in at the moment’s version.

His life and his characters appeared like nothing I’d learn earlier than. Simply as studying the wondrous phrases of Trent Frayne took me to the ball park with him. Similar to the passionate politics of Peter Worthington obtained me fascinated about topics I didn’t essentially care about. The Solar wrote concerning the Solar so much in these days and it pulled me in lengthy earlier than journalism grabbed me. And I by no means missed a Ted Reeve column or a poem, even when I didn’t perceive all of them.

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And one way or the other again then, all of it appeared a bit like a sitcom from afar, like Barney Miller in a newsroom as an alternative of a police station. There was a lot interplay within the early days between characters and journalists and columnists and cartoonists and celebrities and ultimately essentially the most expansive sports activities protection any Canadian newspaper had seen.

The Solar was eight years previous after I obtained my first newspaper job and my first rejection letter from founding sports activities editor George Gross arrived.

“I can get writers any time,” he informed me on the telephone. “I need desk males.”

And after the Solar had celebrated its fifteenth anniversary when the brand new sports activities editor, Wayne Parrish, who was three months on the job because the handpicked successor to the legendary Gross, employed me from the Calgary Herald , only a day or two after he employed Bob Elliott from the Ottawa Citizen . Parrish had cash and ideas of expanded protection and ambition and he spent and spent some extra.

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These have been the salad days of the newspaper enterprise in Canada — and perhaps all over the world. With massive staffs. Huge cash. Journey in all places. Whilst we have been the little man, the little paper that grew, all the time punching above our weight in opposition to the Toronto Star or The Globe and Mail and normally profitable.

What a spot to reside and work and get despatched all over the world to cowl sports activities. In my first yr on the job, I used to be in Rome when Ben Johnson beat Carl Lewis for the primary time; I used to be in Switzerland to cowl Invoice Derlago’s final cease as an expert hockey participant on a workforce with three different ex-Leafs. And I got here house simply in time to see Larry Murphy move to Wayne Gretzky who handed to Mario Lemieux for the profitable objective within the biggest hockey spectacle ever seen, the 1987 Canada Cup. And never lengthy after that, Mike Tyson knocked out Michael Spinks in 91 seconds in Atlantic Metropolis. What a whirlwind of a job — and I used to be only one on a moderately massive workers touring in all places.

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It’s 50 years on Monday, seven homeowners and eight sports activities editors later. I’ve labored for all of the homeowners and for seven of the eight sports activities editors. Doug Creighton was one of many three males who began the Solar . There’s a big framed poster of him on my downstairs wall. The against-all-odds story of the Toronto Solar startup has been informed too many instances. What hardly ever will get talked about is what Creighton created: A newspaper run by its workers, for its workers, about its metropolis, a spot for individuals to be welcomed, with Christmas bonuses in money and profit-sharing and sabbaticals and advantages that have been the envy of the trade and a delight unmatched anyplace within the enterprise. This was the place you wished to be.

When instances modified and homeowners modified and Creighton obtained chopped, a lot of that tradition went with him. That me-against-the-world philosophy. If Creighton was going to have your again, irrespective of the circumstances, dammit, you have been going to struggle for him.
Then the paper was bought and bought and bought once more. And it’s not like Cheers anymore, the place all people is aware of your title. Particularly now with out an workplace open. With modifications in promoting and retail gross sales, readership and digital, got here cuts and casualties and, over time, an trade preventing to remain related and alive.

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However one way or the other the Solar sports activities division, with fewer our bodies and fewer sources and definitely much less cash, has hung collectively and held up its place because the chief of sports activities protection in Canada.

Lance Hornby has been writing largely about hockey for the previous 40 years. Frank Zicarelli, whose wrestling column was born with the Saturday Solar  in 1985, has been with the Solar 37 years. He wrote that staple piece for a decade and it grew to become a must-read for anybody who cared concerning the WWE or WCW. At one time, the highest-selling version of the Solar was a Hulk Hogan cowl from Wrestlemania.

What different companies have operated like this? Hornby with greater than 40 years. Zicarelli with 37. Me with 34. And Steve Buffery, Rob Longley, Mike Ganter, John Kryk, the meat within the sandwich of our division at the moment, all with greater than 30 years on the Solar . Our veteran evening editor and fantasy skilled, Joel Colomby, is into his forty first yr. And our child, nicely, that’s hockey author, Terry Koshan; he’s solely been right here 25 years, 4 years fewer than our sports activities editor, Invoice Pierce.

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This is only one division. Too many elderly white guys, too many elderly vivid guys.

And you’ll’t overlook those that have been right here and moved on over time. Gross and the magical Frayne each received Nationwide Newspaper Awards within the early years of the Solar .

Later, Jean Sonmor, sister of an NHL coach, received the identical award.

The lately retired Elliott is the one Canadian within the media division of the Baseball Corridor of Fame and should maintain that distinction for the remainder of his life. He uncovered baseball alongside Ken Fidlin and the underrated duo of Invoice Lankhof and Mike Rutsey, again once we had three or 4 individuals masking the Blue Jays recurrently.

Our former auto racing writers, Dan Proudfoot and The Dean of Velocity, the late Dean McNulty, are honoured within the Canadian Motorsports Corridor of Fame. Buffery is within the Etobicoke Sports activities Corridor of Fame, the Ontario Boxing Corridor of Fame, and within the all-time humorous man Corridor of Fame. My late, nice, good friend Jim Hunt, whose Tuesday morning musings have been to not be missed, is within the Canadian Soccer Corridor of Fame. Longtime hockey author Mike Zeisberger now does his work for nhl.com.

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Gross didn’t simply win the Elmer Ferguson Award for hockey writing. He’s in nearly each Corridor of Fame he was eligible for. The award for sportswriter of the yr in Canada is called for him. There are lots of outstanding tales about George, from his escape from Czechoslovakia, a narrative that modified each time he informed it, to his studying English and profitable writing awards in what wasn’t his given language.

He set the bar excessive for Solar sports activities. He wished to cowl all the pieces. This was earlier than my time. He pushed individuals laborious and underpaid individuals, however the Solar had highschool reporters, college sports activities beat males, writers who lined each harness racing and thoroughbred racing. They lined lake swims and regattas at Balmy Seaside and the world water-skiing championship at Centre Island.

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We don’t have the area or the our bodies to cowl all the pieces the way in which Gross, referred to as the Baron, wished all the pieces lined. No one does any extra. As a highschool scholar, I bear in mind trying to the newspapers for protection of video games across the metropolis. You bought to know the names of the celebrities. It’s how I first discovered about Leo Rautins at St. Mike’s. These names appeared vital then. We don’t know who they’re any extra. However I do know I used to select up a paper day by day, again after they weren’t being delivered, as a result of the Solar lined nearly all the pieces I cared about.

Gross wasn’t the Solar ’s solely Elmer Ferguson winner. Frayne received. Scott Morrison received. Al Strachan received and former Solar columnist Jay Greenberg was so awarded.

And a mix of Solar and Postmedia writers, with Kryk, Scott Stinson and Vicki Corridor, received a Nationwide Newspaper Award for a terrific sequence on concussions in youth sports activities.
John Iaboni was one of many unique hockey writers when the Solar launched in 1971. He was only a child on the time, nonetheless in college, and in one of many last editions of the Telegram he wrote a couple of 10-year-old phenom from Brantford, who was tearing up minor hockey. Child’s title was Wayne Gretzky. First story about Gretzky ever written. Two days later, the paper closed.

In the future later, the Toronto Solar was born.

This paper wasn’t imagined to final 50 days, not to mention 50 years. That’s what individuals thought. However by all this time we’ve by no means stopped our dedication to sports activities protection. Each different paper within the metropolis — and so many throughout North America — has gone from caring about it to not caring, relying on the yr or the temper. This can be a sports activities paper. It was when George Gross started placing his workers collectively in 1971. It stays one, fortunately, on this loopy world of ours, at the moment.

ssimmons@postmedia.com
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