| Bill McGrotha |
Full Name: Bill McGrotha
Born: July 18, 1927, Boston, Ga.
Died: January 27, 1993, Tallahassee, Fla.
Legacy Bricks: Legacy Walk Map Link
1980 Moore-Stone Award HOF - Loc 64
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| FSU Career |
| Moore-Stone Award | |
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| Member of the FSU Hall of Fame |
| Elected into the FSU Hall of Fame in 1980 |
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From 1952 until his death in 1993, Tallahassee Democrat readers and sports fans throughout the South looked forward to reading Bill McGrotha's sports columns. McGrotha was uniquely qualified to
chronicle FSU's growth and rise to national prominence, which he did for 40 years in the Democrat and in his book Seminoles! The First Forty Years. He won Associated Press national
awards in 1980 for features and 1984 for columns and was a past-president of the Football Writers Association. He was described in the Democrat's three-page eulogy as a "meticulous reporter, a
talented wordsmith and an unwaveringly genuine man." In 1997, Florida State named the football press area in his honor. Obituary for Bill McGrotha From the Tallahassee Democrat, January 28, 1993, page 1, by Gerald Ensley, Democrat staff writer. Goodbye, Bill. You'll be missed. Ol' Dad is gone. Longtime Tallahassee Democrat Sports Editor Bill McGrotha died early Wednesday, following heart surgery Tuesday. He was 65. His death ended a remarkable 40-year career at the Democrat, in which the round man with the squinting eyes became the undisputed chronicler of Florida State University athletics, particularly football. For thousands of readers, McGrotha was the first word and the final authority on all things Seminole - and an FSU football game was not complete until they read his account of it Sunday morning. But in a city of many interests, he covered all manner of sports and sporting figures. And from his first Democrat story in May 1953 to his final Democrat column Jan. 19, McGrotha was a meticulous reporter, a talented wordsmith and an unwaveringly genuine man. "I thought he was a great journalist," said Florida State head football coach Bobby Bowden. "Following him will be like following Bear Bryant or Knute Rockne." Over the course of 40 years, he wrote more than 8,000 columns for the Democrat, ending each Sunday's column with a humorous observation - some of which he made up, some of which he borrowed - by his alter ego, "Ol' Dad." He covered games, wrote features, manned the phones and until the late 1970s performed the majority of editing chores for the Democrat sports section. Pigskin passion Reaction to McGrotha's death was swift and tearful Wednesday. Former colleagues from around the nation, athletes, coaches and readers bombarded the Democrat with calls full of memories and sorrow. Signs went up on store marquees. FSU officials announced the formation of an endowed academic scholarship fund in his name, as well as plans to name the new press box at Campbell Stadium in his memory. McGrotha's death was felt as far away as Pasadena, Calif., where hundreds of sportswriters are gathered for Sunday's Super Bowl - a game McGrotha covered more than 15 times. "I'm stunned. Several of us were talking last night about him, and wondering if he was going to be here," said Blackie Sherrod, columnist for the Dallas Morning News. "I wish more people in our business knew his work so they could appreciate it." McGrotha's chief interest was college football, and FSU football was his passion. He covered 450 FSU football games in his career, including 306 in a row until a 1981 heart operation forced him - reluctantly - to miss the final seven games of that season. He witnessed all but one of the 25 FSU-Florida games, and 19 of its 20 bowl games. Ironically, the first FSU game he covered in September 1953 and the last FSU game he covered in January were played in Miami's Orange Bowl. In 1987, he published his only book: "Seminoles! The First 40 Years." It documented what he called FSU's rise from "nowhere-land to splendor." It was considered the definitive history of FSU football. "I thought he deserved a lot of credit for FSU becoming a powerhouse," said Bill Peterson, the FSU head football coach from 1960-70. "He helped coaches through the process of building a program by never being negative and always being positive." Some chafed at his preference for football - such as former FSU baseball coach Fred Hatfield who dubbed him, "Football Charlie." Others grew impatient with his concentration on FSU sports. Yet, he considered football the sport of the South, and FSU football the main interest of his readers. And he could point justifiably to his writing on a wide range of topics, including award-winning pieces on golfer Bert Yancey, shooting-dog trials and basketball. "He was FSU football" "If you're a sportswriter for the Tallahassee Democrat, Florida State football has to be your game. It would be like going to a restaurant and not eating," said Miami Herald columnist Edwin Pope, who met McGrotha when both attended the University of Georgia. "To me, he was FSU football - more so than Bobby Bowden." Some critics also grew impatient, especially as FSU rose to prominence, with McGrotha's generally uncritical attitude toward the university. Others thought it was an overblown criticism. "To me, his approach was just right," said Tampa Tribune columnist Tom McEwen. "His stories had just enough wanting FSU to do right, and just enough clear reporting." To FSU coaches, McGrotha's most prized quality was his discretion. It earned him entrée with all eight head football coaches in FSU history, as well as the dozen of assistant coaches. "Bill was one of the few men in the world I could confide in," Bowden said. "I could discuss things with him that I couldn't with other writers, for fear they'd make something out of it. With him, I knew I'd get advice." McGrotha's attitude was part of his fierce commitment to fairness. He believed too many sports columnists were "rippers," who criticized coaches and players for the entertainment value of the well-turned wisecrack. He believed many reporters marshaled brief observations and shallow research and presented them as fact - causing irreparable harm and undercutting the media's credibility. "If you can't tell it like it is, don't tell it like it ain't," was his favorite saying. And he lived that motto. "The thing I especially appreciated about him was that I felt he never misquoted me," said Bernie Sliger, the FSU president from 1976-1991. "He never misconstrued what I had said, or put the emphasis on the wrong thing - although sometimes he said it better than I had." The early years Born July 18, 1927, in Boston, Ga., McGrotha was the oldest of five children of Bill and Jewell McGrotha. His mother was a homemaker and his father spent stints as prison guard, farmer and forman of a large hunting plantation near Thomasville. His parents divorced when he was a young man. He remained close to his mother, now Jewell Turq, who has married twice since and lives in Ochlocknee, Ga. His father died in 1963. Cursed by poor eyesight and a slight build, McGrotha was never an athlete. But he was the No. 2 student in his high-school class, and enrolled at the University of Georgia with intentions of becoming a doctor. That ambition was waylaid by organic chemistry and the declining grades that accompanied a broken arm he suffered after a night of beer drinking when he followed a friend across an Athens street and was hit by a car. When an aptitude test revealed a gift for journalism, he joined the school paper, then enlisted in the Navy at the end of his freshman year. He gained entrance by having a friend copy the eye chart, which he then memorized. After 18 months as a Navy corpsman - highlighted by 10 days in the brig for leaving base to watch Bulldog star Frankie Sinkwich play his final college game - McGrotha returned to the University of Georgia. But after another year of classes, he tired of his difficult financial straits and sought a job. He applied for a high-school teaching post in Quitman, Ga. (in a day when two years of college qualified a teacher), and for the sports editor job with the Thomasville Times-Enterprise. The newspaper called first. He worked at the Times-Enterprise for three years, and then spent a year with the Valdosta times. In 1952, he was hired at the Atlanta Constitution. Though a respected reporter and desk man while at the Constitution, he was a victim of budget cuts, and was fired after a year by editor Furman Bisher - immediately landing at the Democrat. "I hope I had a little something to do with his getting the job at the Democrat," Bisher chuckled Wednesday. While still working in Thomasville, he met a drugstore clerk named Irma Day, whom he married in December 1951. Together they had five children, June, Mike, Molly, Rosemary - an internationally famous model - and Hank. He often lamented that he was not heavily involved in his children's lives until they became adults - at which time he became a frequent companion and devoted grandfather of five. But much of his early fatherhood was consumed by his pursuit of extra income, which he found through relentless freelance writing and jobs such as baseball statistician for the defunct Florida-Georgia minor league. He also nursed a lifelong chagrin about his appearances. Cursed by premature baldness, congenitally bad eyesight that required thick glasses and an apple-shaped body, he never drew a handsome breath. But his flaws left him with an instantly recognizable presence, which hardly bothered those who recognized his talent. "He looks like an otherworldly Buddha, tapping away with transcendental calm," Flambeau columnist D.K. Roberts once wrote. Health became a factor His appearances, however, were a signal of mounting physical frailty. In 1981, he endured a six-bypass heart operation. In 1987, he underwent a serious eye operation, in which a lens implant and removal of a cataract in his right eye left him with his best vision in decades. In 1991, he had a similar operation on his left eye. After his 1981 heart operation, he worked diligently to improve his health. A once-enthusiastic partier, he gave up cigarettes and reduced his drinking to an occasional glass of wine or a Scotch on the rocks. He took up walking, pounding out two miles or more every morning. And he tried mightily to reduce intake of his treasured desserts. But in recent months, he had been bedeviled by a persistent sinus condition and chronic fatigue. A month ago, he felt a twinge in his right shoulder while on his morning walk. On Saturday, Jan. 16, the pain returned for an hour - doctors subsequently diagnosed the pain as a heart attack - and he checked into Tallahassee Memorial Regional Medical Center the following Tuesday. On Tuesday, he underwent seven hours of surgery, during which doctors installed six bypasses. He never regained consciousness. Respected by peers By then, his accomplishments were many. He earned numerous writing awards, including honors in 1980 (features) and 1984 (columns) from the Associated Press Sports Editors. A longtime correspondent for Sports Illustrated, McGrotha's work also appeared in The Sporting News, various football magazines and NCAA publications. He was a two-time president of the Florida Sportswriters Association and spent one term as president of the Football Writers Association of America. He is a member of the Florida State University Sports Hall of Fame, the Tallahassee Sports Hall od Fame and for two years has been on the ballot for the Florida Sports Hall of Fame. Yet in the votes that mattered - from those who knew him, those who worked with him or those who were written about by him - the ballots were long ago counted. Ol' Dad was a winner - and his departure is a loss.
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