Dave Anderson in 2003. (Barton Silverman/The New York Times)
1981 Commentary winner Dave Anderson died Thursday at an assisted living facility in Cresskill, N.J. He was 89.
A lifelong resident of the New York metropolitan area, Anderson is one of only a handful of sportswriters — including fellow New York Times alumni Arthur Daley and Red Smith — who earned Pulitzers. He cited Smith and Daley as formative influences alongside other luminaries of the form, including Frank Graham, Jimmy Cannon and W. C. Heinz.
Anderson worked part-time as a messenger at the original New York Sun (where his father was an advertising salesman) while attending Manhattan's Xavier High School, a selective Jesuit prep school. After graduating from the College of the Holy Cross, he covered the Brooklyn Dodgers, hockey and general assignments for the original Brooklyn Eagle and the New York Journal-American.
He moved to The New York Times in 1966. Following five years of general assignment work, he took over the venerable Sports of the Times column — previously the province of Smith and Daley — in 1971.
During his decades-long career at The Times (including occasional pieces written after his 2007 retirement) and as a freelance magazine writer, Anderson became particularly known for his literate explications of boxing and golf.
In addition to a visual biography of Muhammad Ali and a history of boxing trainers, Anderson co-wrote or ghostwrote the memoirs of baseball player Frank Robinson, football coach and sportscaster John Madden and boxer Sugar Ray Robinson.
Anderson's winning portfolio included profiles of Oakland Athletics/New York Yankees Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson ("The Burden of Being Mr. October"), Ali in twilight ("But there was no gas in the tank anymore. Not at 38, not after a two-year layoff...") and the temperamental dynamic between obstreperous Yankees owner George Steinbrenner and manager Dick Howser, who subsequently enjoyed a storied run with the Kansas City Royals.
In 2014, Anderson recalled the euphoria of receiving his Pulitzer: "[T]he day after the Masters, I drove up to Greenville, S.C. to play golf with my friend and another sportswriter, Dan Foster. When I pulled into the parking lot at the course, Foster was waiting to tell me to call my office. No newspaper writer likes to hear those words 'call your office.' I called my sports editor, Joe Vecchione, who told me they had me on a 2 o’clock plane for New York and to be in Abe Rosenthal’s office at 5.
"I said 'Tell me, Joe, why?'
"Finally he said, 'You just won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished commentary.'
"I thought to myself 'The same category Russell Baker won.' Not bad."
Read Anderson's winning work here.