Al Cartwright, legendary sports editor/columnist

Al Cartwright created the modern sports page in Delaware—and much else. When Al arrived from Reading, Pa., to become sports editor of the Journal Every Evening in 1947, the department had one other full-timer. By 1970 he had built one of the nation’s most respected incubators of writing and editing talent at The Evening Journal and Morning News. His column encouraged the beginnings of Little Leagues, suburban swimming leagues, the Delaware State Golf Association and high school conferences. He launched the Wilmington Sportswriters and Broadcasters Association, the Delaware Sports Hall of Fame and all-state teams. He helped found the International Association of Sports Museums and Halls of Fame and the Blue-Gold All-Star Football Game. He was regularly named one of the nation’s best sports columnists. After a year’s leave to help the Phillies publicize their move to Veterans Stadium, he became an Evening Journal columnist, displaying the full breadth of his talents as essayist, interviewer, satirist and theatergoer before he retired in 1983. 

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