Stanley Woodward (editor)
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Rufus Stanley Woodward (June 5, 1895 – November 29, 1965) was an American newspaper editor and sportswriter. He worked for the ''
New York Herald Tribune The ''New York Herald Tribune'' was a newspaper published between 1924 and 1966. It was created in 1924 when Ogden Mills Reid of the '' New York Tribune'' acquired the '' New York Herald''. It was regarded as a "writer's newspaper" and compet ...
'' from 1930 to 1948 and from 1959 to 1962. Woodward is a member of the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Hall of Fame. His October 14, 1933, column on
college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...
is the first known public instance in which the phrase "ivy" was used in reference to what subsequently became known as the
Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference of eight Private university, private Research university, research universities in the Northeastern United States. It participates in the National Collegia ...
colleges.Bernstein, pp. xi–xii. Woodward began his career as a news reporter and eventually became the sports editor for the ''
Boston Herald The ''Boston Herald'' is an American conservative daily newspaper whose primary market is Boston, Massachusetts, and its surrounding area. It was founded in 1846 and is one of the oldest daily newspapers in the United States. It has been awarde ...
''. In 1930, he joined the ''Herald Tribune'' as a writer, and he gained a promotion to editor of the sports section in 1938. Except for a period during World War II in which he was a correspondent, Woodward remained in that role until being fired in 1948. After editing and writing for various publications, he returned to the ''Herald Tribune'' in 1959 and retired as sports editor emeritus.


Early life and career

Born in
Worcester, Massachusetts Worcester ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Massachusetts, second-most populous city in the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the list of United States cities by population, 113th most populous city in the United States. Named after Worcester ...
, the son of Rufus and Stella Woodward, Stanley Woodward attended
Amherst College Amherst College ( ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zepha ...
and played tackle for the school's football team. After his 1917 graduation he joined the
United States Merchant Marine The United States Merchant Marine is an organization composed of United States civilian sailor, mariners and U.S. civilian and federally owned merchant vessels. Both the civilian mariners and the merchant vessels are managed by a combination of ...
, serving during World War I.Ziegler, pp. 362–363. In 1919 or 1920 Woodward was hired by his hometown newspaper, the '' Worcester Gazette'', his first job in the field of journalism. Originally employed as a news reporter, he later became the paper's
city editor A city editor is a section editor of a newspaper responsible for daily news from a city or metropolitan area. They often work at night to be able to track news that happens at any time and include it in the following day's publication. Regional ...
. Woodward left the ''Gazette'' in 1922 or 1923 for a job at the ''
Boston Herald The ''Boston Herald'' is an American conservative daily newspaper whose primary market is Boston, Massachusetts, and its surrounding area. It was founded in 1846 and is one of the oldest daily newspapers in the United States. It has been awarde ...
''. After starting as a makeup man, he served various roles for the ''Herald'', and in 1925 was named the paper's sports editor.


Sportswriting career

Woodward remained with the ''Herald'' for the rest of the 1920s, but moved to the ''
New York Herald Tribune The ''New York Herald Tribune'' was a newspaper published between 1924 and 1966. It was created in 1924 when Ogden Mills Reid of the '' New York Tribune'' acquired the '' New York Herald''. It was regarded as a "writer's newspaper" and compet ...
'' in 1930. Through 1938, he was a sportswriter for the paper. His writing style was described by writer
Ira Berkow Ira Berkow (born January 7, 1940) is an American sports reporter, columnist, and writer. He shared the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting, which was awarded to the staff of ''The New York Times'' for their serie''How Race Is Lived in Ame ...
as "earnest and sometimes plodding",Berkow, p. 92. though it did include the occasional witticism. For example, after an Army college football coach attributed his team's loss to its center's snapping technique Woodward joked it was "like blaming the
Johnstown flood The Johnstown Flood, sometimes referred to locally as the Great Flood of 1889, occurred on Friday, 31 May 1889, after the catastrophic failure of the South Fork Dam, located on the south fork of the Little Conemaugh River, upstream of th ...
on a leaky toilet in Altoona." Another of Woodward's lines related to a group of nine football-playing colleges in the eastern U.S., including
Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...
,
Princeton Princeton University is a private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the Unit ...
, and
Yale Yale University is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and one of the nine colonial colleges ch ...
. After rumors began that these schools would form their own athletic conference, Woodward wrote a column on October 14, 1933, about college football. There, he mentioned that "A proportion of our eastern ivy colleges are meeting little fellows another Saturday before plunging into the strife and the turmoil." Sportswriter Al Laney later wrote that Woodward's intention in using the "ivy" wording "was joyfully needling some of the group, especially Harvard, for their snootiness". The 1933 column is the first known public use of the phrase "ivy" in reference to what have since become recognized as the
Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference of eight Private university, private Research university, research universities in the Northeastern United States. It participates in the National Collegia ...
colleges. Although Woodward was credited by some sources with pioneering the full term "Ivy League", that distinction goes to
Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...
editor Alan J. Gould, who first used the name two years later. Woodward himself began using the reference in his own writings after it gained popularity. Eight of the nine universities mentioned in Woodward's 1933 column went on to form the Ivy League football conference, signing the "Ivy Group Agreement" for their programs in 1945, and expanding it to other sports nine years later. Only Army failed to join.


First stint as sports editor of the ''Herald Tribune''

Woodward was promoted to sports editor of the ''Herald Tribune'' upon the death of George Herbert Daley in 1938. He was described by author
Richard Kluger Richard Kluger (born 1934) is an American author who has won a Pulitzer Prize. He focuses his writing chiefly on society, politics and history. He has been a journalist and book publisher. Early life and family Born in Paterson, New Jersey, in Se ...
as "the best sports editor in the ''Tribune's'', or probably any paper's, history." A goal of Woodward was to make the ''Herald Tribunes sports section higher in quality than those in other newspapers. This placed his section in competition with ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'', whose sports section had twice as many writers. Woodward believed that the ''Herald Tribune'' should avoid competing with the ''Times'' on quantity.
Jerry Izenberg Jerry Izenberg (born September 10, 1930) is a sports journalist with '' The Newark Star-Ledger'' in Newark, New Jersey. He was born in Newark, New Jersey. His career with ''The Star-Ledger'' began in 1951 while he was still a student at Rutgers Un ...
quoted him as saying, "They've got a lot of people, so we can't outcrap 'em. But, we sure as hell can outwrite 'em." The desire of Woodward was to make the section he led more "interesting" than its local rivals. In one instance when a managing editor wanted to place a sports story on the front page of the ''Herald Tribune'', Woodward was said to have asked, "Why bury a good story like that?" As a matter of policy Woodward sought to hire writers he believed were on the same level as himself. He also preferred staffers who could handle deadlines over slower-writing, more scholarly scribes. Woodward did not require prospective hires to have sports knowledge, recommending they do general journalism work for multiple years before moving on to a more specific writing job. In choosing sports to cover, Woodward felt that baseball, boxing, football, and horse racing were the most significant. Basketball was among those sports he did not favor; he called it the "goonosphere". Early in his tenure as the ''Herald Tribune's'' sports editor, Woodward continued to write in-season columns on college football. His knowledge of the sport earned him the nickname "The Coach" from other writers. Woodward served as the paper's sports editor through 1941, leaving to serve as a war correspondent before returning to his position in 1946. Among the military operations he covered during World War II were the invasion of
Arnhem Arnhem ( ; ; Central Dutch dialects, Ernems: ''Èrnem'') is a Cities of the Netherlands, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality situated in the eastern part of the Netherlands, near the German border. It is the capita ...
in the Netherlands by the
101st Airborne Division The 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) ("Screaming Eagles") is a light infantry division (military), division of the United States Army that specializes in air assault military operation, operations. The 101st is designed to plan, coordinat ...
and the
Battle of Iwo Jima The was a major battle in which the United States Marine Corps (USMC) and United States Navy (USN) landed on and eventually captured the island of Iwo Jima from the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) during World War II. The American invasion, desi ...
in the Pacific Theatre.


Hiring of Red Smith and Jackie Robinson strike story

During the war years Woodward maintained involvement in the ''Herald Tribune's'' sports section. In 1943 and 1944 he directed his writers to prepare a series of articles on formerly famous sports figures who had dropped out of the public spotlight. The "Forgotten Men" articles included one on the boxer
Sam Langford Samuel Edgar Langford (March 4, 1886 – January 12, 1956) was a Canadian boxing standout of the early part of the 20th century. Called the "Greatest Fighter Nobody Knows", by ESPN, Langford is considered by many boxing historians to be one of ...
, whom Laney was told had died. Langford was instead found alive but living in poverty. The article received widespread attention and led to numerous donations from concerned readers. In addition, Woodward brought sportswriter Red Smith to the ''Herald Tribune'' in 1945. Though toiling as an unknown for ''
The Philadelphia Record ''The Philadelphia Record'' was a daily newspaper published in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from 1877 until 1947. It became among the most circulated papers in the city and was at some points the circulation leader. History ''The Public Record'' ...
'' at the time, he had been sought by Woodward since the late 1930s. Hired as a feature writer, Smith eventually became a
Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...
-winning nationally syndicated columnist. In addition to Laney, who handled special assignments in addition to tennis and golf coverage, other writers working under Woodward during his tenure at the ''Herald Tribune'' included Jesse Abramson, who covered football and multiple other sports; and Joe H. Palmer, who reported on horse racing. After
Jackie Robinson Jack Roosevelt Robinson (January 31, 1919 – October 24, 1972) was an American professional baseball player who became the first Black American to play in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the modern era. Robinson broke the Baseball color line, ...
broke the
Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...
color line in 1947, Woodward wrote a story in the May 9, 1947, edition of the ''Herald Tribune'' that unidentified
St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Centra ...
players had been rallying support for a strike by
National League National League often refers to: *National League (baseball), one of the two baseball leagues constituting Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada *National League (division), the fifth division of the English football (soccer) system ...
teams, in which they would attempt to put pressure on Robinson by not playing against him. According to the column, National League president Ford C. Frick indicated that he would suspend all striking players, heading off the plot. Woodward quoted Frick as telling the players involved, "I do not care if half the league strikes. Those who do it will encounter quick retribution. And will be suspended and I don't care if it wrecks the National League for five years." The Cardinals players denied the report, which did not include a source; author
Roger Kahn Roger Kahn (October 31, 1927 – February 6, 2020) was an American journalist and author, best known for his 1972 baseball book '' The Boys of Summer''. Biography Roger Kahn was born in Brooklyn, New York, on October 31, 1927, to Olga (''née ...
learned from Woodward that Frick was his source. Woodward wrote a follow-up story on May 10, contradicting his original claim that Frick had talked to Cardinals players. The initial story, however, was responsible for increasing the sports media's support for Robinson, and the Frick quote was repeated by writers in future years.


Firing

In 1948, Woodward received an order from management to fire two employees close to retirement age. In response, he jokingly sent a form with two names: Smith's and his own. Woodward's obituary in ''The New York Times'' cited this incident as an example of him having an independent mindset. Regarding his workplace relationships, Palmer said that Woodward was frequently "contemptuous of superiors," while showing kindness to lower-level employees. Later in 1948, Woodward was fired by the paper. According to Smith, Helen Rogers Reid ordered his firing because he refused to send a writer to a women's golf tournament.Berkow, p. 120.


Later career

After leaving the ''Herald Tribune'', Woodward successfully pitched the idea of a monthly sports magazine to Dell Publications, which he edited.MacCambridge, pp. 18–19. The magazine was titled ''Sports Illustrated'', and was not related to the modern-day publication. ''Sports Illustrated'' premiered in February 1949; it suffered from weak sales figures and folded after less than a year. Woodward remained active in various roles in the publishing field. On an annual basis, he edited a series of college football guides. In 1949, Woodward wrote ''Sports Page'', a book that offered advice about running sports sections at newspapers. ''Sports Page'' became a key text in the field. ''
The Daily Compass ''The Daily Compass'' was an American leftist newspaper in New York City, New York, published from May 16, 1949, through November 3, 1952. It is best known for its columns by the investigative journalist I. F. Stone. Its Online Computer Library ...
'' hired Woodward as a columnist in 1949; he stayed at that position into 1950, before leaving to become the editor of the sports section at ''
The Miami News ''The Miami News'' was an evening newspaper in Miami, Florida. It was the media market competitor to the morning edition of the ''Miami Herald'' for most of the 20th century. The paper started publishing in May 1896 as a weekly called ''The Miami ...
''. He held that role for five years, then from 1955 to 1958 wrote for the
Advance Publications Advance Publications, Inc. is a privately held American media company owned by the families of Donald Newhouse and Samuel Irving Newhouse Jr., the sons of company founder Samuel Irving Newhouse Sr. It owns publishing-related companies inc ...
chain of newspapers. For one of that company's publications, ''
The Star-Ledger ''The Star-Ledger'' was the largest circulation newspaper in New Jersey. It is based in Newark, New Jersey. The newspaper ceased print publication on February 2, 2025, but continues to publish a digital edition. In 2007, ''The Star-Ledger''s ...
'', he became editor of the sports section, and in early 1959 he was promoted to the title of executive sports editor for Advance Publications. On February 5, 1959, the ''Herald Tribune'' announced that Woodward would return to his former job as that newspaper's sports editor. Woodward was later asked for his thoughts about the ''Herald Tribune'' management figures who had previously fired him, and he gave the four-word answer, "Time wounds all heels." His initial column during his second stint at the ''Herald Tribune'' started, "As I was saying when I was so rudely interrupted 11 years ago. ..." Woodward considered the sports department to be "in frightful shape" at the time he came back, but he quickly moved to replace members of the ''Herald Tribune's'' staff, with some hires from the ''Star-Ledger''. Book critic
Jonathan Yardley Jonathan Yardley (born October 27, 1939) is an American author and former book critic at ''The Washington Post'' from 1981 to December 2014, and held the same post from 1978 to 1981 at the '' Washington Star''. In 1981, he received the Pulitzer ...
wrote that Woodward was responsible for "an instant rebirth" of the section. Woodward worked at the ''Herald Tribune'' until 1962, when he retired from the sports editor position. He retained the title of sports editor emeritus after his retirement, and sometimes contributed columns. In addition, he was a sports commentator for a Connecticut radio station, and in 1964 wrote the book ''Paper Tiger'', a career retrospective. Woodward died in
White Plains Hospital White Plains Hospital is a general medical and surgical, non-profit hospital located in White Plains, New York. In addition to providing general care to patients, it also operates a number of specialized programs, such as its cancer center. The ho ...
on November 29, 1965. Before his death, he had completed the book ''Sports Writer'', but had not copy-edited it. After receiving editing from the son of writer Frank Graham, it was posthumously released. In 1974, Woodward became a member of the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Hall of Fame.


Personal life

Early in his time working in New York City, Woodward resided in Port Washington and took up yachting as a hobby. He eventually moved to
Princeton, New Jersey The Municipality of Princeton is a Borough (New Jersey), borough in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton, New Jersey, Borough of Princeton and Pri ...
, where he purchased a farm. Woodward's other hobbies included violin-playing and ornithology. In 1932, Woodward and Esther Rice were married. The couple had two children, both daughters, and six grandchildren. They remained married at the time of Woodward's death in 1965, when they resided in
Brookfield, Connecticut Brookfield is a New England town, town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, situated within the southern foothills of the Berkshires, Berkshire Mountains. The population was 17,528 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The t ...
.


References


Bibliography

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Woodward, Stanley (editor) 1895 births 1965 deaths American football tackles Amherst Mammoths football players Editors of Massachusetts newspapers Editors of New York City newspapers New York Herald Tribune people Sportswriters from Massachusetts Sportswriters from New York (state) United States Merchant Mariners Writers from Worcester, Massachusetts