Watson N. "Waddy" Spoelstra (April 5, 1910 – July 20, 1999) was an American

sportswriter Sports journalism is a form of writing that reports on matters pertaining to sporting topics and competitions. Sports journalism has its roots in coverage of horse racing and boxing in the early 1800s, mainly targeted towards elites, and into t ...

for ''

The Detroit News ''The Detroit News'' is one of the two major newspapers in the U.S. city of Detroit, Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United S ...

'' from 1945 to 1973. He served as the president of the

Baseball Writers' Association of America The Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA) is a professional association for journalists writing about Major League Baseball for daily newspapers, magazines, and qualifying websites. The organization was founded in 1908 and is known fo ...

in 1968. After retiring from ''The Detroit News'', he founded Baseball Chapel, a Christian ministry for professional baseball players, which he led from 1973 to 1982. Spoelstra was born in

Grand Rapids, Michigan Grand Rapids is the largest city and county seat of Kent County, Michigan, United States. With a population of 198,917 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and estimated at 200,117 in 2024, Grand Rapids is the List of municipalities ...

in 1910. He attended

Hope College Hope College is a private Christian liberal arts college in Holland, Michigan, United States. It was originally opened in 1851 as the Pioneer School by Dutch immigrants four years after the community was first settled. The first freshman coll ...

where he played baseball and basketball. He became Hope College's all-time leading scorer in basketball. He graduated from Hope College in 1932. After graduating from college, Spoelstra was hired as a sportswriter by the

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 ...

, assigned to Detroit. In approximately 1945, Spoelstra was hired by ''

'', where he remained for nearly 30 years. His son Jon Spoelstra is a former

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

executive and his grandson Erik Spoelstra is the current head coach of the

Miami Heat The Miami Heat are an American professional basketball team based in Miami. The Heat compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Southeast Division (NBA), Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference (NBA), Eastern C ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spoelstra, Watson 1910 births 1999 deaths Baseball writers The Detroit News people Sportswriters from Michigan 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American businesspeople Writers from Grand Rapids, Michigan Hope College alumni