Heywood Hale Broun was one of the most distinctive sports personalities of the 20th Century. “Woody,” as he was often called, was a very busy man with a career that spanned six decades — an actor, author, commentator, journalist, radio host, and sportswriter.
Woody brought his own sophistication and flair, known for his handlebar mustache, colorful suits, unique prose, and articulate vocabulary.
He came from a family of well-known and respected writers. Mother, Ruth, was a journalist for women’s rights during and after World War I and America’s first female movie critic. His father, Heywood Broun, was a well-known sportswriter and newspaper columnist in the 1920s and 1930s. He founded the American Newspaper Guild, later known as The Newspaper Guild and now known as The NewsGuild CWA.
His parents had passed away by the time Woody turned 21, but he was determined to become a journalist just like them.
Woody joined the staff at the New York tabloid PM as a sportswriter in 1941, but his looming journalism career was interrupted by World War II. Broun returned to PM after serving in the United States Army Field Artillery, and he also wrote for its successor, the New York Star.
His career took off starting in the 1950s and expanded in the 1960s. Woody appeared on Broadway in Bells Are Ringing, Send Me No Flowers, and Take Her, She’s Mine. On television, he appeared on a number of programs, including The Phil Silvers Show, Car 54, Where Are You?, The Patty Duke Show and The Defenders. Broun played himself as a sportscaster in the film version of The Odd Couple (1968).
Woody was hired by CBS in 1966 and covered major sporting events for the network, including the Super Bowl, the World Series, the Olympics, and the Triple Crown of Horse Racing. On Saturday nights, Woody appeared on the CBS Evening News, spotlighting and interviewing some of the greatest sports legends, including Vince Lombardi, Joe Namath, Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio, Wilt Chamberlain, Pete Maravich, Muhammad Ali, and a young Chris Evert.
Woody covering The Preakness (photo courtesy Baltimore Fishbowl)
He also covered human-interest stories, from the national marbles championship to a profile of a rodeo clown in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Not adverse to getting into the act himself, Broun took a lap in a racing sports car with Britain’s Sir Stirling Moss.
A lifelong fan of horse racing, Broun was especially taken with Secretariat. Before the horse won the Triple Crown in 1973, Brown wrote: “There were times when he didn’t seem so much on tiptoe as flying slightly above the earth, like one of those horses ancient Greek gods used to ride when in a hurry to get back to Olympus.”
Courtesy Abe Books
Woody focused on literature and the arts in later life, publishing three books, one of which was a memoir titled Whose Little Boy Are You? (1983). He also appeared on CBS’s Sunday Morning, where he interviewed stars (e.g., folk singers Peter, Paul, and Mary) and reminisced about the Golden Age of Radio. He was also heard on National Public Radio (NPR) in the 1980s.
Haywood Hale Broun (Woody) died in 2001 at 83.
E. S. Lamoreaux III, an executive producer of CBS Sunday Morning, wrote in The New York Times that he once asked Broun if he had any regrets. Broun replied, “Looking back, would I change it? I don’t think so. I would miss out on so much mirth, peace, and amity.”
Woody’s many fans would likely say the same thing about him and his work.
