‘He Kind of Invented the Sports Column’

I kind of wanted to be a sportswriter anyway, but I also happened to be a good friend of Tony Murray, Jim’s son. I lived about three or four miles away from the Murrays in Malibu and Tony and I were classmates from grade school through high school and eventually college roommates at Cal Berkeley.

My whole sense of humor--however little it may be--is based on the time I spent with the Murray family, watching games on TV with Jim or having dinner with the family. The whole family is hilarious. Around the dinner table, it was one big shred. They would go after anybody. God help you if it was you.

For a young kid who wanted to write sports, it was quite a thing. Every year, another sportswriter-of-the-year plaque would go up on the wall. “Well, that’s seven in a row.” Jim was so serious about his column. The door to his office would close and he’d be gone for the rest of the day. And you didn’t knock on that door unless the main house was burning down.

He kind of invented the sports column. I still think no one has ever touched Jim in his prime. And he was so incredibly good when the story was the biggest. If it was the big story of the day, he was the guy to write it. Everybody else would be reduced to nothing.

I always felt it was kind of a joke being in this business if he was in it. Because you would read Jim and know you’re never going to get there. It makes you feel privileged, to say you are part of the same profession as Jim Murray.