Frank Deford

[Yoda]

My daughter Lauren, who is an executive sports producer at the Mets cable station in NYC, is married to Chris Deford, son of Frank Deford, well-known sports media personality and author of many well-received books, both fiction and non-fiction sadly passed away yesterday after a long battle with lung disease. Frank was a fixture on Bryant Gumbel's TV show and had a radio program for many years. He was also a contributing editor at Sports Illustrated. But perhaps his proudest moment had to be receiving a presidential citation awarded by President O'Bama at the White House 3 years ago. He was such a wealth of stories about sports personalities, became an intimate friend of Arthur Ashe and was a pall bearer at his funeral. My favorite book of his was "Matty and McGraw," which examined the intimate and conflicting relationship between those two stalwarts.
Frank will truly be missed by many, including me.