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As anyone who frequents this site (or even infrequents — if that’s a word or close to one) should realize, the fare around here tends to be sports and attractive females. Sometimes those two categories intersect; sometimes they do not. It is a combination that your humble correspondent began to provide with the inception of the Quick Hits column in the Chicago Sun-Times in 1998.
Roger Ebert was a wonderful writer/critic. And an even better person.
Which brings us to Roger Ebert, who died Thursday (April 4) at age 70 in Chicago after a 46-year career at the Sun-Times.
Yes, that was about as clumsy a segue as you will find. Thanks for noticing. Roger would have been able to craft something far better. But this will have to do.
Roger was the paper’s movie critic since 1967. So that means he and I worked at the paper at the same time. But unlike many of the tributes to a multi-talented, bright, creative, productive person, this one will be about him and not the person writing or talking about him.
He was the first movie critic to win a Pulitzer Prize. With the Chicago Tribune’s Gene Siskel, he became a television star on their show reviewing films. Roger became a celebrity on a scale with — and occasionally greater than — the actors and actresses he chronicled and critiqued.
His impact on cinema criticism — as well as other areas of life — was profound.
And before he became a feature writer and subsequently film critic at the Sun-Times, he had been a sports scribe in his native Champaign, Ill. So anyone looking for a sports connection, there it is — as if one is necessary.
In a review of “Hoosiers,” the film about an Indiana high school basketball team, he wrote:
“I was a sportswriter once for a couple of years in Downstate Illinois. I covered mostly high school sports, and if I were a sportswriter again, I’d want to cover them again. There is a passion to high school sports that transcends anything that comes afterward; nothing in pro sports equals the intensity of a really important high school basketball game. ‘Hoosiers’ knows that.”
So there’s the sports connection, if anyone was looking for one. Plus Roger reviewed numerous sports-themed films. You can catch some of those reviews at larrybrownsports.com.
Others can recall Roger and terrific times together and how he touched their lives.
All I can say is the world is a better place for having had Roger Ebert in it. More than a movie critic, he was a tremendous human being. Here’s hoping he would give that assessment — and his lasting legacy — a thumb up.
Speaking of basketball, the Chicago Bulls traveled to Brooklyn to play the Nets and won 92-90. Which provides a reason (as if one is necessary) to provide some video of the Nets’ dancer team. The Brooklynettes are the Nets’ dance team. Not to be confused with the Chicago Bulls’ Luvabulls:
Another edition of “Sports & Torts” is in the vault at Talkzone.com — or wherever those folks place their program podcasts. The guests on the April 4 show co-hosted by David Spada and Elliott Harris were former baseball star Ferguson Jenkins and former basketball star Adrian Dantley. For those who might have missed the live show (or for those who would like an encore of the interviews), you can click here.
Here is where we go for some non-gratuitous (is there any other kind?) video:
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