Wells Twombly

Wells Twombly (October 24, 1935 – May 30, 1977) was an American sportswriter and author based in the Bay Area. He was the author of four books and more than 100 magazine articles for the New York Times Magazine, Esquire, and Playboy.[1] Twombly was known best for his liberal use of prose and an iconoclastic attitude towards the sporting establishment.[2] He died on May 30, 1977 in Redwood City, California.[3]

Wells Twombly
BornOctober 24, 1935
DiedMay 30, 1977(1977-05-30) (aged 41)
NationalityAmerican
OccupationSportswriter
Years active1956-1977
Spouse(s)Margaret Twombly
Children4
AwardsCalifornia Sports Writer of the Year (1971, 1972, 1973) United Press International Awards (1966, 1967, 1968)

Early life

Wells Twombly was born in St. Johnsbury, Vermont on October 24, 1935. He began writing in 1956 while at the University of Connecticut, where he earned a bachelor of arts in English and History. While in school he also met his future wife Margaret Zera and started writing for The Willimantic Daily Chronicle, a local paper that poached him after seeing how his work had bolstered sales of the college paper. He served as sports editor at The Willimantic until 1958.

Career

Twombly's sports-writing led him to roles in California, Texas, and Michigan. Over the course of his career, Twombly's articles spanned across football, golf, baseball, boxing, and bear-wrestling.

Twombly argued that he and his fellow writers were at "war with the television” and the “KISS (Keep it Simple Stupid)”, generation. He insisted that, unlike television, words could “take [the audience] places where even the damned camera [couldn’t] go”.[4]

In his writing, Twombly was known best for his prosaic writing and irreverent attitude towards the traditional sporting establishment. During one particular interview with Reggie Jackson, when given a series of non-answers, Twombly cut the interview short saying “I’m as good a writer as you are a home-run hitter. If you want me to write about you, you’ll have to call me.”[5]

1976 Olympics and Soviet cheating

During the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, Twombly broke a major story exposing Russian cheating at the games. He discovered that the Russian pentathlete, Boris Onischenko, had rigged his fencing equipment to allow him to falsely trigger a touch without making any contact on his opponent. Twombly’s discovery of the story was largely credited to a hangover. While the rest of the press staff covering the games attended the early morning cycling events, Twombly slept in; he claimed to have only been stirred out of bed by a “ruckus nearby” that turned out to be caused by Onischenko’s accusers.[6]

References
  1. "Twombly, Wells A. 1935-1977 | Encyclopedia.com". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2018-12-18.
  2. Carroll, Jon (1977-06-01). "Wells Twombly, Dead at 41". San Francisco Examiner. Retrieved 2018-12-20.
  3. "Wells Twombly, Prize‐Winning Sports Columnist". The New York Times. 1977-05-31. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2018-12-18.
  4. Avlon, John P. (2011), Deadline Artists: America's Greatest Newspaper Columnists, New York: The Overlook Press, ISBN 9781590209875, retrieved 2018-12-23
  5. Brady, John (1976), The Craft of Interviewing, New York: Vintage Books, ISBN 9780307778284, retrieved 2018-12-23
  6. DWYRE, BILL (2015), "A tidbit tribute (unpaid) to Malamud, Murray and Twombly", Los Angeles Times, retrieved 2018-12-23
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