Art Rosenbaum, 91; Former Sports Editor of the S.F. Chronicle

Art Rosenbaum, a sports writer and editor who spent nearly 60 years covering sports for the San Francisco Chronicle, died Sunday at the Jewish Home for the Aged in San Francisco following a bout of pneumonia. He was 91.

During his long career in sports journalism, Rosenbaum witnessed key moments in the history of sports and befriended several sports celebrities, including Willie Mays and Joe DiMaggio. He won awards for his coverage and also worked as a special correspondent for Sports Illustrated.

Rosenbaum, a native of San Francisco, started working for the Chronicle in 1929, as a 17-year-old high school senior. He contributed to the paper while attending San Francisco State and UC Berkeley, but didn’t receive his first byline until 1931. He joined the Chronicle staff two years later. Twenty years later, Rosenbaum was a widely read sports columnist, covering everything from the World Series to yachting. He covered 10 Olympics. In 1952, he was honored in “Best Sports Stories” of the year for his recounting of the 1951 Big Game between UC Berkeley and Stanford. At the time, Rosenbaum was the first West Coast writer to be included.

Rosenbaum became a sports editor in the 1950s and maintained the position for the next 25 years.

When he retired from the newspaper in 1991, more than 800 people attended a dinner in his honor. Enough money was raised to fund three annual scholarships for Bay Area high school sportswriters.

He is survived by two granddaughters, Cindy Viola of San Francisco and Jennifer Viola of Los Angeles, and by his brother, San Francisco journalist and columnist Jack Rosenbaum, with whom he shared a room at the Jewish Home for the Aged in recent months.