The Times’ Tinkham Dies at 67 : Morning Briefing: Writer who was responsible for page 2 column was a master at statistics and anecdotes.

Harley (Ace) Tinkham, 67, who wrote the popular Morning Briefing column in The Times sports section, died Wednesday morning at St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank.

The cause of death was complications from pneumonia. He had been ailing with respiratory problems for several years.

Nevertheless, he regularly wrote his Morning Briefing column, even from home in recent years. His last Briefing appeared on June 8.

The column was filled with colorful anecdotes, quotes and Tinkham’s own knack for coming up with interesting observations and unique statistics.

Everyone knew Tinkham as Ace. It was a nickname that he brought on himself because he often referred to other people as “Ace” in conversation.

As reflected in his succinct Morning Briefing column, Tinkham’s writing style was economical, with no wasted words or hyperbole. Just brief, clear and to the point.

Tinkham knew more about sports and had a better memory than almost any writer orfan.

Yet, he never boastfully showed off his knowledge. But his co-workers and friends learned never to challenge him on a statistic.

For instance, at a track meet at the Coliseum in the early 1950s, Tinkham sat behind a rather obnoxious spectator, who was making what he considered expert comments about every event.

When Parry O’Brien, the former USC star, got off a prodigious throw in the shotput, the spectator said authoritatively, “That might have been the longest shotput I’ve ever seen.”

Tinkham tapped him on the shoulder and said, “Were you in Eskilatuna, Sweden, on Aug. 22, 1950?”

The spectator replied, “Of course not.”

Said Tinkham: “That was the longest shotput you’ve ever seen.”

He was referring to Jim Fuchs’ world record of 58 feet 10 inches at the time, with O’Brien’s mark the second best ever, at that time.

The word expert is loosely used. But Tinkham was an expert on track and field, a sport he covered along with USC football for many years.

He had an uncanny knack of predicting the outcome of events and the meet, sometimes to the score.

While he was an assistant sports information director at USC in 1949, he made out a fact sheet for a Times writer predicting a tie in a meet between USC and Michigan State.

The teams tied.

Tinkham was a good track athlete in his own right. He didn’t excel in any one event, but scored in several events while representing the Trojans in the early 1940s.

He tied for first in the high jump in the 1943 Coliseum relays with a leap of 6 feet 2 inches.

Later, when he was a sportswriter for the Mirror, a Times-owned afternoon paper in the 1950s and early ‘60s, he would compete in the national decathlon meet in Tulare, Calif.

He would get off work late in the evening, take a bus to Tulare and compete the next day. He usually finished in the middle of the pack without any training and was identified in the results as “Tinkham, Mirror Athletic Club.”

Tinkham served in the Navy in World War II as an ensign and was in the Pacific theater. Many servicemen rebelled at wearing a uniform day in and day out, but Tinkham found it convenient.

“I always knew what to wear,” he said, taking the selection process away for his attire, which he considered a nuisance. Tinkham didn’t have much interest in material things.

At the Mirror, he had to be told occasionally to cash his paychecks when they would accumulate in a desk drawer.

Tinkham was an avid golfer until recent years. He never cared about his score, only the length of his drives, which were sometimes considerable.

He played his own game and would often hit, or putt out of turn or hit someone else’s ball. One such time he hit a ball from the fairway, and a man ran up excitedly saying that Tinkham had just hit his ball.

Ace dropped two new balls in the startled man’s hand and, without a word, strode up the fairway.

Tinkham joined the Mirror in 1950 and worked there until 1962, when the paper was absorbed by The Times.

He then went to work for the Herald Examiner, writing a television sports column.

He came back to The Times in 1968, writing track and field until he began specializing in the Morning Briefing column.

Tinkham was graduated from Hollywood High School in 1939 and received a B.S. in education from USC in 1948.

Appropriately, Tinkham was born Jan. 1, 1923, the day USC played in the Rose Bowl for the first time, beating Penn State, 14-3.

He is survived by his wife, Ena; a daughter, Michele; a son, Christopher, and a sister, Helen Argast.

Funeral arrangements are pending.