‘He Out-Wrote Everyone, and No One Resented It’

To say that he was the best understates. So does declaring him the optimum.

He was precious. That’s what Jim Murray was, to sportswriting, to sportswriters, to readers. To you the reader, to me a writer of sorts who so admired and envied what he did, to me a good friend of 36 years.

He was precious to this craft of ours and to those emerging in it, for he made all, even beginners, feel at home with him, feel proud he remembered their name and would ask a question they could answer.

I think the thing he regretted most was being a rotten golfer. Once when he invited me to play at his Riviera Country Club, he couldn’t get the cart started, saying, “My God! I’ve bogeyed the cart!”

Jim Murray out-wrote everyone, every day, and no one resented it. I think we wanted him to, so he would never quit. He never really did. Recently received a note from him, ending this way:

“Hope we get to rub elbows soon. Glad to see your Linda. Like mine, she never gets a day older. Must be the African climate. How’s come it doesn’t help you? Stay well, Tommy, and never mind reading the breaks. Putt straight for the hole. Ninety percent of the time it goes in. Your pal, J.P. Murray.”

DAN SHAUGHNESSY, Boston Globe

* COMING UP: VIEWPOINT / Readers to share memories of Murray in The Times on Saturday.