FILE - Associated Press Sports Editor Darrell Christian addresses a writing seminar for the AP’s Nashville staff in September 1980, in Nashville, Tenn. Christian, a former managing editor and sports editor of the AP known for a demanding demeanor and insistence on excellence during more than four decades with the news agency, died Monday, July 1, 2024. He was 75.
A no-nonsense editor known for directness and rigor, Christian modernized AP’s sports coverage during seven years in charge, emphasizing breaking news and in-depth reporting on issues as the sports business, academics and high school safety standards. That coverage earned him a promotion to managing editor under William E. Ahearn, then the executive editor.“Sports is just an extension of hard news with a slightly different flavor,” Christian told the National Press Club in 2007.
“When Jackie Robinson came along, sports began to develop a social consciousness,” Christian said at the National Press Club. “It really exploded in the 1970 and early ’80s with television coverage, which brought sports events into the living room and the proliferation of money in sports, the free agency where you suddenly created a whole generation of instant millionaires. And what happened between the lines was no longer enough.
Christian replaced Martin C. Thompson as managing editor in 1992 and chaired the Pulitzer Prize investigative jury in 1995 and 1996. Among the major stories he oversaw as managing editor: the O.J. Simpson saga, whose coverage he led with aplomb. “Darrell combined old-school editing skill with a hunger to stay on top of the latest and innovation that would help keep AP competitive at the very beginning of the internet news age,” said Michael Giarrusso, AP’s deputy for newsgathering-global beats, who worked under Christian. “He was as comfortable editing the lead on a story as he was meeting with tech startups that wanted access to AP news or photos.
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