Influence
An influential figure in the Golden Age of sports, Russell was sports editor of the Nashville Banner for 68 years, from 1930-1998. In an era when newspapers were the primary form of information to the public, well before television was popular, Freddie Russell was a local legend in Middle Tennessee and was well known in the sports world throughout the nation.
He was well known and popular as a writer, however he was also a charismatic public speaker, Russell was widely regarded throughout the South as one of the foremost authorities on the world of sports. Noted for his humor and occasional practical jokes, he was a classic storyteller who could hold any size audience captive.
Russell had a positive and optimistic writing style, always focused on the good side of the story, person and group. He was respected as a gentleman, always promoting and recognizing the dignity of all people. According to one longtime colleague, Joe Biddle, who Russell hired and mentored, he had the uncanny ability of making others feel more important than himself.
Russell was one of the primary journalists who covered the Tennessee State University Tigerbelles track team in their amazing success in the 1960 Olympics in Rome. Russell and TSU coach Ed Temple remained friends throughout their lives. Wilma Rudolph, who is originally from the town of Clarksville near Nashville, was one of the heroes of the 1960 Olympics.
Read more about this topic: Fred Russell
Famous quotes containing the word influence:
“We cannot spare our children the influence of harmful values by turning off the television any more than we can keep them home forever or revamp the world before they get there. Merely keeping them in the dark is no protection and, in fact, can make them vulnerable and immature.”
—Polly Berrien Berends (20th century)
“No power on earth or above the bottomless pit has such influence to terrorize and make cowards of men as the liquor power. Satan could not have fallen on a more potent instrument with which to thrall the world. Alcohol is king!”
—Eliza “Mother” Stewart (1816–c. 1908)
“The purifying, healing influence of literature, the dissipating of passions by knowledge and the written word, literature as the path to understanding, forgiveness and love, the redeeming might of the word, the literary spirit as the noblest manifestation of the spirit of man, the writer as perfected type, as saint.”
—Thomas Mann (1875–1955)