WARD, Arch

WARD, Arch. (Irwin, IL, Dec. 27, 1896-Chicago, IL, July 9, 1955). Journalist. After his father died in a railroad accident, Ward and his mother moved to Dubuque. In Dubuque, Ward had Father Daniel Gorman, President of COLUMBIA COLLEGE (now LORAS COLLEGE) as his guardian. Later enrolled at St. Joseph College and Academy, Ward served on the student literary magazine, The Spokesman. He left school to become the first sports editor of the TELEGRAPH HERALD. In 1925 Ward began as a copy editor at the Chicago Tribune and was promoted to sports editor within five years.

Ward was nicknamed the "Cecil B. de Mille of Sports." In 1933 he originated the idea of the major league baseball All-Star Game as a one-time exhibition of baseball’s greatest stars for the Chicago Century of Progress Fair. He also suggested that baseball fans choose the team members. Funds raised at the game went into the baseball pension fund. The success of this game inspired him to create the Chicago College All-Star Football Game football game for the second year of the World's Fair in 1934. For the next forty-two years the proceeds from the all-star football game aided Chicago Tribune Charities, Inc. The all-star football game continues today in a new format entitled the Pro Bowl. He helped to develop and promote the Golden Gloves. This amateur boxing association developed such boxing legends as Joe Louis, Barney Ross, and Tony Zale.

Starting in 1930, Ward began writing “In the Wake of the News,” a column he inherited from sports-writing legend Ring Lardner. “In the Wake of the News,” was the oldest continuous sports column written in the United States.

In 1939 and 1940 Ward rejected efforts to name him the National Football League Commissioner. He did, however, help form several rival football leagues—most notably the AAFC in the 1940s. He wrote three books—Frank Leaby and the Fighting Irish (1940), The Green Bay Packers (1946), and The New Chicago White Sox (1951).

In 1946 the All-American Conference, a new professional football league, was started by Ward. This league inaugurated pro football in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Baltimore, and Miami. The Cleveland Browns can trace their origins back in part to Arch Ward.

Source:

Chicago Literary Hall of Fame, "Arch Ward," http://www.chicagoliteraryhof.org/PersonDetail.aspx?PersonID=86

Higgins, Joseph, "Arch Ward," http://www.lib.niu.edu/2001/ihy011220.html Illinois Periodicals Online (IPO) is a digital imaging project at the Northern Illinois University Libraries funded by the Illinois State Library

"175 Years" Vol. II Telegraph Herald, p. 99