Fred Russell

Fred Russell (August 27, 1906 – January 26, 2003) was an American sports writer prominent in the Golden Era of Sports in the 20th century. He was a lifelong resident of Nashville, Tennessee and was sports editor and later Vice-President of the Nashville Banner daily newspaper. His career spanned 70 years. He published three books of sports humor in the 1940s. Russell was a protégé and friend of famed sportswriter Grantland Rice.

Russell is a member of the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association Hall of Fame and the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame. One of his most enduring legacies was his influence on collegiate sports, specifically as Chairman of the Honors Court of the College Football Hall of Fame for 29 years. The Honors Court determines the inductees to the Hall of Fame.

Born in Wartrace, Tennessee, Russell attended Vanderbilt University Class of 1927 in Nashville. At Vanderbilt, Russell was a good student, a member of the Kappa Chapter of Kappa Sigma Fraternity, and a varsity baseball player. He played second base and pitched. He later attended Vanderbilt Law School.

In 1929, Russell was hired for the police beat by the Nashville Banner. The following year, Russell became the Sports Editor of the Banner, replacing Ralph McGill. Russell would be a member of the Banner staff until the paper closed in 1998. Over the next 68 years, Russell wrote over 12,000 columns, mostly in a column named Sidelines.

Russell covered the major sports in America for over 65 years. His heyday was the Golden Age of sports—the 1930s to the 1950s—when newspapers were the principal form of media and news, before television and money became the central emphasis of modern sports. While Russell was always focused on covering Tennessee and southern athletics first, he nonetheless was well-known nationally and had a unique insight into the growth and expansion of athletics in the nation.

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